These days Moore’s IRS-reported income is negative-$350,862 (in 2014) and negative-$221,025 (in 2016). He’s still making movies, but America is yawning. Already there have been two Trump-bashing ones, and each failed spectacularly.
“Michael Moore in TrumpLand,” released in hopes that it would sway the 2016 vote against Trump, grossed $149,000 two years ago. His latest Trump takedown, “Fahrenheit 11/9,” has grossed barely $6 million despite being rolled out nationwide in some 1,700 theaters.
Moore’s brand of mixing comedy with far-left takes on current events was once rare. Now it’s everywhere. When Moore was in his heyday, Leno and Conan O’Brien were apolitical and David Letterman was all about Stupid Human Tricks instead of recycling Democratic propaganda as jokes.
Now, the comic landscape is awash with strident leftism, from Samantha Bee to Trevor Noah to Stephen Colbert. Jimmy Kimmel, formerly the cheerful lout of “The Man Show,” these days coordinates his messaging on health care with Chuck Schumer’s office.
Even Jimmy Fallon is wading into political humor. Many of these comics routinely plot the kind of performance-art stunts that were once Moore’s stock in trade, as when Kimmel sent comic “Jake Byrd” (Tony Barbieri) to crash President Trump’s inauguration.
These guys share Michael Moore’s politics but an important difference is: They’re comedians. Moore isn’t funny enough to be even a passable stand-up, as he proved in his weak “TrumpLand” movie and his equally tepid Broadway show last year.
