Never has a snarky, clumsily worded and insensitive-sounding aside caused so much trouble.
Jimmy Kimmel’s comment about Charlie Kirk shooting suspect Tyler Robinson has sparked a cascading series of dramatic (and chilling) events that have resulted Disney suspending Jimmy Kimmel Live! “indefinitely.”
But many — if not most — are interpreting the comment in a way that its phrasing does not entirely support. Entirely being the operative word.
Let’s look at his viral quote again: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
The overwhelming read on this has been: Jimmy Kimmel said, or at least strongly suggested, that Robinson was MAGA. That’s been the contention of countless conservatives and plenty of not-so-conservatives. And the facts about Robinson released by authorities so far suggest the suspect was not, in fact, MAGA (according to The New York Times, his mother told prosecutors that her son had recently shifted toward the political left and had become “more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented,” among other details about the suspect).
But let’s take a close look at this section: “….the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them….”
As part of a sentence, this is so blurry that your eyes cross trying to get it. Kimmel doesn’t actually say “this kid” was “one of them.” You could read it a different way: Robinson wasn’t MAGA, and therefore MAGA is out there trying to characterize him as something else. Or even: Who knows if Robinson was or wasn’t MAGA, either way MAGA is trying to score points based on his politics.
Kimmel himself would seem to be of this opinion. In Hollywood Reporter‘s latest story detailing how the suspension went down behind the scenes, Kimmel is said to have been “defending what he said [as] being grossly mischaracterized by a certain group of people.”
That said, it’s also reasonable to read the comment the way most are taking it. The snarky tone. The use of “desperately.” Kimmel’s well-established anti-MAGA stance. The debate around the killer’s motives, which have seen others on the left attempt to insist he’s a conservative. All this context make it natural to assume Kimmel simply meant, “Hey, we all know this kid is MAGA and now MAGA is out there trying to convince everyone he isn’t.” That was, admittedly, the whole vibe (and was how I took it). Yet its clunky wording make this line into a Rorschach test the more you look at it. There is some element of presumption — a bit of connective tissue formed in the mind of the reader — which converts it from the exact words he said into the inflammatory conclusion that has been widely reached.
Now. Do these alternative possible meanings change anything?
Not really.
In an essay I wrote in January about Elon Musk’s viral so-called “Nazi salute,” I pointed out that communications experts agree that being understood properly is the responsibility of the speaker. That if you’re widely misinterpreted for something you said or did, it’s not your audience’s fault, it’s your fault. Same goes here. If a tidal wave of angry people assume Kimmel meant one thing, even if it wasn’t what he intended, he made a poor choice of words if a reasonable person could view it the “wrong” way. Hopefully, this is a mistake that won’t spell the end of Kimmel’s career. If the man was going to blow out of late night by saying something massively controversial on air, Kimmel would surely have preferred to say something that was perfectly clear.
#Jimmy #Kimmel
