September 18, 2025 • 40 mins
This podcast edition of Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness features journalist Michael Quinn Sullivan and comedian Tim Mathis. ( @KennethRWebster )
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jack gannon government sucks. The suit of happiness radio is dus.
Liberty and freedom will make you smiles of a suit
of happing us on your radio to ol just as
cheezburgers lib rise at.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
All right? This just and the FAA is investigating after
a green laser targeted planes at the Boston Logan International
Airport on Monday night. The laser was especially tough on
the Southwest Airlines pilots who were already fighting hangovers. Boy,
those poor guys. I always like to have a drink
(00:47):
with a pilot whenever I go on a flight, just
to make sure he's a cool guy ahead of time.
You know who's not a cool guy? Jimmy Kimmel. Disney's
ABC announced yesterday they had pulled the plug out Jimmy
Kimmel Live. They say the show is off thearin definitely.
There were some comments earlier this week during a monologue
where apparently Jimmy Kimmel blamed MAGA Republicans for the assassination
(01:10):
of Charlie Kirk from Hollywood. It's Jimmy kim o. Aw,
that's a shame. Huh. He's not gonna have a job anymore. Boy,
that's just too bad. The national media is more upset
about Jimmy Kimmel losing its job than they are about
Charlie Kirk losing his life. Kind of a proving our
(01:30):
point that we've been making this whole time. I mean,
I think so it's hang on a second here, you're
more upset about a TV show you didn't watch getting
canceled than you were about somebody that was out participating
in polite discussion getting assassinated. Maybe you're a bunch of
godless Satanists. Smill Low's over the.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Weekend with the Magga Gang desperately trying to characterize this
kid who murdered Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
As anything other than one of them. And wow, bro, amazing,
just amazing. Of course that's not what happened. We all
know that.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Jimmy Kimmel is furious right now. Apparently Jimmy Kimmel celebrated
Donald Trump getting blacklisted, Jimmy Kimmel celebrated Tucker Carlson getting
fired at Fox News. Now he's been like a poor
Jimmy Kimmel. He thought it was still September ninth, guys,
It's not on September ninth. The day before they assassinated
(02:26):
Charlie Kirk and then celebrated it. Jimmy Kimmel could get
away with anything. Brightbart dot com today is reporting on
how with a single gunshot, the ground shifted forever, and
I do mean forever. Normal people have had enough. Jimmy
Kimmel's basement rated late night show was indefinitely pulled off
the air. Democrats, not Republicans, suspended Jimmy Kimmel. Democrats run ABC,
(02:50):
Democrats run Disney. ABC was obviously reacting to two groups
of affiliates, Sinclair and Nextstar, who made clear they had
no intention to broadcastin Kimmel's show for some time to come.
My guess and we're I'm just guessing here is that
Sinclair has ensured Kimmel has gone forever with the demand
that won Kimmell apologize or two he make a donation
(03:12):
to Turning Point USA, and Jimmy Kimmel is never going
to do that, so we welcome him to the world
of podcasting. Guys, you just you could see knowing he
was lying. Jimmy Kimmel used our airwaves to spread a
lie about an assassination that upset a lot of people. Now,
(03:32):
Breitbart dot com Today is also reporting that apparently Jimmy
Kimmel is effing livid over his suspension of his basement
rated late night show. He's talking about breaking his contract
to the ABC. We know what happened earlier this week.
It was a lie, right, he told a lie, using
the publicly owned airwaves to spread disinformation as a violation
(03:54):
of the contract that broadcast outlets agree to when they
receive a valuable asset of public airways for free, they
must serve the public interest. Kimmel has not served the
public interest since he launched his jahad on US more
than ten years ago. Kimmell wasn't yanked off the air suddenly.
Quite the opposite. He violated the public trust and by extension,
(04:15):
FCC guidelines for years and years and years and years.
But the FCC didn't take him off the air. Democrats
took him off the air. His suspension is long overdue.
Remember when he got dressed up in blackface so he
can make fun of some old NBA player. Weird that
liberals didn't care then. I'm sure that learning the news
(04:38):
that Kimmel wants to break his contract has ABC. Please
please don't throw me in the Briar Patch. Oh you're
quitting your basically rated show that's losing us millions and millions.
Oh that's so sad. Remember he encouraged Rose Ambar to
get fired. He encouraged the firing of Tim Allen, Gina Carino.
They got let go over much less. And according to this,
(04:59):
he's not even sorry for or when he did. Kimmel's
not funny. This wasn't just about a tasteless joke. This
was an ethical breach. He lied. He can lie on
a podcast now, but you can't lie on public airwaves.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
America, the land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation.
Kenny Webster's pursuit of happiness.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
All right, big announcement from your least favorite coffee company,
Starbucks plans to entice customers to spend more time in
their cafes by adding new chairs and ceramic mugs and
condiment bars. Or hear me out, they could add coffee
that doesn't taste like hot bathwater. What do you guys
(05:43):
think about that? Right? Crazy? I know that's absolutely nuts.
Sometimes the rebranding is well, it seems like a good idea,
but it's actually not. You know, you remember what happened
with cracker barrel that didn't go very well, and you know,
a bud light for example. Well, Antifa has decided that
they're gonna go ahead and reinvent themselves as a civil
rights group. Unfortunately, Donald Trump has designated them as a
(06:07):
major terrorist organization, and since he's the President of the
United States, it sounds like that's gonna stick.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
It's a little confusing here because Antifa isn't like Hesbolah.
You know, it's not like Boko Haram. You don't show
up and there's not a leader of it. It's a
vague organization. I know there's different Antifa chapters around the country.
I think here in Houston, Texas, we have Screwstin is
the name of ori Antifa chapter here. But who's really
(06:34):
even in charge of Screwstin. I don't know. Do I
like fill out a form and I get a T shirt?
Or how do you join? I don't know. But Trump's right,
I mean they wrote anti fascist. They the murderer, the
assassin wrote anti fascist words and phrases on the bullets
that he used to try to murder Charlie Kirk. And
(06:56):
you know they're calling themselves in Antifa, But weirdly they
act like. The point is, sometimes when someone calls themselves something,
they're exactly the opposite, especially when it comes to politics.
The Affordable Care Act made healthcare more expensive, the Inflation
Reduction Act, while we all know what that did to inflation,
and then the Patriot Act was like the least patriot
thing to ever happen. So as far as Antifa goes,
(07:18):
I don't consider them to be anti fascist if they
run around violently bullying people just for having different political opinions.
I'm assuming I'm not the only person that sees the
hypocrisy here, and I'm glad that Donald Trump's calling him
out in the wake of his buddy getting murdered. Michael
quint Sullivan, one of the smartest people in Texas political media,
is on the line right now. Michael, what do you
(07:39):
think this means for the average Texan?
Speaker 6 (07:41):
You know, hopefully what it translates to for the average
Texan is we find that Antifa being knocked down at
PEG or two, so that maybe just maybe business owners
in Dallas, Sport, were, Houston, Boston, San Antonio are are
more urban or cities maybe don't have to worry about,
(08:05):
you know, is tomorrow night, the night when a bunch
of antief Antifa thugs throw molotov cocktails into our storefronts.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Maybe maybe this will be the night that they don't.
Speaker 6 (08:19):
Engage in the kind of thuggish behavior, you know, all
in the name of politics, of course, Uh, that Anteetha.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Has become known for.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
And I think that I'm not entirely sure what designating
a a domestic organization as a as a terrorist group
and what what what that means?
Speaker 4 (08:37):
I mean, when we.
Speaker 6 (08:38):
Designate the cartels a terrorist organization, it means we get
to bomb their cigarette boats, right, smuggling drugs and other stuff.
And that's that's great by me. Uh, when you name
you know, pese law terrorist organization things, we get to
go when and and and and turn their their little
hideouts into blasts.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
And I'm okay with that also, you know, it's maybe
some and quite honestly, I'm.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
I'm not sure that I have much of a problem
uh with us using the full force and mine.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Of the federal Garga against people who've been funding antique,
against people who.
Speaker 6 (09:11):
Have been organized these folks clearly in TIFA and the
the their their distributed network.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
There there there there the.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
Games they have played of last few years have had
very deadly and dangerous consequences, and it's.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
About time that we acted that.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
That we understood that these people are who they say
they are, which is they're terrorists. Yeah, and I'm glad
the president. I don't know what it means exactly, but
I'm here for It's what I voted for actively.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, that's what I voted for too. I think it's good.
I mean, I've interacted with people from quote unquote Antifa before,
and like I said before, it's not more a real
regimented organization. It's not like they have members cards or whatever.
But there are people out there that don the Antifa
garb and show up. And what I really wonder is
the unintended consequences of something like this, Michael. I mean,
(10:04):
now the Portland NBA franchise, the Trailblazers are going to
have to figure out new plans for Antifa Night. What
are they going to do?
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Now?
Speaker 6 (10:13):
Look, you know, but for a lot of the you know,
a great ninding of the Antifa, you know, members sympathizer
would call them, are kind of like this, you know,
creating animal who've committed the very public murder last week.
You know that these are disfunct people who don't actually
(10:34):
exist well with a little bit of sunlights.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Right that they much for for you.
Speaker 6 (10:39):
Know, hanging out in a base, the windows drawn, playing
video games and talking tough on Reddit. You know, if
nothing else, some of these cats may learn and let's know,
you know, we're recognizing these guys only come out at night,
acting just like the Nazis did, breaking in the buildings,
doing their damage like.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
The Nazis did.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
That that's who Antifa is, That's what they believe as
they're trying to achieve, and so recognizing now that some
sunlight might be shown.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Upon them, that they might be made visible.
Speaker 6 (11:13):
I know that in in Austin earlier this year, some
of the Antifa thugs participating in the protests this summer.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
You know, uh, it did terrified everyone in that group
and a few of them were arrested.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
And they had their their their little wrap around masks
and buffalo bills taken off. And now you saw this
is the pimple uh based kid working at the ATV.
This is the you know, the the weird little guy
who in the neighborhood, you know, barts from shadow to
shadow because he didn't want.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
To be seen. That's these people were, and they.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
Built like being being revealed and being subject to the
scrutiny that comes with being unmasked. And I think that's
where in this uh, this effort by the res to
so import to ask these people. Hopefully it has a
cooling effect on that next round of miscreanmps and thugs
who don't want who don't want themselves.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
To be exposed.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, that's a fantastic point. I'm glad you explain that
because your voice cut out right at the end there, Michael.
Let's talk about something else for just a minute. Let's
go down to the border. This has gotten a lot
of attention over the last twenty four hours, and like
a lot of touchy news stories of clearly a tragedy,
the early reports were a little misleading. I'll be the
first to admit I was confused about what had happened.
There's a very unpopular Republican lawmaker from the border, Representative
(12:37):
Tony Gonzalez, and people don't like him because he'll go
on TV and talk about how we got to get
tough on the border and defend gun rights, and then
he'll go vote for John Cornyn's red flag laws. He'll
go vote, you know, to not secure the border. He's
done this more than once, so clearly he's very unpopular
with grassroots conservatives and right wingers. And now a sad
(12:59):
news story. One of his staff members just died self immolation.
They say, caught on fire, died burned to death. Now
that's horrible in and of itself. But making this a
little more complicated, their early reports out claiming that he
and her had a inappropriate relationship with one another. I
cannot confirm that. I don't know. I have no idea.
(13:19):
That's what some people are speculating. There's even rumors going
around people on social media claiming that he tried to
pay the family not to talk about the fact that
they had an inappropriate relationship. Again, I have no idea
if that's true, I don't know. We can't confirm it,
you know, we can't prove or disprove that. We don't
know if it's true. She died by self immolation, and
(13:41):
yesterday the earliest reports made it sound like it was suicide.
Later in the day, her mother came out and said
that she screamed, I don't want to die, making it. It
sound like it was an accident, right, it didn't happen
on purpose. Some are speculating now that he ruined her life.
Other people have suggested that he murdered her. We don't
actually know if any of that's true. It's all body
a conspiracy theory is going crazy over this news story.
(14:04):
And you had kind of a different take on it,
didn't you.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
Yeah. So look, I'm Matt.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
I think this is the this is the problem of
our twenty four hour news cycle of social media. Everyone
has a you know, forgive the praise, everyone has a
hot tape right now about everything you know, But unfortunately
life doesn't always play out that way. Sometimes there are
(14:29):
uh there there there are facts that have to be gathered.
Sometimes stories take a while to piece together and unravel.
And I think this is where all of us have
to be willing to take a moment, particularly when it
involves as such a horrific tragedy and whether it's you know,
(14:51):
wherever it is on the scale of accident to suicide,
to murder to whatever it is, at the end of
the day, this is a horribly tragic loss of life,
and that I think that there's such a rush to
develop you know, who's got the hottest take, who has
the uh the the most cutting bar, who has you know,
(15:12):
the most penetrating political uh theory? All those kind of
things that we sometimes look aside. These are real people.
This are real family, in real grief, and they're having
to have their grief from and in whatever garbage they have,
and they're they've had in their lives thrown out onto
Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and you know,
(15:35):
all these messy things of flight and uh yeah, I
think a lot of us should take them home and think, well, gosh,
you know, if I died tomorrow, I want the whole
world taking a look everything, all those kind of you know,
it's that kind of question. I think we need to
maybe take a step back. Sometimes horrible tragic event, but
(15:55):
not every horrible tragic event demands a pop up conspirator
theory or a or a political hip job to follow it.
And now it might indeed be, you know, with more facts,
more information, that there is indeed a political problem, there
is indeed a murder, there is indeed So again, I
(16:16):
think it's where each of us need to be willing
to take a moment and be human rather than be
you know, how many likes and clicks can I get
on my on my on my cake, which I fear
sometimes drives are our conversation.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I would agree with all that, one thing I I
do not expend extend that sympathy to Tony Gonzalez. I
think he's a bad lawmaker. I think he's a bad politician.
And and I think at the very least, the fact
that he is disappointed is good stituent so many times
speaks to the fact that he probably should lead leave
office now. At the same time, if he had an
inappropriate relationship with this woman and she just died, the
(16:53):
fact that those two things took place may not necessarily
have anything to do with each other. I don't know,
But I still feel like he needs to leave office.
It's point, he's very unpopular, and he seems he's one
of these guys that's beloved by Washington, d C. But
not by the people in his own community. How do
those people stay in office so long?
Speaker 6 (17:10):
Yeah, so a lot of those guys are able to
stay in office. One because of the lethards you of
the electorate. You know, let you remember, when you don't participate,
you still end up with the with the government that
you chose not.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
To participate in. Select it right, and so.
Speaker 6 (17:25):
I find it oftentimes say oh, I just can't stand
this guy. But then they're the ones who don't show
up in vote. Ninety five percent of Texans are furious
about their property taxes, and oh, by the way, ninety
five percent of Texans don't show up in the elections
where property taxes are decided. And that's the repeat in
so many of these races, so many of these elections
(17:47):
where we don't just may second, I think a lot
of us are are very prone to complain about the
and rightly so, about the quality of the men and
women who we have elected or at least ella out
to be elected in office. But then we don't do
the things necessary to recruit a candidate, under candidate, to
(18:09):
support a candidate and who would do a better job,
and and and then the really hard work following up
after to make sure the candidate that we support then
stays on the straight and narrow. Our system of government
was not designed as a you know, as this kind
of you know, you know you use occasionally pop in.
We're supposed to be eternally vigilant. We're supposed to be
(18:32):
deeply engaged, and yet for the better part of the century,
Americans have been told, Oh, all you have to do
is vote if you want to, don't worry about it.
The smart guys in Washington will make sure everything works okay,
And then one of fact, it hasn't worked.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
It hadn't worked okay because too many of us don't
participate the way.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
That we should.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Michael Quinn Sullivan the website Texas scorecard dot com. You
could subscribe to their email list. I recommend it. Michael,
always a breath of fresh air and common sense. We
definitely appreciate your insight. If you're not following him on X,
make sure you do.
Speaker 5 (19:09):
Kenny has always thought the best things in life are free,
free plus tax. Of course, Kenny Webster's pursuit of happiness.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
I was just reading this report at the New York
Post detailing how Donald Trump's efforts to clean up Washington
d C actually worked, and it kind of paints Democrats
into a corner, doesn't it. National democrats and the media
that cheers them on, and academia who gives them their
crazy talking points. In Hollywood, who acts as the loud
(19:44):
speaker for their tem ideas have been slamming Donald Trump
and his choice to deplay the National Guard to Washington
d C. Washington, d C just a crime written place.
The problem with the local government in Washington, d C.
Is that any big city, these are democrats and they're
not effective. They don't want to be they don't want
(20:05):
to stop crime. The criminals are their constituents. Well, Donald
Trump cleaned up the streets of Washington, d C. There
aren't anybody. There's nobody walking around Washington, d C. Claiming
to be a victim of the National Guard. We've already
seen what happens when he sends them in to clean
up the city. As it turns out, one week after
(20:26):
Trump's emergency order commandeering local police quietly expired. His action
was a lesson in how quickly empowered law enforcement officers
could clean up a city. Thirty days after Trump's order,
the crime statistics are undeniable. Both violent crime and property
crime have dropped by roughly a fifth, and carjackings alone
(20:47):
declined by thirty seven percent. The dramatic change in DC's
public spaces, and it's impossible to deny the district's many
ten cities are havens for public drug use. Well they've
been cleared out and their denizens have been sent packing.
(21:07):
It didn't take a miracle, just a little bit of commitment,
just a little work. The before and after scenes in
the halls of Union Station, a gorgeous monument to travel
that welcomes thousands of tourists and commuters daily, are stunning.
This is a place where for years, bright marble was
(21:28):
stained with food. It smelled like urine. If you ever
been to a Union Station, it was disgusting. Well, today
it's clean. It's a vagrant free place. You would enjoy
visiting it. For Democrats willing to listen, The political lesson
of Washington DC is clear. No one who works with
Trump in such an effort will be punished for it,
(21:50):
at least not if they deliver on the changes that
citizens demand. The mayor in Washington, d C. Is Muriel Bowser,
and she proved herself a You know, she was critical
of Trump doing this, but she participated, she engaged in it,
and now it happens the city's been cleaned up. She
(22:11):
wants her legacy to be the return of Washington's football
franchise to the district thirty years after it fled to
the safer suburb of Prince George's County, Maryland, and the
development of a vast new stadium complex that could bring
new commerce and even a Super Bowl to her city.
The problem is achieving that goal with a police department
(22:32):
that's about one thousand officers short of a full force
is probably impossible. She needed the help of federal reinforcement,
so she decided to cooperate with Trump, and guess what,
it worked. So it's very encouraging. It's encouraging to see
not one, but two bills meant to address DC's crime
(22:53):
predicament past the House this past week, and very significant
bipartiesan backing. You know, even Morning Joe Joe Scarborough, the
morning show host on MSNBC, agreed that quietly a lot
of journalists and politicians and DC staffers are praising Donald
Trump for cleaning up the city. By the way, those
(23:13):
two bills were passed were introduced by Florida Representative Byron
Donald's and Texas Representative Brandon Gill. Both of them have
spoken with me at the Texas Youth Summit before that
event's happening this weekend. Obviously, we'll be talking about crime
because not far away from the Woodlands Marriott is a
city called Houston, and that's where I live. Crime is
(23:35):
up in Houston. We could use some help here. It's
hard to comprehend how the less dedication to the soft
on crime policies can be so zealous that they're willing
to accept the loss of restaurants and retail because people
fear venturing out or the exit rush of families who
know it isn't safe to raise their kids in the
Democrat run city. What the District of Columbia is experience
(24:00):
shows us is that even cities with significant crime problems
can turn them around rapidly. It's an object lesson Democrats
could be wise to understand, one that fueled their electoral
success in the past, but by embracing the anti cop
faith welcomed by the radicals in their own coalition, they
(24:21):
have instead become the party of inner city chaos. Republicans
should be grateful that leftists burning Trump hatred makes them
willing to punish their own citizens while refusing federal help.
Voters in crime written blue cities can look to DC
and see just what a strong push towards law and
(24:42):
order could bring to them. Could you imagine if we
could clean up Memphis or Chicago or Detroit the same
way we cleaned up Washington, d C. Would that be
so bad?
Speaker 7 (24:52):
Pursuit of that penis radio coming now.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
Just p This is Kenny Webster's pursuit of happiness on
KPRC nine fifty Houston.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
This big news just broke from Hollywood. Arnold Schwarzenegger's girlfriend
is frustrated that he apparently he still has not proposed
to her. On the bright side, he still hasn't impregnated
or made either said that's good. You know? Is this
a spoiled, pampered, narcissistic Hollywood bratt or what? Or what?
(25:27):
All right? It would be impossible to talk about Hollywood
today without talking about what is obviously the biggest story
in both politics and Hollywood at the moment. Yesterday, the
late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was indefinitely suspended
from his late night show, and of course, this happened
on the heels of Stephen Colbert being let go of
the late night show that David Letterman once founded. It's
(25:48):
kind of obvious considering both of these shows were taken
off the air so abruptly that probably at the end
of the day, this was more than just politics. This
was about money. If those guys were vastly popular, if
they were hemorrhaging ratings, if these guys were so profitable
for the company that they were going to lose billions
of dollars by taking it off the air, then they
simply wouldn't have done that. But they are taking it
(26:10):
off the air because at the end of the day,
something that's controversial, something that's a liability, and something that's
not making a lot of money just isn't worth keeping around.
That's how any business works. Earlier this week, after a
whole day of TV news coverage of the first legal
hearing for the Charlie Kirk Assassin that was filled with
evidence and transcripts of text messages and testimony from family
(26:35):
members and friends about his political beliefs, Jimmy Kimmel decided
to go on TV and just say exactly the opposite
of what everybody now indisputably knew to be true. That
Charlie Kirk Assassin was a leftist, but Jimmy Kimmel didn't
know that. Because Jimmy Kimmel and his writers live in
a bubble. They weren't sitting around watching the news all day.
They were busy writing jokes about why Trump is Hitler
(26:56):
and later that evening on TV. This happened over the.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Weekend with the Maggie Gang desperately trying to characterize this
kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one
of them, and.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Anything other than one of them. You know, as a
late night talk show host back in the day, in
the twentieth century, it was very uncommon for a late
night comedian to talk about a school shooting, much less
do a week of coverage on it. That would almost
never happen. You know, that's the sort of news story
that Jay Leno or Johnny Carson probably would have avoided.
Even David Letterman or Conan, who were considered to be
(27:28):
a little more controversial, probably wouldn't have done a show
about bowling for Columbine or you know, the Virginia Tech massacre.
That wouldn't have been a story they would have covered. Still,
Jimmy Kimmel couldn't help himself. You remember when he did
a monologue one time where he didn't tell a single joke.
He just cried about how getting rid of Obamacare was
a fascist thing for Donald Trump to do is a
(27:49):
ten minute monologue about how he loved Obamacare. At some point,
late night talk shows stopped being about comedy and they
started being about politics. Stop trying to get a laughter
from the audience and just trying to get applause. You
got to wonder who is this stuff? Even for the
Babylon Bee, where they actually do comedy, had the following
headline last night. I thought this was brilliant. The headline,
(28:13):
The Babylon Bee is outraged to learn Jimmy Kimmel was
fired just because he's a maga Republican. And that's pretty amazing.
And while you're all feeling bad for Jimmy Kimmel or
not feeling bad for Jimmy Kimmel, do you know who
Dicky Barrett is. He was the lead singer of a
ska band in the nineties called the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
You might remember him from his cameo appearance in the
movie Clueless with Claire Danes. Well, he was fired after
(28:35):
twenty years of being the announcer on Jimmy Kimmel Live
because he didn't want to get the COVID vaccine. All
these statements from Jimmy Kimmel and the media and Jake
Tapper opining about why this thing got canceled kind of
see me irrelevant at the end of the day if
it wasn't profitable. But rather than me giving you my
take because you've already heard it, what if we talk
(28:55):
to an actual comedian. Tim Mathis is our Hollywood News reporter,
so one of the guys that helped us found Operation
Comedy Therapy so many years ago. Now he runs a
comedy club in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Tim, I got to
think people in the stand up comedy world aren't crying
any crocodile tears today for Jimmy Kimmel, are they.
Speaker 7 (29:15):
Well, I've seen a good amount of people post about
how it's an assault on free speech and stuff like that.
I mean, the people don't seem to understand that you're
hired and fired based on what you can do for
the company and how much liability you're bringing to the company.
Like you said, if it's not something that's making you
(29:38):
a lot of money, and in fact, most likely it
was losing them a lot of money, just like Colbert was.
I mean, they're probably looking for a reason that Jennison him.
Now I am hearing that there are rumors that he's
only on a hiatus, that he's going to come back
in a few days. We'll see how that goes. That'll
be interesting. We'll see if maybe he dials it down
(29:59):
a little bit at LEAs based on the completely false
information that he seems to like to trot out there,
because that's the kind of thing that the government actually
could say something about since it is a broadcast it's
one of the original Big three broadcast network. So we'll
see what happens if he does come back, or if
(30:21):
they do in fact go ahead and terminate his contract.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Okay, So the controversy about the FCC license, even that's
theoretical because I don't think the FCC chairman actually threatened
to take the license away. But on that note, let's
pretend hypothetically they did. How many people actually watch ABC
on terrestrial TV with an antenna and how many people
watch it with cable. I got to think almost nobody's
(30:45):
watching it in the terrestrial sense. They like the way
some people are listening to this radio show right now,
Most people watch it with a streaming service. They've got,
you know, a paramount plus or something like that, whatever
it may be, that they're watching network TV shows. A
peacock to watch NBC. I don't even know what Disney.
I have no idea. What how do you even watch
Jimmy Kimmel with your computer? I have no idea. But
(31:07):
isn't that what most people are doing nowadays?
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (31:10):
Most people are streaming. Like you talked about the fact
that most likely he's losing money on the show, the
ABC and turn Disney is losing money on the show.
So yeah, most people have switched to streaming. I don't
even know where to watch Jimmy Kimmel on streaming. I
guess now it's nowhere, But you know, that's what happens.
Speaker 4 (31:34):
Sometimes.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yeah, I mean, I guess that's it. Huh. By the way,
do you know anybody that was watching Jimmy Kimmel in
twenty twenty five? I don't.
Speaker 7 (31:44):
Yeah, I don't either. I mean, I assume that the
demo is slight is pretty old for these shows, you know,
that's one of the big things, is that they're really
not getting any of the young audience. And of course
that's what you want you're in if you're in the
entertainment businesses, you want to keep getting young, younger viewers,
(32:05):
but it looks like Jimmy Kimmel has struck out.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
You do gotta wonder does Hollywood not understand the pendulum
is swinging so hard in the opposite direction now, not
in spite of them, but because of them. Like America
looks at Jimmy Kimmel and he just seems smug, He's unpopular,
nobody's tuning in anymore. Amanda Seafried, the actress, same thing. Rights.
She's calling Charlie Kirk hateful, and she's suggesting that he
(32:31):
invited his own assassination and that created controversy for her,
so now she's trying to walk it back following the backlash.
Are these people so ingrained in their own liberal Hollywood
bubble that they don't understand what average Americans in the
flyover states actually want? We don't want them to celebrate murder.
I mean, what the hell is happening in Hollywood? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (32:54):
No, it's interesting that so many of them are are
making this mistake. And not only am I state, but
I mean, just a deplorable choice to celebrate the death
of somebody who really was just disagreeing with them on
big issues. I will, I will give credit to some
(33:16):
of the people out in Hollywood. I mean, they're not
all doing that. Jamie Lee Curtis has actually been surprisingly
one of the more prolific actors coming out and really
getting emotional over the death of Charlie Kirk, which is
surprising her. I'm not sure if it's a daughter or son,
(33:37):
I can't remember, but she has a trans child, so
I figured she would be, you know, not necessarily one
of the people celebrating, but wouldn't be this seemingly distraught
over the assassination of Charlie Kirk, which, you know, people
should be concerned about it. It's a milestone thing that
happened in the country that hasn't happened in decades that
(34:00):
a prolific community organizer slash, you know, public figure was
assassinated for everyone to see on you know, with live video.
So it's a really jarring experience, and you can really
tell a lot about how somebody reacts to it. And
(34:22):
somebody like Jimmy Kimmel steering into the hate and steering
into celebrating what's happened and lying about what Kirk had
said and stuff like that is really indicative of a
lot of the way that some of these folks think I'm.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Gonna lay something to have you on you. Because you're
a comedian, you'll probably understand this. It's back in the
two thousands. I was working on a different radio show
up in Chicago, is called The Man Cow Show, and
one day Gilbert Godfrey came in and did the show.
He was fresh off of a big scandal. He was
making jokes about the Fukushima tragedy in Japan, and he
got fired by app AFLAC was paying him millions of dollars,
(35:02):
to him tens of millions of dollars so he could
say aflak. And that was all he was doing with
his voice, just Gilbert Godfrey being Gilbert god You didn't
see him on the screen. He wasn't there. It was
just his voice getting millions of dollars to make that sound.
And then he got fired. It was a big news
story and everybody said, wow, Gilbert Godfrey, this is controversial.
(35:24):
AFFLAC doesn't want to be involved with comedy anymore. It's
a violation of his first Amendment. He came and he
did the show and he explained to us he didn't
get fired for making that joke. He said he was
getting paid too much money for a job that was
too easy, and they weren't getting any returns off of it.
They were looking for a reason to fire him. The
fact that he told a joke about Fukushima was small potatoes.
(35:46):
It wasn't the real reason why. It was just the excuse.
Do you think the same thing's happening with Jimmy Kimmel
and Colbert These shows were just not making money, and
the pendulum swinging in the other directions to taking it
off the air at this moment was popular because it
took the heat off of them and made it look
like Trump was bad, when in reality it was their
show that was bad.
Speaker 7 (36:06):
Yeah, I think that's probably a big part of it.
The bubble really popped on the late night comedy shows,
especially during the pandemic. Like you talked about how he
got rid of his how he got rid of the
announcer that worked for him. People saw how they were
(36:26):
acting during that, and I think that really turned off
a lot of people. Plus just the fact that, like
you said, a lot of people had already moved to streaming.
Even more people moved to streaming during and after the pandemic.
So I think they were, like you've implied that they
are trying to look at cost cutting, and when you
have shows that are bloated, I mean these shows have
(36:47):
sometimes fifteen twenty writers. They've got you know, huge sets,
dozens of people behind the scenes. So it's not just
the money that they're paying Kimmel, it's the money that
it costs to do all of that. Your guests, you're
putting them up in hotels. The overhead is amazing. And yeah,
(37:10):
I think then maybe they were just looking for a
while for an excuse to maybe cut some costs. Now,
like I said, there is a rumor that he might
come back in a couple of days, so it may
not be a complete firing. So you know, people might
be overreacting to people that think it's a free speech violation,
and on the other side of the aisle, people might
(37:31):
be overreacting thinking that, you know, hey, they've been they're
rid of Jimmy Kimmel. Now well I'm hearing he might
come back. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
I mean at a lower salary, with less writers, what
would be the point. I mean, his show wasn't generating
the kind of ratings that Colbert was, and CBS admitted
they were hemorrhaging money on Colbert. Why keep a show
that's unpopular and not profitable? Who was it even for?
Who was watching the show? The executives at Disney.
Speaker 7 (38:00):
Of these shows are for the people that are inside
the loop, you know. Yeah, it's for the people that
For example, if you look at the show that just
won the Emmys, it's a show called The Studio, it's
one a ton of Emmys, and it's about Hollywood. They're
just naval gazers. They just want to be told, you know,
(38:22):
the things that they want to hear and stuff like that.
So in that sense, he's doing a good job because
he is telling those people what they want to hear.
You know that Charlie Kirk was evil and da da
da dah. But as you also pointed out, the zeitgeist
has shifted. It's the pendulum. It's swinging back. It's swinging
(38:42):
back very hard, and they can't cope with the monster
they created that is Cancel culture. And now it's coming
for some of them. And you know, we told him
this was going to happen to him eventually, but they
didn't want to listen.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Yeah, it's true, and is it cancel. Culture is a
consequence culture. I mean, Kevin Hart was fired from hosting
the Oscars for a fifteen year old joke. This is
stuff Jimmy Kimmel told said earlier this week that he's
being held responsible for. I don't know. I just think
its basic consequences. Tim, we've gone along on this segment.
I'm grateful for you to your other point. By the way,
another show that did well at the Emmys this year
(39:17):
was a show called Adolescence, a show about a little
white boy in England who apparently went out and murdered
a little black girl or something like that. And in reality,
that movie, that TV show vividly described a thing that
really happened in England, but it involved a little black
boy doing it to a little white girl. You know,
liberals in Hollywood will just reinvent things. We got to run.
(39:39):
Follow Tim on Twitter and Instagram at tim mathis Comedy.
I love you all. Tomorrow and Saturday, I will be
at the Texas Youth Summit. The lineup is just incredible.
Steve Bannon, Governor Abbott, Ted Cruz, Wesley Hunt, A lot
of people are going to be there, join us. It's
free for college kids. In high school kids. If adults
want to go, I'll go to Texas Youth Summit dot com.
(40:01):
I love you all. We'll be back bright and early
tomorrow morning for more of what you bought a radio for.
Speaker 5 (40:11):
You are listening to the Pursuit of Happiness Radio.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Tell the government to kiss your ass when you listen
to this show.
Jack gannon government sucks. The suit of happiness radio is dus.
Liberty and freedom will make you smiles of a suit
of happing us on your radio to ol just as
cheezburgers lib rise at.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
All right? This just and the FAA is investigating after
a green laser targeted planes at the Boston Logan International
Airport on Monday night. The laser was especially tough on
the Southwest Airlines pilots who were already fighting hangovers. Boy,
those poor guys. I always like to have a drink
(00:47):
with a pilot whenever I go on a flight, just
to make sure he's a cool guy ahead of time.
You know who's not a cool guy? Jimmy Kimmel. Disney's
ABC announced yesterday they had pulled the plug out Jimmy
Kimmel Live. They say the show is off thearin definitely.
There were some comments earlier this week during a monologue
where apparently Jimmy Kimmel blamed MAGA Republicans for the assassination
(01:10):
of Charlie Kirk from Hollywood. It's Jimmy kim o. Aw,
that's a shame. Huh. He's not gonna have a job anymore. Boy,
that's just too bad. The national media is more upset
about Jimmy Kimmel losing its job than they are about
Charlie Kirk losing his life. Kind of a proving our
(01:30):
point that we've been making this whole time. I mean,
I think so it's hang on a second here, you're
more upset about a TV show you didn't watch getting
canceled than you were about somebody that was out participating
in polite discussion getting assassinated. Maybe you're a bunch of
godless Satanists. Smill Low's over the.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Weekend with the Magga Gang desperately trying to characterize this
kid who murdered Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
As anything other than one of them. And wow, bro, amazing,
just amazing. Of course that's not what happened. We all
know that.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Jimmy Kimmel is furious right now. Apparently Jimmy Kimmel celebrated
Donald Trump getting blacklisted, Jimmy Kimmel celebrated Tucker Carlson getting
fired at Fox News. Now he's been like a poor
Jimmy Kimmel. He thought it was still September ninth, guys,
It's not on September ninth. The day before they assassinated
(02:26):
Charlie Kirk and then celebrated it. Jimmy Kimmel could get
away with anything. Brightbart dot com today is reporting on
how with a single gunshot, the ground shifted forever, and
I do mean forever. Normal people have had enough. Jimmy
Kimmel's basement rated late night show was indefinitely pulled off
the air. Democrats, not Republicans, suspended Jimmy Kimmel. Democrats run ABC,
(02:50):
Democrats run Disney. ABC was obviously reacting to two groups
of affiliates, Sinclair and Nextstar, who made clear they had
no intention to broadcastin Kimmel's show for some time to come.
My guess and we're I'm just guessing here is that
Sinclair has ensured Kimmel has gone forever with the demand
that won Kimmell apologize or two he make a donation
(03:12):
to Turning Point USA, and Jimmy Kimmel is never going
to do that, so we welcome him to the world
of podcasting. Guys, you just you could see knowing he
was lying. Jimmy Kimmel used our airwaves to spread a
lie about an assassination that upset a lot of people. Now,
(03:32):
Breitbart dot com Today is also reporting that apparently Jimmy
Kimmel is effing livid over his suspension of his basement
rated late night show. He's talking about breaking his contract
to the ABC. We know what happened earlier this week.
It was a lie, right, he told a lie, using
the publicly owned airwaves to spread disinformation as a violation
(03:54):
of the contract that broadcast outlets agree to when they
receive a valuable asset of public airways for free, they
must serve the public interest. Kimmel has not served the
public interest since he launched his jahad on US more
than ten years ago. Kimmell wasn't yanked off the air suddenly.
Quite the opposite. He violated the public trust and by extension,
(04:15):
FCC guidelines for years and years and years and years.
But the FCC didn't take him off the air. Democrats
took him off the air. His suspension is long overdue.
Remember when he got dressed up in blackface so he
can make fun of some old NBA player. Weird that
liberals didn't care then. I'm sure that learning the news
(04:38):
that Kimmel wants to break his contract has ABC. Please
please don't throw me in the Briar Patch. Oh you're
quitting your basically rated show that's losing us millions and millions.
Oh that's so sad. Remember he encouraged Rose Ambar to
get fired. He encouraged the firing of Tim Allen, Gina Carino.
They got let go over much less. And according to this,
(04:59):
he's not even sorry for or when he did. Kimmel's
not funny. This wasn't just about a tasteless joke. This
was an ethical breach. He lied. He can lie on
a podcast now, but you can't lie on public airwaves.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
America, the land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation.
Kenny Webster's pursuit of happiness.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
All right, big announcement from your least favorite coffee company,
Starbucks plans to entice customers to spend more time in
their cafes by adding new chairs and ceramic mugs and
condiment bars. Or hear me out, they could add coffee
that doesn't taste like hot bathwater. What do you guys
(05:43):
think about that? Right? Crazy? I know that's absolutely nuts.
Sometimes the rebranding is well, it seems like a good idea,
but it's actually not. You know, you remember what happened
with cracker barrel that didn't go very well, and you know,
a bud light for example. Well, Antifa has decided that
they're gonna go ahead and reinvent themselves as a civil
rights group. Unfortunately, Donald Trump has designated them as a
(06:07):
major terrorist organization, and since he's the President of the
United States, it sounds like that's gonna stick.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
It's a little confusing here because Antifa isn't like Hesbolah.
You know, it's not like Boko Haram. You don't show
up and there's not a leader of it. It's a
vague organization. I know there's different Antifa chapters around the country.
I think here in Houston, Texas, we have Screwstin is
the name of ori Antifa chapter here. But who's really
(06:34):
even in charge of Screwstin. I don't know. Do I
like fill out a form and I get a T shirt?
Or how do you join? I don't know. But Trump's right,
I mean they wrote anti fascist. They the murderer, the
assassin wrote anti fascist words and phrases on the bullets
that he used to try to murder Charlie Kirk. And
(06:56):
you know they're calling themselves in Antifa, But weirdly they
act like. The point is, sometimes when someone calls themselves something,
they're exactly the opposite, especially when it comes to politics.
The Affordable Care Act made healthcare more expensive, the Inflation
Reduction Act, while we all know what that did to inflation,
and then the Patriot Act was like the least patriot
thing to ever happen. So as far as Antifa goes,
(07:18):
I don't consider them to be anti fascist if they
run around violently bullying people just for having different political opinions.
I'm assuming I'm not the only person that sees the
hypocrisy here, and I'm glad that Donald Trump's calling him
out in the wake of his buddy getting murdered. Michael
quint Sullivan, one of the smartest people in Texas political media,
is on the line right now. Michael, what do you
(07:39):
think this means for the average Texan?
Speaker 6 (07:41):
You know, hopefully what it translates to for the average
Texan is we find that Antifa being knocked down at
PEG or two, so that maybe just maybe business owners
in Dallas, Sport, were, Houston, Boston, San Antonio are are
more urban or cities maybe don't have to worry about,
(08:05):
you know, is tomorrow night, the night when a bunch
of antief Antifa thugs throw molotov cocktails into our storefronts.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Maybe maybe this will be the night that they don't.
Speaker 6 (08:19):
Engage in the kind of thuggish behavior, you know, all
in the name of politics, of course, Uh, that Anteetha.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Has become known for.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
And I think that I'm not entirely sure what designating
a a domestic organization as a as a terrorist group
and what what what that means?
Speaker 4 (08:37):
I mean, when we.
Speaker 6 (08:38):
Designate the cartels a terrorist organization, it means we get
to bomb their cigarette boats, right, smuggling drugs and other stuff.
And that's that's great by me. Uh, when you name
you know, pese law terrorist organization things, we get to
go when and and and and turn their their little
hideouts into blasts.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
And I'm okay with that also, you know, it's maybe
some and quite honestly, I'm.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
I'm not sure that I have much of a problem
uh with us using the full force and mine.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Of the federal Garga against people who've been funding antique,
against people who.
Speaker 6 (09:11):
Have been organized these folks clearly in TIFA and the
the their their distributed network.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
There there there there the.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
Games they have played of last few years have had
very deadly and dangerous consequences, and it's.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
About time that we acted that.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
That we understood that these people are who they say
they are, which is they're terrorists. Yeah, and I'm glad
the president. I don't know what it means exactly, but
I'm here for It's what I voted for actively.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, that's what I voted for too. I think it's good.
I mean, I've interacted with people from quote unquote Antifa before,
and like I said before, it's not more a real
regimented organization. It's not like they have members cards or whatever.
But there are people out there that don the Antifa
garb and show up. And what I really wonder is
the unintended consequences of something like this, Michael. I mean,
(10:04):
now the Portland NBA franchise, the Trailblazers are going to
have to figure out new plans for Antifa Night. What
are they going to do?
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Now?
Speaker 6 (10:13):
Look, you know, but for a lot of the you know,
a great ninding of the Antifa, you know, members sympathizer
would call them, are kind of like this, you know,
creating animal who've committed the very public murder last week.
You know that these are disfunct people who don't actually
(10:34):
exist well with a little bit of sunlights.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Right that they much for for you.
Speaker 6 (10:39):
Know, hanging out in a base, the windows drawn, playing
video games and talking tough on Reddit. You know, if
nothing else, some of these cats may learn and let's know,
you know, we're recognizing these guys only come out at night,
acting just like the Nazis did, breaking in the buildings,
doing their damage like.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
The Nazis did.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
That that's who Antifa is, That's what they believe as
they're trying to achieve, and so recognizing now that some
sunlight might be shown.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Upon them, that they might be made visible.
Speaker 6 (11:13):
I know that in in Austin earlier this year, some
of the Antifa thugs participating in the protests this summer.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
You know, uh, it did terrified everyone in that group
and a few of them were arrested.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
And they had their their their little wrap around masks
and buffalo bills taken off. And now you saw this
is the pimple uh based kid working at the ATV.
This is the you know, the the weird little guy
who in the neighborhood, you know, barts from shadow to
shadow because he didn't want.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
To be seen. That's these people were, and they.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
Built like being being revealed and being subject to the
scrutiny that comes with being unmasked. And I think that's
where in this uh, this effort by the res to
so import to ask these people. Hopefully it has a
cooling effect on that next round of miscreanmps and thugs
who don't want who don't want themselves.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
To be exposed.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, that's a fantastic point. I'm glad you explain that
because your voice cut out right at the end there, Michael.
Let's talk about something else for just a minute. Let's
go down to the border. This has gotten a lot
of attention over the last twenty four hours, and like
a lot of touchy news stories of clearly a tragedy,
the early reports were a little misleading. I'll be the
first to admit I was confused about what had happened.
There's a very unpopular Republican lawmaker from the border, Representative
(12:37):
Tony Gonzalez, and people don't like him because he'll go
on TV and talk about how we got to get
tough on the border and defend gun rights, and then
he'll go vote for John Cornyn's red flag laws. He'll
go vote, you know, to not secure the border. He's
done this more than once, so clearly he's very unpopular
with grassroots conservatives and right wingers. And now a sad
(12:59):
news story. One of his staff members just died self immolation.
They say, caught on fire, died burned to death. Now
that's horrible in and of itself. But making this a
little more complicated, their early reports out claiming that he
and her had a inappropriate relationship with one another. I
cannot confirm that. I don't know. I have no idea.
(13:19):
That's what some people are speculating. There's even rumors going
around people on social media claiming that he tried to
pay the family not to talk about the fact that
they had an inappropriate relationship. Again, I have no idea
if that's true, I don't know. We can't confirm it,
you know, we can't prove or disprove that. We don't
know if it's true. She died by self immolation, and
(13:41):
yesterday the earliest reports made it sound like it was suicide.
Later in the day, her mother came out and said
that she screamed, I don't want to die, making it. It
sound like it was an accident, right, it didn't happen
on purpose. Some are speculating now that he ruined her life.
Other people have suggested that he murdered her. We don't
actually know if any of that's true. It's all body
a conspiracy theory is going crazy over this news story.
(14:04):
And you had kind of a different take on it,
didn't you.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
Yeah. So look, I'm Matt.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
I think this is the this is the problem of
our twenty four hour news cycle of social media. Everyone
has a you know, forgive the praise, everyone has a
hot tape right now about everything you know, But unfortunately
life doesn't always play out that way. Sometimes there are
(14:29):
uh there there there are facts that have to be gathered.
Sometimes stories take a while to piece together and unravel.
And I think this is where all of us have
to be willing to take a moment, particularly when it
involves as such a horrific tragedy and whether it's you know,
(14:51):
wherever it is on the scale of accident to suicide,
to murder to whatever it is, at the end of
the day, this is a horribly tragic loss of life,
and that I think that there's such a rush to
develop you know, who's got the hottest take, who has
the uh the the most cutting bar, who has you know,
(15:12):
the most penetrating political uh theory? All those kind of
things that we sometimes look aside. These are real people.
This are real family, in real grief, and they're having
to have their grief from and in whatever garbage they have,
and they're they've had in their lives thrown out onto
Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and you know,
(15:35):
all these messy things of flight and uh yeah, I
think a lot of us should take them home and think, well, gosh,
you know, if I died tomorrow, I want the whole
world taking a look everything, all those kind of you know,
it's that kind of question. I think we need to
maybe take a step back. Sometimes horrible tragic event, but
(15:55):
not every horrible tragic event demands a pop up conspirator
theory or a or a political hip job to follow it.
And now it might indeed be, you know, with more facts,
more information, that there is indeed a political problem, there
is indeed a murder, there is indeed So again, I
(16:16):
think it's where each of us need to be willing
to take a moment and be human rather than be
you know, how many likes and clicks can I get
on my on my on my cake, which I fear
sometimes drives are our conversation.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I would agree with all that, one thing I I
do not expend extend that sympathy to Tony Gonzalez. I
think he's a bad lawmaker. I think he's a bad politician.
And and I think at the very least, the fact
that he is disappointed is good stituent so many times
speaks to the fact that he probably should lead leave
office now. At the same time, if he had an
inappropriate relationship with this woman and she just died, the
(16:53):
fact that those two things took place may not necessarily
have anything to do with each other. I don't know,
But I still feel like he needs to leave office.
It's point, he's very unpopular, and he seems he's one
of these guys that's beloved by Washington, d C. But
not by the people in his own community. How do
those people stay in office so long?
Speaker 6 (17:10):
Yeah, so a lot of those guys are able to
stay in office. One because of the lethards you of
the electorate. You know, let you remember, when you don't participate,
you still end up with the with the government that
you chose not.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
To participate in. Select it right, and so.
Speaker 6 (17:25):
I find it oftentimes say oh, I just can't stand
this guy. But then they're the ones who don't show
up in vote. Ninety five percent of Texans are furious
about their property taxes, and oh, by the way, ninety
five percent of Texans don't show up in the elections
where property taxes are decided. And that's the repeat in
so many of these races, so many of these elections
(17:47):
where we don't just may second, I think a lot
of us are are very prone to complain about the
and rightly so, about the quality of the men and
women who we have elected or at least ella out
to be elected in office. But then we don't do
the things necessary to recruit a candidate, under candidate, to
(18:09):
support a candidate and who would do a better job,
and and and then the really hard work following up
after to make sure the candidate that we support then
stays on the straight and narrow. Our system of government
was not designed as a you know, as this kind
of you know, you know you use occasionally pop in.
We're supposed to be eternally vigilant. We're supposed to be
(18:32):
deeply engaged, and yet for the better part of the century,
Americans have been told, Oh, all you have to do
is vote if you want to, don't worry about it.
The smart guys in Washington will make sure everything works okay,
And then one of fact, it hasn't worked.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
It hadn't worked okay because too many of us don't
participate the way.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
That we should.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Michael Quinn Sullivan the website Texas scorecard dot com. You
could subscribe to their email list. I recommend it. Michael,
always a breath of fresh air and common sense. We
definitely appreciate your insight. If you're not following him on X,
make sure you do.
Speaker 5 (19:09):
Kenny has always thought the best things in life are free,
free plus tax. Of course, Kenny Webster's pursuit of happiness.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
I was just reading this report at the New York
Post detailing how Donald Trump's efforts to clean up Washington
d C actually worked, and it kind of paints Democrats
into a corner, doesn't it. National democrats and the media
that cheers them on, and academia who gives them their
crazy talking points. In Hollywood, who acts as the loud
(19:44):
speaker for their tem ideas have been slamming Donald Trump
and his choice to deplay the National Guard to Washington
d C. Washington, d C just a crime written place.
The problem with the local government in Washington, d C.
Is that any big city, these are democrats and they're
not effective. They don't want to be they don't want
(20:05):
to stop crime. The criminals are their constituents. Well, Donald
Trump cleaned up the streets of Washington, d C. There
aren't anybody. There's nobody walking around Washington, d C. Claiming
to be a victim of the National Guard. We've already
seen what happens when he sends them in to clean
up the city. As it turns out, one week after
(20:26):
Trump's emergency order commandeering local police quietly expired. His action
was a lesson in how quickly empowered law enforcement officers
could clean up a city. Thirty days after Trump's order,
the crime statistics are undeniable. Both violent crime and property
crime have dropped by roughly a fifth, and carjackings alone
(20:47):
declined by thirty seven percent. The dramatic change in DC's
public spaces, and it's impossible to deny the district's many
ten cities are havens for public drug use. Well they've
been cleared out and their denizens have been sent packing.
(21:07):
It didn't take a miracle, just a little bit of commitment,
just a little work. The before and after scenes in
the halls of Union Station, a gorgeous monument to travel
that welcomes thousands of tourists and commuters daily, are stunning.
This is a place where for years, bright marble was
(21:28):
stained with food. It smelled like urine. If you ever
been to a Union Station, it was disgusting. Well, today
it's clean. It's a vagrant free place. You would enjoy
visiting it. For Democrats willing to listen, The political lesson
of Washington DC is clear. No one who works with
Trump in such an effort will be punished for it,
(21:50):
at least not if they deliver on the changes that
citizens demand. The mayor in Washington, d C. Is Muriel Bowser,
and she proved herself a You know, she was critical
of Trump doing this, but she participated, she engaged in it,
and now it happens the city's been cleaned up. She
(22:11):
wants her legacy to be the return of Washington's football
franchise to the district thirty years after it fled to
the safer suburb of Prince George's County, Maryland, and the
development of a vast new stadium complex that could bring
new commerce and even a Super Bowl to her city.
The problem is achieving that goal with a police department
(22:32):
that's about one thousand officers short of a full force
is probably impossible. She needed the help of federal reinforcement,
so she decided to cooperate with Trump, and guess what,
it worked. So it's very encouraging. It's encouraging to see
not one, but two bills meant to address DC's crime
(22:53):
predicament past the House this past week, and very significant
bipartiesan backing. You know, even Morning Joe Joe Scarborough, the
morning show host on MSNBC, agreed that quietly a lot
of journalists and politicians and DC staffers are praising Donald
Trump for cleaning up the city. By the way, those
(23:13):
two bills were passed were introduced by Florida Representative Byron
Donald's and Texas Representative Brandon Gill. Both of them have
spoken with me at the Texas Youth Summit before that
event's happening this weekend. Obviously, we'll be talking about crime
because not far away from the Woodlands Marriott is a
city called Houston, and that's where I live. Crime is
(23:35):
up in Houston. We could use some help here. It's
hard to comprehend how the less dedication to the soft
on crime policies can be so zealous that they're willing
to accept the loss of restaurants and retail because people
fear venturing out or the exit rush of families who
know it isn't safe to raise their kids in the
Democrat run city. What the District of Columbia is experience
(24:00):
shows us is that even cities with significant crime problems
can turn them around rapidly. It's an object lesson Democrats
could be wise to understand, one that fueled their electoral
success in the past, but by embracing the anti cop
faith welcomed by the radicals in their own coalition, they
(24:21):
have instead become the party of inner city chaos. Republicans
should be grateful that leftists burning Trump hatred makes them
willing to punish their own citizens while refusing federal help.
Voters in crime written blue cities can look to DC
and see just what a strong push towards law and
(24:42):
order could bring to them. Could you imagine if we
could clean up Memphis or Chicago or Detroit the same
way we cleaned up Washington, d C. Would that be
so bad?
Speaker 7 (24:52):
Pursuit of that penis radio coming now.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
Just p This is Kenny Webster's pursuit of happiness on
KPRC nine fifty Houston.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
This big news just broke from Hollywood. Arnold Schwarzenegger's girlfriend
is frustrated that he apparently he still has not proposed
to her. On the bright side, he still hasn't impregnated
or made either said that's good. You know? Is this
a spoiled, pampered, narcissistic Hollywood bratt or what? Or what?
(25:27):
All right? It would be impossible to talk about Hollywood
today without talking about what is obviously the biggest story
in both politics and Hollywood at the moment. Yesterday, the
late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was indefinitely suspended
from his late night show, and of course, this happened
on the heels of Stephen Colbert being let go of
the late night show that David Letterman once founded. It's
(25:48):
kind of obvious considering both of these shows were taken
off the air so abruptly that probably at the end
of the day, this was more than just politics. This
was about money. If those guys were vastly popular, if
they were hemorrhaging ratings, if these guys were so profitable
for the company that they were going to lose billions
of dollars by taking it off the air, then they
simply wouldn't have done that. But they are taking it
(26:10):
off the air because at the end of the day,
something that's controversial, something that's a liability, and something that's
not making a lot of money just isn't worth keeping around.
That's how any business works. Earlier this week, after a
whole day of TV news coverage of the first legal
hearing for the Charlie Kirk Assassin that was filled with
evidence and transcripts of text messages and testimony from family
(26:35):
members and friends about his political beliefs, Jimmy Kimmel decided
to go on TV and just say exactly the opposite
of what everybody now indisputably knew to be true. That
Charlie Kirk Assassin was a leftist, but Jimmy Kimmel didn't
know that. Because Jimmy Kimmel and his writers live in
a bubble. They weren't sitting around watching the news all day.
They were busy writing jokes about why Trump is Hitler
(26:56):
and later that evening on TV. This happened over the.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Weekend with the Maggie Gang desperately trying to characterize this
kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one
of them, and.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Anything other than one of them. You know, as a
late night talk show host back in the day, in
the twentieth century, it was very uncommon for a late
night comedian to talk about a school shooting, much less
do a week of coverage on it. That would almost
never happen. You know, that's the sort of news story
that Jay Leno or Johnny Carson probably would have avoided.
Even David Letterman or Conan, who were considered to be
(27:28):
a little more controversial, probably wouldn't have done a show
about bowling for Columbine or you know, the Virginia Tech massacre.
That wouldn't have been a story they would have covered. Still,
Jimmy Kimmel couldn't help himself. You remember when he did
a monologue one time where he didn't tell a single joke.
He just cried about how getting rid of Obamacare was
a fascist thing for Donald Trump to do is a
(27:49):
ten minute monologue about how he loved Obamacare. At some point,
late night talk shows stopped being about comedy and they
started being about politics. Stop trying to get a laughter
from the audience and just trying to get applause. You
got to wonder who is this stuff? Even for the
Babylon Bee, where they actually do comedy, had the following
headline last night. I thought this was brilliant. The headline,
(28:13):
The Babylon Bee is outraged to learn Jimmy Kimmel was
fired just because he's a maga Republican. And that's pretty amazing.
And while you're all feeling bad for Jimmy Kimmel or
not feeling bad for Jimmy Kimmel, do you know who
Dicky Barrett is. He was the lead singer of a
ska band in the nineties called the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
You might remember him from his cameo appearance in the
movie Clueless with Claire Danes. Well, he was fired after
(28:35):
twenty years of being the announcer on Jimmy Kimmel Live
because he didn't want to get the COVID vaccine. All
these statements from Jimmy Kimmel and the media and Jake
Tapper opining about why this thing got canceled kind of
see me irrelevant at the end of the day if
it wasn't profitable. But rather than me giving you my
take because you've already heard it, what if we talk
(28:55):
to an actual comedian. Tim Mathis is our Hollywood News reporter,
so one of the guys that helped us found Operation
Comedy Therapy so many years ago. Now he runs a
comedy club in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Tim, I got to
think people in the stand up comedy world aren't crying
any crocodile tears today for Jimmy Kimmel, are they.
Speaker 7 (29:15):
Well, I've seen a good amount of people post about
how it's an assault on free speech and stuff like that.
I mean, the people don't seem to understand that you're
hired and fired based on what you can do for
the company and how much liability you're bringing to the company.
Like you said, if it's not something that's making you
(29:38):
a lot of money, and in fact, most likely it
was losing them a lot of money, just like Colbert was.
I mean, they're probably looking for a reason that Jennison him.
Now I am hearing that there are rumors that he's
only on a hiatus, that he's going to come back
in a few days. We'll see how that goes. That'll
be interesting. We'll see if maybe he dials it down
(29:59):
a little bit at LEAs based on the completely false
information that he seems to like to trot out there,
because that's the kind of thing that the government actually
could say something about since it is a broadcast it's
one of the original Big three broadcast network. So we'll
see what happens if he does come back, or if
(30:21):
they do in fact go ahead and terminate his contract.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Okay, So the controversy about the FCC license, even that's
theoretical because I don't think the FCC chairman actually threatened
to take the license away. But on that note, let's
pretend hypothetically they did. How many people actually watch ABC
on terrestrial TV with an antenna and how many people
watch it with cable. I got to think almost nobody's
(30:45):
watching it in the terrestrial sense. They like the way
some people are listening to this radio show right now,
Most people watch it with a streaming service. They've got,
you know, a paramount plus or something like that, whatever
it may be, that they're watching network TV shows. A
peacock to watch NBC. I don't even know what Disney.
I have no idea. What how do you even watch
Jimmy Kimmel with your computer? I have no idea. But
(31:07):
isn't that what most people are doing nowadays?
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (31:10):
Most people are streaming. Like you talked about the fact
that most likely he's losing money on the show, the
ABC and turn Disney is losing money on the show.
So yeah, most people have switched to streaming. I don't
even know where to watch Jimmy Kimmel on streaming. I
guess now it's nowhere, But you know, that's what happens.
Speaker 4 (31:34):
Sometimes.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yeah, I mean, I guess that's it. Huh. By the way,
do you know anybody that was watching Jimmy Kimmel in
twenty twenty five? I don't.
Speaker 7 (31:44):
Yeah, I don't either. I mean, I assume that the
demo is slight is pretty old for these shows, you know,
that's one of the big things, is that they're really
not getting any of the young audience. And of course
that's what you want you're in if you're in the
entertainment businesses, you want to keep getting young, younger viewers,
(32:05):
but it looks like Jimmy Kimmel has struck out.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
You do gotta wonder does Hollywood not understand the pendulum
is swinging so hard in the opposite direction now, not
in spite of them, but because of them. Like America
looks at Jimmy Kimmel and he just seems smug, He's unpopular,
nobody's tuning in anymore. Amanda Seafried, the actress, same thing. Rights.
She's calling Charlie Kirk hateful, and she's suggesting that he
(32:31):
invited his own assassination and that created controversy for her,
so now she's trying to walk it back following the backlash.
Are these people so ingrained in their own liberal Hollywood
bubble that they don't understand what average Americans in the
flyover states actually want? We don't want them to celebrate murder.
I mean, what the hell is happening in Hollywood? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (32:54):
No, it's interesting that so many of them are are
making this mistake. And not only am I state, but
I mean, just a deplorable choice to celebrate the death
of somebody who really was just disagreeing with them on
big issues. I will, I will give credit to some
(33:16):
of the people out in Hollywood. I mean, they're not
all doing that. Jamie Lee Curtis has actually been surprisingly
one of the more prolific actors coming out and really
getting emotional over the death of Charlie Kirk, which is
surprising her. I'm not sure if it's a daughter or son,
(33:37):
I can't remember, but she has a trans child, so
I figured she would be, you know, not necessarily one
of the people celebrating, but wouldn't be this seemingly distraught
over the assassination of Charlie Kirk, which, you know, people
should be concerned about it. It's a milestone thing that
happened in the country that hasn't happened in decades that
(34:00):
a prolific community organizer slash, you know, public figure was
assassinated for everyone to see on you know, with live video.
So it's a really jarring experience, and you can really
tell a lot about how somebody reacts to it. And
(34:22):
somebody like Jimmy Kimmel steering into the hate and steering
into celebrating what's happened and lying about what Kirk had
said and stuff like that is really indicative of a
lot of the way that some of these folks think I'm.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Gonna lay something to have you on you. Because you're
a comedian, you'll probably understand this. It's back in the
two thousands. I was working on a different radio show
up in Chicago, is called The Man Cow Show, and
one day Gilbert Godfrey came in and did the show.
He was fresh off of a big scandal. He was
making jokes about the Fukushima tragedy in Japan, and he
got fired by app AFLAC was paying him millions of dollars,
(35:02):
to him tens of millions of dollars so he could
say aflak. And that was all he was doing with
his voice, just Gilbert Godfrey being Gilbert god You didn't
see him on the screen. He wasn't there. It was
just his voice getting millions of dollars to make that sound.
And then he got fired. It was a big news
story and everybody said, wow, Gilbert Godfrey, this is controversial.
(35:24):
AFFLAC doesn't want to be involved with comedy anymore. It's
a violation of his first Amendment. He came and he
did the show and he explained to us he didn't
get fired for making that joke. He said he was
getting paid too much money for a job that was
too easy, and they weren't getting any returns off of it.
They were looking for a reason to fire him. The
fact that he told a joke about Fukushima was small potatoes.
(35:46):
It wasn't the real reason why. It was just the excuse.
Do you think the same thing's happening with Jimmy Kimmel
and Colbert These shows were just not making money, and
the pendulum swinging in the other directions to taking it
off the air at this moment was popular because it
took the heat off of them and made it look
like Trump was bad, when in reality it was their
show that was bad.
Speaker 7 (36:06):
Yeah, I think that's probably a big part of it.
The bubble really popped on the late night comedy shows,
especially during the pandemic. Like you talked about how he
got rid of his how he got rid of the
announcer that worked for him. People saw how they were
(36:26):
acting during that, and I think that really turned off
a lot of people. Plus just the fact that, like
you said, a lot of people had already moved to streaming.
Even more people moved to streaming during and after the pandemic.
So I think they were, like you've implied that they
are trying to look at cost cutting, and when you
have shows that are bloated, I mean these shows have
(36:47):
sometimes fifteen twenty writers. They've got you know, huge sets,
dozens of people behind the scenes. So it's not just
the money that they're paying Kimmel, it's the money that
it costs to do all of that. Your guests, you're
putting them up in hotels. The overhead is amazing. And yeah,
(37:10):
I think then maybe they were just looking for a
while for an excuse to maybe cut some costs. Now,
like I said, there is a rumor that he might
come back in a couple of days, so it may
not be a complete firing. So you know, people might
be overreacting to people that think it's a free speech violation,
and on the other side of the aisle, people might
(37:31):
be overreacting thinking that, you know, hey, they've been they're
rid of Jimmy Kimmel. Now well I'm hearing he might
come back. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
I mean at a lower salary, with less writers, what
would be the point. I mean, his show wasn't generating
the kind of ratings that Colbert was, and CBS admitted
they were hemorrhaging money on Colbert. Why keep a show
that's unpopular and not profitable? Who was it even for?
Who was watching the show? The executives at Disney.
Speaker 7 (38:00):
Of these shows are for the people that are inside
the loop, you know. Yeah, it's for the people that
For example, if you look at the show that just
won the Emmys, it's a show called The Studio, it's
one a ton of Emmys, and it's about Hollywood. They're
just naval gazers. They just want to be told, you know,
(38:22):
the things that they want to hear and stuff like that.
So in that sense, he's doing a good job because
he is telling those people what they want to hear.
You know that Charlie Kirk was evil and da da
da dah. But as you also pointed out, the zeitgeist
has shifted. It's the pendulum. It's swinging back. It's swinging
(38:42):
back very hard, and they can't cope with the monster
they created that is Cancel culture. And now it's coming
for some of them. And you know, we told him
this was going to happen to him eventually, but they
didn't want to listen.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Yeah, it's true, and is it cancel. Culture is a
consequence culture. I mean, Kevin Hart was fired from hosting
the Oscars for a fifteen year old joke. This is
stuff Jimmy Kimmel told said earlier this week that he's
being held responsible for. I don't know. I just think
its basic consequences. Tim, we've gone along on this segment.
I'm grateful for you to your other point. By the way,
another show that did well at the Emmys this year
(39:17):
was a show called Adolescence, a show about a little
white boy in England who apparently went out and murdered
a little black girl or something like that. And in reality,
that movie, that TV show vividly described a thing that
really happened in England, but it involved a little black
boy doing it to a little white girl. You know,
liberals in Hollywood will just reinvent things. We got to run.
(39:39):
Follow Tim on Twitter and Instagram at tim mathis Comedy.
I love you all. Tomorrow and Saturday, I will be
at the Texas Youth Summit. The lineup is just incredible.
Steve Bannon, Governor Abbott, Ted Cruz, Wesley Hunt, A lot
of people are going to be there, join us. It's
free for college kids. In high school kids. If adults
want to go, I'll go to Texas Youth Summit dot com.
(40:01):
I love you all. We'll be back bright and early
tomorrow morning for more of what you bought a radio for.
Speaker 5 (40:11):
You are listening to the Pursuit of Happiness Radio.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Tell the government to kiss your ass when you listen
to this show.
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