"This show is not important. What's important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this," said Jimmy Kimmel in the roaring, emotional and hilarious monologue that marked his return to ABC late night on Tuesday. Repeatedly interrupted by standing ovations from the studio audience, Kimmel directly confronted FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, President Donald Trump, and the authoritarian forces that had sought to silence him -- and questioned their commitment to the nation's ideals. "They tried to coerce the affiliates who run our show, in the cities that you live in, to take my show off the air. That’s not legal. That’s not American, that is un-American, and it’s so dangerous."

Kimmel had much more to say -- mourning the terrible murder of Charlie Kirk, praising the Christian forgiveness expressed by his wife Erika, deploring the brutal stupidity of Brendan Carr and Donald Trump and hoping that this moment of unified support for the First Amendment on left and right will endure.

It is one of the greatest moments in American television history, so do not miss. And then there's Robert DeNiro in a side-splitting cameo as the "new chairman of the FCC," who has a few choice comments about his old pal Trump.