Samantha Bee went just a tad too far recently on her Late Night show on TBS and implied that a young man with stage 4 brain cancer has a “Nazi haircut” which is to say clipped short on the sides and kept longish up top. The slam took place on a snarky segment about CPAC where Bee’s correspondent went to the convention and make snide comments.
The young man in question is Kyle Coddington, seen working on a laptop. Coddington writes for an online magazine called Onset. He was diagnosed with a tumor on his brain stem last November. His prognosis is rather grim, but a miracle is always possible.
The implication that one can be pegged as a Nazi because of one’s physical appearance was juvenile and outrageous but in Coddington’s case wide of the mark. Far from being an alt-right, white nationalist Trump lover, Coddington aligns himself with the #NeverTrump movement.
Bee has offered a weak apology on her show’s Twitter feed. “We deeply apologize for offending @_that_kyle in our CPAC segment. We only learned of his condition today & have removed him from the piece.” She has no apology for being cruel, heartless, and presumptuous, however.
Bee, for those who have never heard of her, used to be a correspondent on “The Daily Show” back when Jon Stewart graced it with his smirking. She specialized in interviews with guests that were heavily edited to make said interviewee look as foolish as possible.
Around the time Stewart retired from late night TV, Bee got her own show, “Full Frontal,” where she maintains left wing snark as entertainment.
Bee should, if she was really sorry for being offensive, take a hiatus from her show, go to some place very quiet and far away, and reconsider her life choices. A Tweet non-apology apology shouldn't cut it.
But she will probably remain on the air for two reasons.
First, she’s a leftist. Leftists get to be cruel so long as it is to conservatives.
Second, hardly anyone watches her show anyway. Driving her off the air would be pointless.
"Full Frontal" has just started its second season.