The terrifying Nazi precedent for Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension — and the reasons to stay hopeful
In 1939, Goebbels ended the careers of five comedians for making fun of Nazis
A Sept. 19 protest, organized by the Writers Guild of America East in New York City, against ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel from his late night show. Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Deputy Opinion Editor Nora Berman September 19, 2025
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In the hours after Jimmy Kimmel was indefinitely suspended from his show by ABC over comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s death, another cancellation also made waves on the internet — that of five comedians, in Nazi Germany.
“Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels ended the professional careers of five ‘Aryan’ actors and cabaret announcers by expelling them from the Reich’s Chamber of Culture,” reported The New York Times on Feb. 4, 1939, “on the grounds that ‘in their public appearances they displayed a lack of any positive attitude about National Socialism.’”
A screenshot of the article, headlined “Goebbels ends career of five ‘Aryan’ actors who made witticisms about the Nazi regime,” went viral on social media.
The comparison is chillingly obvious: A professional comedian mocks the ruling party, and gets fired. But one detail within the 1939 article particularly caught my attention. “What amused the public most,” the unnamed writer wrote, and “presumably roiled the Nationalist Socialist authorities most — although Dr. Goebbels does not mention it — is that they deftly, but unmistakably, caricatured some gestures, poses, and physical characteristics of National Socialist leaders.”
A comedian’s power lies in their ability to laugh at themselves and everyone else. But authoritarians, and fascists, and dictators do not like to be reminded that they are just like everyone else — that anyone can mimic their gestures, and come across as funny. Because if they are like everyone else, then the entire premise of their government falls apart.
They do not like to see their hypocrisies, their biases, and their physical quirks to be put out in the open and made fun of — and we all have hypocrisies, biases and physical quirks — because then they are on our level.
Then, as now, dictators and those who admire them are incapable of laughing at themselves.
We love comedians because they’re direct about the uncomfortable, hilarious truths that polite society prefers not to shine a light on. No one escapes their satire, and under the equalizing glare of their comic perspective, we are all united in our imperfectly perfect humanity. Even scatological humor, while certainly not everyone’s taste, points to a humbling truth: Everybody poops.
Hours before Kimmel was suspended, ABC was threatened by President Donald Trump’s FCC chair, Brendan Carr, on a podcast. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
He encouraged local ABC stations to “push back” and pull coverage that does not benefit “their local communities.”
Trump reveled at Kimmel’s cancellation. “They’re giving me all this bad press, and they’re getting a license,” he said of late-night hosts. as a group. “I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”
Kimmel wasn’t suspended because of anything he said about Trump. But the president’s point was clear: Make fun of me, or anyone in my orbit, and you’ll pay.
When Goebbels removed the five comedians from the Nazi Chamber of Culture, they were no longer permitted to perform in public. Their livelihoods were gone.
Goebbels defended the decision in the official newspaper of the Nazi party, describing the comedians as “impertinent, arrogant and tactless,” and calling them imitators and successors to Jews in their rank ability to mobilize “society rabble.” They’re all “parasitic scum,” he ranted.
One of their crimes, according to Goebbels: raising “the question of whether there was any humor left in Germany today.”
It is unclear if or when Kimmel will return to air. But humor will exist in America regardless of what happens to him, Stephen Colbert — whose show has been canceled — and other defiant late-night hosts. There are untold numbers of comedians who have a plethora of options to disseminate their jokes and points of view without relying on the whims of mainstream television, which appears increasingly inclined to prioritize appeasing Trump.
But Kimmel and Colbert are two of the highest profile representatives of American comedy and culture. Their shows reach millions of viewers, and the fact that they are being censored is undoubtedly a cause for alarm.
I am determined, however, to take comfort in the bravery of the five German comedians — Werner Finck, Peter Sachse, Helmuth Buth, Wilhelm Meissner and Manfred Dlugi — who in 1939 did not shy away from mocking Nazis. Their professional careers may have been ended by a small-minded dictator, but their comedy — to quote the Times their “deft” and “unmistakable” parodies of authoritarians — live on. Someone who cannot laugh at themselves is not the stronger person. They’re simply someone who can’t take a joke.
