Monday, January 25 – I liked the Republican candidate catchup story. Of course
Trump would announce he could shoot someone and not lose any support, and I
love the idea of Bush mailing people videos because he thinks that’s how going
viral works. The section on Fiorina was
the strongest, especially the comment that bringing a bunch of appropriated
preschoolers onstage while you describe un-kid-friendly abortion details
suggests you’re not interested in protecting children after they’re born. I disliked
Ronny’s piece on a same-sex couple who obtained legal rights through adoption
and are now struggling to overturn it and get married. He wasn’t a good choice here, although he was
better playing off the guy spewing homophobic false equivalencies. The interview with comedian Gad Elmaleh was
all right, nothing special. My favorite
part was Trevor downplaying the number of languages he speaks so as not to show
up his guest.
Tuesday, January 26 – Great jokes in the
ISIS story. I like the show’s penchant
for bizarrely “normal” aspects of the group, and “ISIS dating site” was too
insane to pass up. I can’t believe the
term “jihottie” exists. I like the coverage
of the Democratic town hall, especially the “subtext subtitles” over one of Clinton’s
responses. My highlight, though, was the
interview with Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson. I’d have liked them to go further (check out
the extended interview online for more,) but I think the time spent addressing criticisms
of BLM was both smart and a sad commentary on perceptions of the group. People get so caught up shouting, “All Lives
Matter!!!” or, “If you wanna stop violence, talk to the Black people committing
crimes!!!” that they don’t hear what the group is really about, and McKesson’s
succinct, articulate rebuttals to every comment simultaneously explained why
BLM is so important.
Wednesday, January 27 – Great show for me,
firing on all cylinders. After all of Trump's general posturing,
backing out of the Republican debate is a total punk move (as the show
delightfully pointed out,) and the African dictator callback was much
appreciated. The Planned Parenthood story was terrific, especially
Trevor's obvious delight at the outcome and his continued emphasis on how
remarkable it was given the numerous ways the deck had been stacked against PP.
I also loved the crack about a grand jury “indicting a ham sandwich…
unless it was a cop” – I really like that commentary on/jokes about race come
up even in segments that aren’t “about” race.
The show is great at keeping that subject present. The interview with Jerry Seinfeld was
amusing. I got a kick out of Seinfeld's treatise on how great it is to be
61 and the accompanying evidence he gave for that claim.
Thursday, January 28 – Trevor did a nice
job highlighting the ridiculousness of the Joseph-Fiennes-playing-Michael-Jackson debacle, especially on the heels of #OscarsSoWhite. I laughed at him declaring he might have
accepted Meryl Streep being cast instead.
The Cruz-Trump story was somewhere between funny and depressing, the
idea that Republicans are basing their support on who they hate marginally
less. Jordan and Hasan debating that very topic, however, was great, particularly when they discussed which fatal
medical condition was the best analogy for which candidate. I enjoyed Advertisement Tonight, though the
commentary wasn’t as sharp this time.
For me, the most amusing part was putting demographic-specific music on
the Sanders ad. I really liked the
interview with New Yorker contributor
Ryan Lizza – his experiences covering Trump rallies sounded fascinating. I can hardly imagine how bizarre/unnerving
that must be.
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