Buck Brief: Jimmy Kimmel the Jerk is Back on Air

Podcast: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Host: Buck Sexton
Date: September 24, 2025
Episode Theme: An in-depth critique of Jimmy Kimmel's return to late-night TV, the broader implications for media bias, cancel culture, and ongoing battles over free speech and conservative censorship.

Episode Overview

In this Buck Brief, Buck Sexton delivers a sharp monologue dissecting late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's controversial reinstatement to the air following inflammatory comments regarding the assassination of conservative speaker Charlie Kirk. Buck uses this event as a springboard to explore the left's approach to media, the weaponization of corporate and digital platforms against conservatives, and why he sees these current "retreats" as only temporary in the ongoing culture war.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Jimmy Kimmel’s Return: What It Means

• Kimmel’s Insensitivity: Buck accuses Kimmel not just of a failed joke but of using a tragic political assassination to attack conservatives—specifically blaming them for Kirk's assasination.
  • Quote: "It wasn't a joke that didn't hit. It wasn't a joke that went too far or that was too soon. It wasn't even a joke. It was just, screw you, right wingers. I'm going to say that you're to blame. Your side of the aisle, your political ideology is to blame for the assassination of Charlie Kirk..." (03:55)
• Disney’s Position: Buck blasts Disney for lacking decency or concern for public opinion, suggesting that keeping Kimmel on air is evidence of the company's partisan allegiance.
  • Quote: "Disney has decided to make sure you all know they don't give a crap about you. They don't care what you think. There's no decency that Disney is going to mandate for its employees who are talents on the air." (03:08)

2. Media Bias, Tactical Retreat—not Change

• Not a Genuine Apology: Buck characterizes the reining in of left-leaning personalities post-backlash as a "tactical retreat," not an ideological shift or real accountability.
  • Quote: "It's not a, it's not a change in ideology. It's not a mea culpa or. No, no, no, no. They're just easing up a little bit right now." (05:21)
• Prediction of Future Behavior: Buck believes the media and its executives are merely pausing overt provocations until political winds shift.
  • Quote: "They're just waiting for when their team is in charge again. They think...probably under a President Newsom and maybe a Vice President AOC. But that is the belief that they have, they are waiting to push this stuff once again and to make everybody on the right suffer..." (05:45)

3. Conservative Comedy, or Lack Thereof

• Left-wing Comedy is Partisan: Buck argues late-night hosts like Kimmel, Colbert, and Seth Meyers aren’t true comedians but deliver audiences an outlet to mock the right, regardless of comedic value.
  • Quote: "Their audiences want to go there to laugh in a nasty way at the other side. So all that matters, they can go, ha, ha. See, Jimmy Kimmel saying Trump voters are dumb. Ha ha..." (09:07)

4. Censorship and Platform Bias

• YouTube’s Admissions: Buck discusses YouTube’s acknowledgment of past conservative censorship and compares it to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, highlighting a pattern: these platforms admit to "over-censoring" only after the fact, and only as a method of "tactical retreat."

  • Quote: "YouTube has come out and said, you know what, we were actually censoring conservatives and maybe we shouldn't, we shouldn't have been doing that. And to this I just say we will take what we can, where we can from the libs on this stuff..." (13:35)

• Personal Impact: Buck shares his own experiences with shadow bans, strikes, and channel suspensions, reinforcing distrust in big tech.

  • Quote: "I've had multiple YouTube. I've had strikes, I've had algorithmic blocking, I've had channel suspensions. You know, this is why it's just impossible with these people. So, you know, this is why this is mostly an audio show..." (10:34)

5. Cancel Culture: Ceasefire, Not a Truce

• Warning to Conservatives: Buck cautions listeners that the current “pause” in aggressive cancel culture is only temporary.

  • Quote: "Right now I think if anything it's just a ceasefire in the cancel culture that the right is subjected to. It is not a truce, it is not a treaty. It's not over." (14:25)

• First Amendment Concerns: He claims the Biden administration truly weaponized censorship, more than anything under Trump, and criticizes the Supreme Court for being complicit.

  • Quote: "That's as bad as any First Amendment suppression we've seen in my lifetime. ...What the Biden administration did was absolutely terrible. And I still want everyone to know that this is going to be the fight going forward..." (15:07)

6. Cultural Critiques & Digressions

• Howard Stern: Buck dismisses Howard Stern’s supposed free speech legacy and critiques his posturing on canceling Disney+.
  • Quote: "Howard Stern, man, that guy's just become such a little old woman, you know, really. It's just like a cringing little old woman. ...He canceled his Disney plus, so I guess he's going to un-cancel it now because Jimmy Kimmel's back on the air. It's preposterous." (16:02)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Kimmel’s Role: "He was never there to make everybody laugh. He is there for the amusement of left wing libs who want the other side... to be mocked." (07:28)
• On Big Tech: "You can't trust these guys with their algorithms and how stuff is going. There are people on the back end making all kinds of determinations about who's seeing what." (15:57)
• On Conservative Resilience: "We have to keep building the conservative infrastructure out there as much as we can, whether it's platforms, companies, everything." (14:54)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:01 — Buck opens the Kimmel controversy, attacks Disney's stance
• 05:21 — Media bias framed as "tactical retreat"
• 07:28 — Analysis of the role of late-night hosts & liberal comedy
• 10:32 — Discussion of Buck’s own struggles with YouTube censorship
• 13:35 — Reaction to Big Tech’s admission of conservative censorship
• 14:25 — Warnings about the temporary nature of the 'ceasefire' in cancel culture
• 15:07 — Extended First Amendment concerns, critique of Biden/SCOTUS
• 16:02 — Digression on Howard Stern and liberal free speech hypocrisy

Tone & Style

Buck delivers his points with characteristic directness, sarcasm, and a sense of urgency; he blends humor ("Howard Stern... such a little old woman") with earnest warnings about the state of media and cultural power struggles.

Summary Takeaways

Buck Sexton’s episode is a polemic against what he views as leftist hypocrisy in media, repeated unfair censorship of conservatives, and the empty symbolism of Kimmel’s brief suspension. The episode aims to bolster conservative listeners’ skepticism about Big Tech, mainstream media, and corporate motives—urging vigilance and investment in new conservative institutions rather than complacency.