Did you hear the one about Bruce Jenner? No? You missed it? Well, then, it’s probably too late.
A grown man says he’s a woman, shaves off his Adam’s apple (for starters), and shows a former network anchor his little black dress. You’d think the late-night comedians would have enough material to get them through the summer. But a funny thing happened immediately after the infamous interview with Diane Sawyer aired, shattering ratings and my eyeballs: The jokes stopped.
Yes, Bruce Jenner’s name came up during the hour that followed the late local news. The topic, however, was a different sort of elephant in the room: “Everyone tuned in to watch Jenner make a pretty big announcement,” said The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon. “That’s right, Bruce Jenner declared he is a woman and a Republican. In other words, the GOP finally found something that might be able to beat Hillary.”
The other comedians followed suit, laying off the obvious and seizing on the incidental. Jenner, a living looney tune, can only be mocked for saying he’s a Republican, or for being a glory hound.
Such was not the case just, it seems, a few minutes ago. Jimmy Kimmel, Saturday Night Live—all of the politically correct “satirists” and “observational humorists”...