When ABC announced it was indefinitely suspending the late-night Jimmy Kimmel show under severe pressure from the Trump administration, I recalled Vladimir Putin’s deep hostility to Russia’s beloved satirical puppet show “Kukly” (known in English as “Puppets”), which lampooned him as an evil gnome.

A year into his presidency, Putin managed to get the show off the air — proving how threatening political humor is to the egos of authoritarian rulers and their wannabe imitators like Donald Trump.

The suspension of Kimmel reflected Trump’s hostility to any media criticism — even that of comics. The president’s gleeful reaction to Kimmel’s downfall was to call for the cancellation of two other late-night shows.

Any laughs at the president’s expense are apparently as unacceptable as Kukly’s po

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