You can cancel Colbert. But you can't cancel satire

[marmar]

You can cancel Colbert. But you can’t cancel satire
While the late-night host's departure is a real loss, his brand of political commentary will survive

By Sophia A. McClennen
Contributing Writer
Published May 19, 2026 6:50AM (EDT)


(Salon) If you’ve watched the final episodes of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” you won’t have missed the sense that something monumental is ending. When Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver and Seth Meyers appeared on the show, Colbert’s fellow late-night hosts joked — half-seriously — about who might be cancelled next. The consensus, of course, was that it would likely be Kimmel.

In a separate appearance, former “Late Show” host David Letterman expressed open frustration with CBS, suggesting the network failed to recognize the value of what it had. Letterman also jokingly expressed concern for Fallon and Kimmel, asking if they would be “all right” after Colbert’s departure. Colbert responded humorously about a ‘captive breeding program’ for the Jimmys.

....(snip)....

What is ending here is not satire, but a particular and powerful institutional form of it. Late-night comedy has a long history of offering Americans valuable political critique wrapped in ironic and entertaining wit. The broad audience reach and the nightly airing of these shows have ensured that the jokes create a broad interpretive community that translates comedic barbs into collective consciousness. For decades, America has woken up after watching late-night ready to discuss the jokes they saw and the critique behind it, and I’d argue that no show has had the same ability to influence our national political conversation as intensely as “The Late Show.”

Want proof? When a sitting president is hell-bent on getting you off the air, you can be confident that your satire has been making a difference.

....(snip)....

What we are not witnessing, however, is the end of satire itself. In fact, history suggests otherwise. Satirists can be censored, silenced, imprisoned, attacked and cancelled. Those assaults remind us not only of the power of satire, but also of how its targets can find the slice of comedians’ jokes threatening. The irony, of course, is that when satire comes under attack by those in power, it tends to come back even stronger. ........................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/05/19/you-can-cancel-colbert-but-you-cant-cancel-satire/

[multigraincracker]

1. The only thing that is ending is CBS.

[The Blue Flower]

2. CBS is suiciding

The Late Show is the only thing I watch on network tv. Nothing else on it is worth my time.