Cancel Culture

For the past decade, the political Right has lamented “cancel culture.” The idea was that the Left unfairly stoked race and gender hysteria to restrict the terms of debate and to cast anyone deemed in violation of the mandated terms into a state of social annihilation. Teenagers who sang along with rap songs have been denied entry into college. Political figures who failed to use the latest euphemisms found themselves cast into the void. 

Elon Musk announced that a staffer with the Department of Government Efficiency who had been fired over past social media posts would be reinstated following support from President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

Vice President Vance on Friday argued that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer who resigned after social media posts of his came to light that espoused racist beliefs should be hired back.

Vance, in speaking out about the issue, said that social media posts shouldn’t be the reason he is fired, calling the 25-year-old aide to DOGE head Elon Musk a “kid.”

Elon Musk said Friday that a Department of Government Efficiency staffer who resigned this week after social media posts surfaced of him advocating for racism and eugenics was reinstated. The move came after Vice President JD Vance led an outcry for his return.

"He will be brought back. To err is human, to forgive divine," Musk wrote on X in response to a post by Vance calling for Marko Elez, a 25-year-old software engineer, to rejoin DOGE.

Bill Maher called on stand-up comic Louis C.K. to be allowed to return to mainstream entertainment after his sexual misconduct scandal during the height of the #MeToo movement.

"Isn’t it time everyone just went: ‘OK, It wasn’t a cool thing to do, but it’s been long enough and welcome back.’ Enough!" Maher said on a new episode of his podcast, "Club Random."

"I mean for Christ’s sake, it’s not the end of the world," Maher told comedian Bill Burr in a conversation on cancel culture. 

Last night, stand-up comic Shane Gillis hosted Saturday Night Live – America’s premier, if long-past-its-best, sketch-comedy show – a little more than four years after he was fired from its cast, in one of the swiftest and most savage cancellations the industry had ever witnessed.

Saturday Night Live opens in Washington DC, at a post-South Carolina primary victory celebration for Donald Trump. Over drinks and appetizers, Republican senators James Risch (Mikey Day), Marco Rubio (Marcello Hernandez), Tim Scott (Devon Walker), and Lindsey Graham (James Austin Johnson) lament the personal and professional humiliations that Trump has heaped upon them – killing Risch’s Ukraine funding bill, dubbing Rubio ‘Little Marco’ and making fun of his egregious sweating, endangering Graham’s life by doxing him – even as they continue to endorse and grovel before him.

Comedian Shane Gillis hosted “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, leading some to criticize the famed TV sketch show for giving a platform to the controversial comedian, who has a well-documented history of making racist comments.

HBO has cut ties with pro-Russian actor Milos Bikovic after he was initially hired to co-star in Season 3 of its hit series “The White Lotus.”

“We have decided to part ways with Miloš Biković and the role will be recast,” an HBO spokesperson said in a terse announcement.

Bikovic, 36, a Serbian actor, was awarded Russian citizenship in 2021 and has starred in several Russian films, including “Sunstroke” (2014).