Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension for angering conservatives was “preposterous,” Martin Short told Steve Paikin on a recent Paikin Podcast. “That was such a horrible backfire for the intentions of the people taking him off. They fell flat on their face,” Short said. “Bob Iger made the right decision. He knew that you cannot respond this way in the United States of America to someone who had done absolutely nothing.”
Paikin asked Short if he was afraid to do comedy that’s “over the line” these days, since a wayward punchline could mean paying for it with your career. Short wasn’t buying it. “Paying for it with your career? I don’t think that’s true,” he laughed, although he understands the worries in light of Kimmel.
Short believes cancellation isn’t an issue for him since his comedy isn’t particularly controversial. “I’ve never been a political comedian,” he said. “Steve Martin and I do shows all over the United States in every state, and we do not do a political show deliberately because people need a respite. They need to go and feel safe. If you’re with either party, you don’t want to go and see someone and suddenly feel, ‘Oh, I thought I was going to see a comedian and laugh and have entertainment. Now I’m being lectured or made fun of because of my personal stances on political views. So, oh, I guess I’m an idiot.’”
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During the political 1970s, when comics like George Carlin and Richard Pryor rose to fame thanks to their anti-establishment comedy, Steve Martin purposely zagged, playing the banjo and putting an arrow through his head rather than telling Watergate jokes and sticking it to The Man. Like Short, his comedy has a long history of being apolitical.
But that doesn’t make Short a stand-on-the-sidelines comic like Jay Leno, who thinks comedians should keep their personal politics private. Short, who is both an American and Canadian citizen, told Paikin he publicly endorses candidates and will continue to do so. “There are two parties, and you can have issues with your own party or your own nominee as an election approaches,” he said. “I think the preposterous, moronic stance that people will make is ‘I’m not voting for either one.’ You have to make a decision. And if it’s the lesser of two evils from your perception, make the decision.”
In his homeland of Canada, Short knows his place in the hierarchy of political endorsements. He would absolutely film a commercial in support of the right candidate, but doesn’t expect to be asked anytime soon. “They go to Mike (Myers) first,” says Short. “And if he says yes, they lose my number.”
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