By this point, we’re used to the left and its Hollywood celebrity allies carrying water for progressive messaging and policies.

It’s hard to forget Jimmy Kimmel’s tearful monologue, claiming that Republicans who wanted to repeal Obamacare were somehow okay with people dying. At the time, the comedian’s own son had just had a medical emergency that sent him to the hospital. But that doesn’t excuse calling people whose politics you disagree with “killers,” especially on what’s supposed to be a comedic program.

Then there was a “Saturday Night Live” cast member, who played Hillary Clinton on the show, performing a mournful song after Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election. I’m not alone in feeling this was one of the more regrettable moments on the once-great show. So does comedian and actor Rob Schneider.

As my colleague Bob Hoge wrote in a September 2022 piece,

Former SNL star Rob Schneider thinks he can pinpoint the exact moment the show died: when Kate McKinnon sang the Leonard Cohen song “Hallelujah” as Hillary Clinton during a cold open after Hills lost the presidential election. It was such a middle finger to the more than 74 million people who voted for the Donald that those viewers will never come back.

Now, someone has decided it would be a good idea to trot out Jimmy Fallon on his NBC late night talk show, “The Tonight Show,” to promote the existence of a new COVID variant, XBB.1.5., with a song. You can watch the embarrassing spectacle below:

Jimmy performs a tiny song about the new COVID variant, XBB.1.5. #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/cQq1sBTiFq

— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) January 6, 2023

First of all, much like the earlier examples, how this is supposed to pass for comedy is beyond me. It points to one of two reasons to even do something like this, neither of which is good. Either the writers’ world is so consumed by talking and thinking about COVID, that they assume this is everyone’s reality. Or they think it’s the “right thing to do” to draw attention to something they saw in the news, because it will somehow help in the fight against COVID. It says a lot about these people, that they’re obviously getting their news from leftist news sources. That’s not going to help any comedy show gain viewers, since you’re bound to regurgitate content that about half of your audience isn’t going to relate to. There’s a reason places like CNN and MSNBC do so poorly in the ratings.

So, since Greg Gutfeld has been mopping the floor with all of the other talk shows, this could be a sign of desperation on the part of “The Tonight Show.” Maybe they’ve written off any chance of getting conservative viewers to tune in already.

Now, I like Jimmy Fallon. He seems to stay away from overtly political “jokes” and monologues on his show. What if we give Jimmy the benefit of the doubt? Maybe he thinks this is a funny idea. That’s an even bigger issue, though. Not only aren’t the lines of the song clever, but the attempts at rhymes aren’t close to rhyming. Everything feels forced–never a good environment for comedy to blossom.