Colbert Shouldn't Be Fired, But His Defenders Should Be Honest

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The hashtag #firecolbert has been trending on Twitter recently, largely because of a rant the late night host made involving President Trump and Vladimir Putin.

In case you missed it, here was the rant, directed at the president:

“Sir, you attract more skinheads than free Rogaine. You have more people marching against you than cancer. You talk like a sign language gorilla that got hit in the head. In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s c–k holster.”

Now, I don’t really find that rant funny or edgy – literally every comedian on earth these days is doing f’ Trump material – but I don’t really find it that offensive, either.

And even if I did, it isn’t really my place to say what is funny or offensive. Other people can decide that, and they can vote with their remote controls if they don’t like what Colbert said.

One prominent voice who agrees with me on this said, “"I will NOT support #FireColbert. I am [against] ALL BOYCOTTS. He is a horrible human being, but if u don't like him change the channel."

Those words were tweeted by Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity, who is a big supporter of the president and clearly not a fan of Colbert.

That said, let’s not kid ourselves here. Many of the people who are quick to defend Colbert are many of the same people who would be going bonkers if a conservative humorist – perhaps Greg Gutfeld – were to have made a similar comment about former President Obama. We would be hearing about how disrespectful the rant was and a lot of the same people defending Colbert now would be screaming for Gutfeld’s dismissal.

And of course they would be slamming Gutfeld for being homophobic. The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald – who is no fan of Trump but is a great reporter and intellectually honest – mused about this very phenomenon, tweeting, “Homophobia for the right cause, with the right targets, is good homophobia, apparently.”

Proving Greenwald’s point, as far as I can tell, GLAAD, which is the largest anti-LGBT defamation advocacy organization in the world, has yet to condemn Colbert or say much of anything about his remarks, for that matter.

Like I said, I don’t like the idea of the offended police trying to boycott sponsors of a comedian or outright get him fired because they were upset by one of his jokes. That’s a slippery slope that has potentially perilous consequences in today’s day and age when a social media mob can essentially coalesce around a heckler’s veto.

Furthermore, President Trump has said some pretty nasty things about other people over the years. He’s a big boy and he certainly doesn’t need a safe space created for him to shield him from an off-color joke.

But if you would not have been ok with this joke being made about President Obama or would’ve called it homophobic, then acting like Colbert said is righteous simply because he is on your side and you don’t like the target of his wrath is not only hypocritical, but it actually gives ammo to your ideological enemies.

Yet Colbert gets a pass for this from all the activists and advocacy groups who would otherwise be all over him because he is a liberal and his target was President Trump.

That’s a dangerous game to play. After all, if you fancy yourself an open-minded, tolerant liberal and cheer the idea of a gay sex act being something bad so long as it is used as a weapon against somebody you dislike, then why should anybody else think it is wrong to do the exact same thing?

Again, that doesn’t mean Colbert should be fired, suspended, or even have to apologize to President Trump. Just don’t watch the man’s show if you don’t like him.

But that doesn’t change the fact that a great deal of those encouraging his behavior are rank hypocrites.

And Glenn Greenwald was right when he called this out. I just wish there were more people like him who were willing to do the same.