In what felt more like a televised therapy session than a talk show segment, Joy Behar of The View recently unleashed a tirade about Donald Trump, censorship, and the apparent downfall of comedy. But in the most ironic twist of all, Behar claimed comedians like herself are being silenced—just moments after calling the former president “the orange menace” on national television.
Let’s rewind.
Behar, a longtime Trump critic, kicked off her rant by lamenting how unfair it is that Trump gets to hurl insults while she and her co-hosts are expected to “respect” boundaries. “This guy can call any name he wants—Little Marco, this one’s stupid, that one’s an idiot,” she fumed. “We’re not allowed to say anything like that on this show, and I respect that. I’m not going to start calling him the orange menace.”
Cue the collective eye-roll. Because right after claiming she wouldn’t use that term… she did use that term. “I’m just saying—he can do it, but we can’t,” Behar added, seemingly blind to the hypocrisy unfolding in real time.
She then veered into a classic “it’s the end of comedy” lament, claiming that once “they start coming for the comedians, all bets are off.” In her view, Trump is a “king” who “should be able to take the hits,” but instead has “skin thinner than this card.”
But Behar’s dramatic victimhood wasn’t left unchallenged. A rebuttal—almost certainly from a co-host or commentator—called her out on the spot: “Joy, when you say Trump can call people names but you can’t… you just called him the Orange Menace while claiming that you are silenced. That’s ironic.”
And it only got more brutal from there.
The speaker pointed out the obvious: Trump and his supporters have never been spared ridicule in mainstream media. From The View to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he’s been labeled everything from stupid, misogynist, and racist, to a literal comparison with Hitler. His supporters—millions of Americans—have been painted as extremists and even Nazis. This wasn’t a rare exception. This has been the tone of late-night “comedy” for years.
That context makes the recent cancellation of The Late Show sting even more. According to the rebuttal, the collapse of shows like Colbert’s isn’t a result of Trump’s war on comedians or some sinister crackdown on free speech—it’s about economics. “Networks are not charities,” the speaker reminded. “They follow the money. Lose your audience, lose your show. That’s basic economics.”
Translation? If you spend years alienating half the country, don’t act surprised when ratings plummet. Viewers don’t want to tune in every night to be insulted. They want humor, not lectures.
It’s a message that today’s self-proclaimed comedic elite refuse to understand. Shows like The View and The Late Show have shifted from entertainment to political soapboxing—often with a heaping dose of sanctimony. And while they claim they’re under attack, they rarely acknowledge their own role in pushing people away.
Joy Behar’s rant highlights this disconnect. She simultaneously believes she’s being censored, while proving on air that she can say almost anything with impunity. Calling Trump names is not only allowed—it’s applauded in those circles. And yet, somehow, she’s still the victim.
The claim that Trump is uniquely thin-skinned also invites a dose of irony. The same comedians who’ve built entire monologues around mocking his appearance, intelligence, and family get offended the moment someone claps back. Behar’s suggestion that comedians are being “targeted” sounds less like a principled stand for free expression, and more like frustration that the applause is fading.
And the truth is, late-night comedy isn’t dying because Trump supporters can’t take a joke. It’s dying because the jokes stopped being funny. They turned into ideological sermons with a punchline tacked on at the end. Night after night, the same tired anti-Trump material, the same smugness, the same preaching.
The culture has shifted. Viewers now have choices—and they’re tuning out of legacy media faster than ever. Whether it’s streaming platforms, podcasts, or alternative news, people are finding content that doesn’t insult them. Meanwhile, the late-night empire is crumbling.
The moment ended, predictably, with the show cutting to commercial. “So um, we’ll be right back,” someone awkwardly said, as the studio lights dimmed.
But the damage was done. What started as a complaint about Trump’s ability to name-call became an accidental case study in why legacy media comedy is dying.
You can’t scream “we’re censored!” while getting away with exactly what you’re complaining about. You can’t cry about your show being canceled when millions stopped watching because you treated them like villains. And you can’t pretend to be the brave truth-teller when your only real enemy is the audience that walked away.
In the end, perhaps the only “menace” that really ended the show… was arrogance.
