Once, showing a bloodied head of a U.S. president would lead to serious consequences. And it did.
That was long before cancel culture, in a time when Americans generally adhered to a shared sense of decency and regarded blatantly heinous actions as, well, heinous.
Earlier this year, a joke about a Trump assassination on ‘Saturday Night Live’s’ Weekend Update shocked the audience.
No need to elaborate. The broader culture recognized certain unwritten behavioral standards that needed to be respected. Now, it feels like those expectations are slipping away, if not entirely absent. This decline can be observed across the political spectrum, particularly through a pop culture lens.
Head case
Comic Kathy Griffin thought it would be funny to hold up a fake head of President Donald Trump, mimicking ISIS, during a 2017 photo shoot that she shared online.
The backlash was immediate, intense, and unwavering. Griffin had crossed the line.
Hardly anyone came to her aid. After apologizing, she found her once-flourishing career reduced to something barely recognizable. Back then, it seemed that doing the right thing occasionally required setting aside political loyalties.
Whether one loved or hated Trump didn’t matter. This was just too far.
A similar uproar occurred in 2015 when news surfaced that Will Ferrell was considering a movie about an elderly, confused President Reagan. The swift and furious backlash was not limited to the former president’s family.
Ferrell quickly retreated, insisting he had never formally committed to the project.
Even Madonna, known for her outrageous persona, backtracked in 2017 after expressing a wish to blow up the White House (likely with a specific leader inside) during a Women’s March rally.
She had every reason to apologize; her comments were unbecoming for someone of her notoriety.
That was before.
The cruel kids
Today’s political environment seems much harsher. Cold. Cruel. Violent, even.
Political commentators like Hasan Piker have gone so far as to endorse violence against landlords, assert that America deserved the 9/11 attacks, and even favor Hamas over Israel following the atrocities of October 7. Rather than being ostracized, he garners attention from mainstream Democratic figures.
Prominent media outlets praise him as well. Big-city leaders can even associate with terrorists without facing significant backlash from voters.
It’s unsettling. This isn’t happening in isolation. Cultural institutions also appear to celebrate violence while their audiences cheer enthusiastically.
Last year, Jimmy Kimmel, a spokesperson for the DNC, found humor in the vandalism of Tesla dealerships. The owner, Elon Musk, had shown support for President Trump during the election cycle and sought to cut government spending.
And for that, the community seemed to think he needed to be punished.
“People have been vandalizing Tesla vehicles. Please, don’t vandalize, don’t ever vandalize Tesla vehicles,” Kimmel remarked with a sardonic twinkle in his eye.
Cheering chaos
In that same year, Kimmel attempted some dubious reporting, claiming that a killer of Charlie Kirk was somehow connected to the MAGA movement. The actual prime suspect was someone who detested Kirk’s views, utterly unlike a typical Trump supporter.
Kimmel and his team were surely aware of this. We all knew. But they proceeded with it, facing a week’s suspension from ABC and emerging as a free speech hero to some factions of the press and the left.
Earlier this year, ‘Saturday Night Live’s’ Weekend Update flirted with another assassination joke regarding Trump, throwing the audience into a frenzy. Co-anchor Michael Che made a note of the president attending a Broadway-style performance.
“I think it’s cool that the president is going to the theater. I mean—what’s the worst that could happen?” he quipped, drawing cheers from the hard-left crowd.
Late-night shows occasionally seemed startled by the nastiness of their viewers. But, they were merely echoing what they had witnessed.
Baying for blood
Consider a moment from Jon Stewart’s time on “The Daily Show.” He informed his audience about the arrest of Luigi Mangione, who was charged with murdering a healthcare CEO from behind.
The crowd responded by booing, as if they preferred the killer remain free (to perhaps target more CEOs?).
“Look, I’m sorry, guys,” an astonished Stewart replied, as if witnessing some monstrous being he had unwittingly unleashed.
Kimmel found it amusing that his younger female staffers had an unlikely crush on Mangione. It would have been wise to keep that little detail private.
But Kimmel didn’t hold back.
Just recently, various late-night hosts made fun of Trump for supposedly hiding in a catering truck after the Secret Service became aware of a possible threat to his life.
Such threats have become alarmingly commonplace during Trump’s second term. There was even an instance where a would-be assassin nearly succeeded during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, two years ago.
But for the late-night hosts, the latest assassination threat was merely fodder for ridicule, failing to recognize the precarious reality we inhabit. Even Jimmy Fallon, typically milder than his counterparts, chimed in with mockery.
In 2016, Hollywood issued dire warnings about Donald Trump. He would be heartless, they proclaimed, in ways no previous president had been.
And it’s true, President Trump has certainly delivered some sharp critiques over nearly six years in office. Yet, in some ways, Hollywood’s own behavior has plunged even lower, mirroring a societal descent into a disturbing abyss.
