Published: February 5, 2026
By Jim Lichtman

From the man who invented The Tonight Show.
What Steve Allen understood—long before humor became sharper and more performative—is that laughter can be light and still leave a mark. His humor was humane and light, an invitation, not an attack. In a moment when so much public conversation feels joyless, this feels less like nostalgia and more like a reminder that laughter can still be generous, and sanity can still be funny.
Go ahead, try not to smile or laugh, I dare you.
Comments
Recent Commentaries

After the Fall
November 9, 2026

IT’S OVER!
November 5, 2026

What Kennedy Asked of Us
November 2, 2026

October 1962
October 28, 2026

The Speech That Never Happened
October 27, 2026

It Doesn’t Take a Rocket Genius to Recognize the Danger
October 22, 2026

November 4, 2026
October 20, 2026

Has America Lost Its Way?
October 16, 2026

All The President’s Targets
October 13, 2026

Integrity Doesn’t Require a Megaphone
October 12, 2026
Read More Articles
The Latest... And Sometimes Greatest
WHOSE PURPOSE DOES THIS SERVE?
“He’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers. As it should be,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said of Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of murdering...
October 9, 2026
Choreographer of Disaster
Nowhere is there a greater metaphor for Donald Trump’s policies, priorities, and unfulfilled ego than the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington’s cultural cathedral...
October 5, 2026
I Am Not a Politician, and I Have No Partisan Loyalties
This is the opening statement delivered by Jack Smith, former Special Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice, before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September...
October 2, 2026
A Man of Incorruptible Integrity
Whom can we trust? Who has the credibility to lead? Integrity still matters, and there are examples worth remembering. In The Buying of Congress, Charles...
September 29, 2026
HUMAN VALUES: NOT SPECIFIED
“We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade.”—Evan Hubinger, Anthropic’s Alignment Science Lead,...
September 23, 2026
You Can’t Do That.
BREAKING: News organizations responded forcefully on Monday after President Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. They went to federal court—and,...
September 21, 2026


