Jesse Watters on Monday said TV hosts and others are free to joke about Donald Trump ― but only in a lighthearted fashion.
“Trump is hilarious,” Watters said. “You can make fun of him more than Democrats. Just do it in a good-natured way.”
“Like he does for everyone?” one person snapped back in an X post that could have been aimed at either Trump or Watters.
Watters’ awkward plea for diplomacy flopped badly among critics. One noted that he was doing the kind of preaching he was preaching against.
“Fox News lecturing their audience while reporting on a story about dislike of TV audiences being lectured to,” another wrote. “The irony.”
Watters and his co-hosts on “The Five” dissected the talk show environment after the Trump-roasting “Late Show With Stephen Colbert” got canceled. CBS claimed it was for financial reasons but suspicions are running high that it was done to appease Trump and his administration, which later approved a merger involving CBS’s parent company.
Panelist Jessica Tarlov noted former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno’s recent complaint that comedians are too political now. But she said Leno’s more impartial brand of humor wouldn’t fly these days on a talk show.
Watters disagreed.
“You can make fun of Democrats and Republicans,” he said. “Trump is hilarious. You can make fun of him more than Democrats. Just do it in a good-natured way. ... There is more material now. There’s so much material. And CBS knew who they were hiring when they hired Colbert. He came as a pundit from ‘The Daily Show.’ This was his act. He was a left-wing hack. And they hired a left-wing hack and then they had to fire him.”
Free-speech advocates and others gathered on X to scoff at Watters’ remarks and remind him of Trump’s vindictiveness toward those who roast him.
Comments