In Mr. Gutfeld’s telling, his teacher bit and the reaction it spawned are part of the grand plan that has delivered him to the ratings summit of late night, to the surprise and occasional horror of many former colleagues and industry stalwarts. To their eye, he has completed a baffling march from Fox’s 3 a.m. slot to a nightly forum where consciously hacky jokes about women drivers and Hunter Biden’s addictions garner a larger audience than “The Tonight Show.”

But the left’s timid and often self-serious vision of late night, Mr. Gutfeld suggested, is precisely why few saw him coming — and why some assumed the teacher rant was sincere.

“Recreational beliefs,” he said during a 90-minute interview, describing the entertainment value of defending the indefensible, within reason — whether or not he believed what he was saying, whether or not his audience of nearly two million believed that he believed it.

[The NYT calls it “insult conservatism.” Most people would call it “comedy,” a product that is singularly lacking in the clapter universe of modern late-night television. — Ed]