Eric Rueb/Providence Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images/ABC
Whenever Barstool Sports would get in trouble for something they said or did over the last couple of decades, founder Dave Portnoy would respond by arguing their behavior is protected free speech because they’re a comedy website. “We’re a comedy site and have made fun of every single race, religion, creed and gender. We’ve made fun of it equally,” he once said.
That logic and staunch defense of protected comedy speech is not being extended to Jimmy Kimmel, however.
Racing to defend the decision made by the Trump administration in the hours following the news, Dave Portnoy took to Twitter to share his opinion on Kimmel being taken off the air, saying it’s merely a consequence of his actions.
According to Portnoy, the Kimmel situation isn’t “cancel culture” but simply the consequences of his actions. That isn’t true either, however, as ABC did not independently decide to suspend Kimmel, but instead did so after facing pressure from the federal government, specifically the FCC.
“With Kimmel getting canned I’m seeing lots of people talking about the hypocrisy of cancel culture. To me Cancel culture is when people go out of their way to dig up old tweets, videos etc looking for dirt on somebody they don’t like in an effort to get them fired,” Portnoy tweeted on Wednesday night.
“Like if Kimmel got canceled for shit he did on the Man Show that would be cancel culture. But when a person says something that a ton of people find offensive, rude, dumb in real time and then that person is punished for it that’s not cancel culture. That is consequences for your actions.”
That take on the matter seems to be at direct odds with Portnoy’s previous stance on what kind of free speech comedy allows. He also made no mention of Fox News host Brian Kilmeadee, who angered plenty of people just days earlier by saying that homeless people should be euthanized en masse, which resulted in Kilmeade simply apologizing. Given the time between the two instances, many have been drawing comparisons between Kimmel and Kilmeade and the different sets of rules they seem to be living under.
In 2020, for example, after old videos of him using the N-word resurfaced, Portnoy railed against “cancel cops” and said he’s uncancellable, using the pretext of being a comedy website as a defense to use the N word.
“What’s terrible is altering and cutting up a comedy sites video and giving no other context,” Portnoy said at the time
I asked FCC chair @BrendanCarrFCC if he had any new comment now that ABC has pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s show, and he sent me this GIF pic.twitter.com/ljz60FzHN4
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 17, 2025
Barstool Sports employees call out founder Dave Portnoy for rationalizing Jimmy Kimmel’s indefinite suspension
Portnoy’s take was pretty swiftly rejected, with even employees at his company calling him out over his take, including from one employee who is a military veteran.
Nope. https://t.co/PPZF59BnAA
— Kirk Minihane (@kirkmin) September 18, 2025
Will you also bend the knee when this shit eventually happens to Barstool?
— Rear Admiral (@RearAdBsBlog) September 18, 2025
Kimmel’s show was absolute unwatchable trash but you can be the most die hard conservative MAGA and still think this is overreach and pretty insane. Wish people didn’t let political affiliation blur how bananas things are right now.
— Eric Nathan (@BarstoolNate) September 18, 2025
At the time of this writing, Kimmel himself has yet to make a public statement on his indefinite suspension.