"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Friday, May 6, 2016

News Satire Roundup: May 2nd-May 5th

No John Oliver this week, but I’ll still talk a bit about the show.  One thing I really love is how proactive it is.  In addition to its brilliantly-incisive satire, the show frequently goes beyond commentary and takes tangible action.  I love John’s creation of Jeff the Diseased Lung in a Cowboy Hat – his proposed new mascot for Marlboro – along with the actual billboards and T-shirts he’s made/publicized with Jeff’s image.  I’m still a little stunned that he founded a fake church, not to make fun of religion, but to demonstrate how criminally easy it is for crooked televangelists to get tax exemptions (all of John’s donations, by the way, went to Doctors Without Borders.)  I adore the video he made for a Days of Our Lives-loving teenage refugee from Syria, in which her favorite character is resurrected and her favorite couple reunited; they then dramatically discuss the refugee crisis and mention the girl several times by name.  Aw…


Monday, May 2 – I liked the first story, on people who choose/are chosen by Trump.  Mike Tyson’s recent endorsement was accompanied by a reminder of That Time Trump Dismissed the Woman Accusing Tyson of Rape, and one of his campaign staff has worked in the past with various genocidal dictators collectively known as “the torturers’ lobby.”  Trump sure is making it easy for Trevor to keep up the African dictator jokes.  Guest Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s “Live from Westeros” bit on Trump the Mad King was apt as well.  Ronny had a decent field piece on a possible contested convention.  I like that, as much as the show is horrified by the thought of a Trump presidency, it still dwells on the idea that every primary vote could be thrown out if the delegate numbers don’t add up.  Interesting how Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s interview focused mostly on politics, discussing Denmark’s perception of the U.S. election insanity.

Tuesday, May 3 – We eased into things with a woman accusing Starbucks of putting too much ice in her coffee, a problem that Trevor rightfully pointed out is as first-world as they come.  The show then moved on to Cruz’s uninspiring showing in Indiana, featuring tons of Trump supporters harassing Cruz in exceedingly juvenile ways; I laughed at the graphic of Chief Justice Roberts pulling the “too slow!” trick with the Bible at a hypothetical Cruz inauguration.  I’m glad the show covered the prospective bill requiring women to register for the draft.  It’s so crazy that the whole thing started as a sarcastic remark aimed at blocking the move to allow women in combat positions, and Trevor captured that “this is how governance happens?” dumbfoundedness really well.  I enjoyed guest Josh King, who discussed all that goes into planning out and orchestrating a presidential candidate’s campaign narrative.

Wednesday, May 4 – Well, we’ve come to it; Trump is the presumptive nominee.  I liked Trevor’s comment that the last time a non-politician secured a party nomination, it was because he “beat Hitler.”  I also liked his callback to people asking if he was “ready” to cover American politics, asking now if we were ready for it.  Hasan’s field piece on wage inequality with the US women’s soccer team mostly covered the same info the show presented before, but I liked that we heard it this time from the team members themselves.  Their “no, we are not kidding you with this crap” attitudes were palpable.  Plus, bonus Billie Jean King!  The guest was Bethany Cosentino from the band Best Coast. She talked about sexism in the music industry, from sexist assumptions to harassment to assault, and her position as an unexpected spokesperson for the movement to speak up about it.

Thursday, May 5 – At this point, it does not surprise me in the least that, after all his raving about the border wall, Trump’s attempt to garner critical Latin@ voters consists of tweeting a picture of a taco bowl and the words “I love Hispanics!”  Wow.  Great piece on looking critically at Sanders’s policies, with everyone from correspondents to the cameraman desperately trying to silence Trevor to avoid pissing off Sanders supporters.  I especially liked Desi likening it to poking a hornets’ nest with a lot of student loan debt.  I’ve been enjoying Ronny a lot lately, and he kept it up with a story on assorted consequences of the current selfie obsession.  In what world does it not occur to Snapchat that creating a photo feature that clocks your speed might play a part in car accidents?  Musical performance from a band called The Heavy.  The bands on the show don’t normally hold my interest too much, but I liked these guys pretty well.

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