Mickey To MAGA: Drop Dead

Why Kimmel's return matters.

“This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”

Those were the words of one Jimmy Kimmel last night, seen by millions, censored by two chains of MAGA TV stations, and profoundly embarrassing to the grunting, gleeful MAGA horde who had been eagerly cheering the raw exercise of state power against speech.

Every member of the MAGA movement, with all their cultish devotion, authoritarian ambitions, and relentless fellation of their orange god, saw something shocking this week: a pillar of corporate America decided to no longer play along. That’s where we are with Disney refusing to bend the knee to the FCC’s resident MAGA bootlick and Trump fanboy, Brendan Carr.

Carr, you’ll recall, has one job: dress up Project 2025 partisan hackery as “communications regulation” and “decency.” In the Trump era, the FCC became one more weapon in the MAGA arsenal; a place to shake down networks, threaten licenses, and bully executives into compliance with the whims of Dear Leader.

When Carr decided to take a public run at Disney for the crime of keeping Jimmy Kimmel on-air after some jokes that hurt Trump’s tender little feelings, he thought he had an easy win. He thought the Horst Wessellization process of Charlie Kirk could use a public enemy, and Kimmel fit the bill. Trumpworld assumed Disney, which had already caved to Trump’s extortion earlier in the year to the tune of $15 million, would be so desperate to avoid controversy that they’d quietly put the late-night host on the curb and call it “creative differences.”

And they did…for a minute…

We don’t know the full inside story yet, but Bob Iger, unlike most of the corporate universe in America, decided losing his honor, reputation, and legacy was enough. Oh, and losing $4 billion in equity, empty parks, and millions of cancelled Disney+ subscriptions was, let’s be honest, a considerable incentive to defy MAGA’s censorship regime. Markets work!

Disney took a beat, but then stared down Carr’s threats, weighed the costs, and decided that bending to MAGA censorship wasn’t worth selling out their brand, their audience, or their bottom line. Kimmel, who has made an art form out of puncturing Trump’s fragile ego, is back.

And that, my friends, is a defeat for MAGA bigger than they’re letting on.