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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