A former MSNBC journalist who once got a guest banned from CNN for a tasteless joke about violence at his expense would like you to know that he thinks tasteless jokes about violence at the president’s expense are perfectly fine, even when the president just faced his third serious assassination attempt in less than two years.
If you rememberMehdi Hasanat all, it’s either for a low-rated MSNBC show that got canceled in 2023 or him getting conservative pundit Ryan James Girdusky canceled in 2024 for a joke on a CNN panel in whichhe saidhe hoped Hasan’s “beeper doesn’t go off” — a reference to Israel’s successful operation targeting Hezbollah leadership using explosive beepers.
I think we can all agree that joking about someone’s death on air is pretty tasteless. And Hasan certainly made sure Girdusky was drummed from polite media society and never letting anyone forget what a horrible outrage had been perpetrated upon him.
“I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.”
A year ago today, a racist tried to make a ‘joke’ about me being killed by Israel. It was the 1st time I’ve ever walked off of live TV. That night CNN said they’d ban the racist from their air. But in the year since, I myself haven’t been…https://t.co/ncyXXbgtgC
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan)October 28, 2025
This is Hasan complaining about ita year after it happenedand still trembling in outrage on the other side of the screen. Nobody’s seriously trying to target Hasan, mind you, unless you’re talking about professionally. The man has bounced around gigs because of his lack of audience and is currently fronting his own independent outlet, Zeteo News, which about all of six people have heard of.
But no, you shouldn’t make a joke on TV about killing someone, even if nobody is going to kill them.
In other news, Hasan is also worked up about the fact that Melania and Donald Trump can’t take a joke from Jimmy Kimmel about killing Donald Trump — when people really do keep on trying to kill Donald Trump.
For those of you who missed it, here’s the “joke” from Kimmel, delivered two days before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, about “expectant widow” Melania Trump:
Source: VidNews » Feed
