Last Week Tonight is off for three
weeks, ouch. Comedy-wise, one running
gag I love about the show is John’s descriptions of countries as he leads into
stories about them. Some of my favorites
include Mexico (“spicy Canada,”) Greece (“the most recent Greek tragedy,”)
Denmark (“wrong Norway,” “different Sweden,” and “that’s actually not Finland,”)
Ireland (“Europe’s Boston,”) Ukraine (“currently Russia’s fastest-growing
import,”) United Kingdom (“America’s deadbeat dad,”) Russia (“Earth’s Death Star,”)
North Korea (“alphabetically speaking, the world’s foremost Korea,”) and
Australia (“not just the place where Russell Crowe lives, but very much the
Russell Crowe of countries.”)
Tuesday, July 5th – Laughing at a NASA
scientist who bumps his microphone while talking about the extreme precision of
the Juno probe is an easy joke, but it still cracked me up. A few good lines in the blurb about a
national hot dog-eating contest; I especially liked the difference in
competitive eating between 1980 and 2016.
I was a bit mixed on the latest about Clinton’s emails. There were some interesting points, and
everything about Bill Clinton running across the tarmac to talk to Loretta
Lynch was funny, but I dunno. I feel
like the story didn’t quite have a solid theme.
Trump’s latest tweeting scandal, though, was really well-covered. Sharp jokes, fine commentary, and plenty of
“seriously, how did we get here?” exasperation (also, Corey Lewandowski on CNN
– really?!) I was meh on the guest, Jim Gaffigan. Complaining about how people
aren’t watching his new show didn’t really make me want to watch it.
Wednesday, July 6th – Update on Rio. I loved Trevor’s line about how just living
there is an Olympic sport, and the pivot from Rio to the election was
spot-on. More on Clinton’s emails, which
is increasingly depressing. The bit
about sullying the Clinton name (and the honesty and integrity it “implies”)
was my favorite. And from there, we got
to Trump. Really, a presidential
candidate shouldn’t need to be told
not to praise dictators (Saddam, Putin, Gaddafi, Kim Jong-un, etc.) – that is
so insane. The other Trump story, on his
prospective cabinet, was good, too.
Trump bragging about his “very good brain” is always funny, and the
cabinet full of Trumps repeating his many contradictory stances was a clever
idea. Guest Terry McMillan discussed her
latest novel and representation in literature.
I thought she had some interesting things to say, but the dynamic felt a
little off to me, like she and Trevor were on different wavelengths.
Thursday, July 7th – Excellent,
heartfelt reaction to the police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando
Castile. In the midst of sadness and
frustration, Trevor hit on some very salient points, like a) being pro-Black
doesn’t mean you have to be anti-police and vice versa, b) just because it disproportionately
affects Black men doesn’t make it solely a “Black” problem, and c) it feels
disingenuous that police dismiss the reliability of video only when it shows
evidence of their wrongdoing. I also liked the story on the sexual harassment
allegations made by Gretchen Carlson, formerly of Fox News. The long montage of objectification/misogyny
featured in Fox News shows was especially gross. Julia Stiles was the guest, addressing the
recent police shootings before discussing the new Jason Bourne movie and the real “action scene” she experienced
while shooting it in London.
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