By Craig Hall

Copyright thebusinesstimes

The quote from Michael Corleone is my second favorite quote from “The Godfather.” I can’t tell what my favorite is, because we live in a woke world and the left would come after me, again, with vengeance.

Then again, it’s also the reason I shouldn’t go into what I think were Jimmy Kimmel’s funniest moments on TV, but I’m gonna anyway.

There’s a reason “The Godfather” is always listed as one of the greatest movies ever made. It’s because it’s a movie about real life in the real world. That world is about organized crime and its lust for power, control and money. You know, the role government now plays in all our lives, and the Mafia is trying to figure out how it missed the whole takeover of its business.

The irony of government “going after” the Mob and creating the RICO statutes to do it, and then while in the middle of all of it discovering the Mafia had a darned good business plan, so the government co-opted the plan after putting the Mob out of business is delicious. As Sonny Corleone said, “There’s a lotta money in that $#!T, Pop.”

That’s actually my favorite quote. Michael’s is now third, so I guess I can’t mention my second favorite.

But let’s stay with irony for a moment. Yes, I find it savory that the left suddenly believes cancel-culture is a bad thing. Especially since it’s always been a bad thing. And that’s mainly because the left in our country never applied it equally. Then again, there’s the irony of the left never applying anything equally.

As I recall, Kimmel got his start on television on a show titled “The Man Show.” I used to watch it. He shared the stage with another known talk guy, Adam Corolla. They did stupid man stuff and humor that for me, being a typical man with man humor, I found humorous. There, I said it. But at least I’m consistent.

Let me be graphic. Two of the “bits” on “The Man Show” were as follows. And they are things today’s left would find absolutely cancellable.

The first was Jimmy Kimmel in BLACKFACE doing a ridiculous (NBA All Star) Karl Malone talking in third person all over the place on any and every topic. I’ll admit, I found it funny.

The second bit involved young girls in fluffy dresses jumping on trampolines while wearing white panties, which were shown on every bounce. I found that a little creepy. But I also noted this: It had an effect on something all men struggle with, lust. So, while creepy, it did have an effect. Whether it was a good or bad effect was up to the viewer and the control they have over their sinful, lustful nature.

But even with that lustful nature, most on the left and right handled it. I think most of the humor was OK, but certainly not on the trampoline stuff. Yet on today’s woke left, no one would tolerate Jimmy Kimmel’s old sense of humor. And although Adam Corolla hasn’t changed much in his humor and I still find him funny, I’m sure he’d rethink the trampoline stuff as well. Jimmy Kimmel simply couldn’t be on late at night doing his old humor. The calls for cancellation would be rampant.

There’s also something else that should be noted. I’ve seen the left call for current cancellations of folks who did something in their distant past that the left finds unacceptable, and it worked. Does Paula Dean come to mind? Perhaps others?

But not Jimmy Kimmel. And even if conservatives and Christians found his current humor to be abhorrent or offensive, there was never really a call for cancellation because of it. I think mainly because it isn’t funny and we ignore it, but there’s also that whole “freedom of speech” thing conservatives believe in. Obviously, Jimmy was able to exercise it with impunity, because he’d been doing it for the past 10 years. So, even if a few folks on the right were calling for his cancellation over the years, it obviously fell on deaf ears.

So, why was Jimmy cancelled? Easy. His schtick was no longer useful, and he was costing the left in the three things it desires most: power; control; and money. And while many folks will say it’s about money, it never really is with the left, because they have an orchard of special trees to pluck from, a press to print it on, and thanks to technology it can create it out of thin air.

After all, Kimmel’s show and Stephen Colbert’s have been bleeding dollars for years now. And how many book deals can one side of the aisle write to failed politicos who haven’t had an original thought since Karl Marx?

So, it’s not about the money, although that’s the excuse they’re using.

The real reason? The left’s late-night message in splitting the citizenry no longer works. The all-anti Donald Trump all the time is tired and ineffective. I mean, if “Trump is Hitler” didn’t work to convert hearts and minds, you think some crappy, tired humor is the answer?

The left in our country is in the business of splitting the people in its desire for power, control and money. And Jimmy was no longer worth the money. There’s your business decision.

He was also losing his audience to Charlie Kirk.

In Truth and freedom.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of The Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com