When Jokes Become Crimes: The Colbert Cancellation and Comedy’s Funeral Rehearsal

Somewhere between the 2024 election results and whatever cocktail of gaslighting and groupthink we’re all currently drinking, Stephen Colbert apparently said the wrong thing. Boom. Gone. Canceled. Not because it was wildly offensive or cruel, but because it dared to blur the one line society keeps redrawing every five minutes: What is allowed to be unfunny?

Comedians used to be the court jesters—allowed to say the unsayable because their power lay in laughter, not legislation. But now, even jesters get beheaded in the public square if their jokes don’t match the new sacred script. And we all clap like trained seals, calling it accountability.

Colbert, who once ushered in an entire generation of political wit, gets axed forso,mething, not funny. Irony is dead, sarcasm is treason, and comedians now audition for the Thought Police before each monologue.

Highest reted lat night show, canceled? Not Profitable?

Let’s rewind to a personal truth: when my daughter was four and learning how to make jokes, she instinctively started poking fun....

At people. At things.

I realized, by the way she ws saying the jokes, and I was trying to help her, only then, that most jokes are just dressed-up insults--even though I am known for my sass and sarcasm.

Jokes, of course, are simply insults, wrapped in timing and tone. Even playground humor is a test of boundaries, and adult satire? It's a survival tool. The difference between "ha ha" and "ouch" is often just permission.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has rebranded the witchhunt. Originally, it was the state-sanctioned murder of mostly women based on vibe and hearsay. The proof? You survived drowning. Boom. You’re a witch.

Now, it’s the tagline for a billionaire criminal who gets 24/7 legal counsel and 18 appeals while tweeting from a golf cart. The longest-running witchhunt of the last 10 millennia, he says. Funny, huh?

And yet Colbert, the man who actually helps people laugh at absurdity, is shown the door. Why? Because he forgot he wasn’t hired to think, only to perform.

Like we do online.

Dance for likes. Think what you want—but say the right thing.

Let’s not pretend this isn’t targeted.

Jane Fonda?

Charlize Theron?

Robert De Niro?

Still here, still savage, still stunning. But they speak from a place of fire, not wit. And America, lately, only trusts righteous rage if it’s in full battle gear.

Maybe we’re not canceling Colbert because he said something wrong. Maybe we’re canceling him because he said something real. And in the age of artificial everything, real is the biggest threat of all.

Let’s not forget: they’re giving him the year.

One year.

Which probably means he’ll spend the next 12 months reading scripts so neutered they could be aired on C-SPAN.

The rebels get scripted.

The tyrants get mic'd.

Can free speech exist if it’s moderated by fear?

Coming soon to a Bizarro360 video near you: "Baron and Donnie: A White House Freaky Friday"

Because when the world turns upside down, the only sane response is to laugh—then organize.

Bizarro360: We don't joke. We expose the joke.