New
episodes start up next Sunday! For now,
props to John for the excellent format he established for his show. Premiering in a TV landscape that already had
multiple news satire shows airing throughout the week (not to mention all the
late-night talk shows likely to deliver punchlines about the day’s top stories
in their monologues,) it would have been impossible to air a half-hour show
once a week that felt like it was “keeping up” with the news. John’s approach is much savvier. Just a few quick highlights (stories too big
to miss or less-known snippets that other shows aren’t talking about) before
turning it over to the main event.
Taking an in-depth, tremendously well-researched look at a single issue for
15 to 20 minutes is a just great tack to take.
It makes the show stand out from others of its kind, often turns a spotlight
on topics I don’t necessarily understand as well I should, and always leaves me
feeling much more well-informed.
Monday, September 19 – Plenty on the
explosion in Chelsea. I liked Trevor’s slightly-impressed
reaction that so many New Yorkers were mainly just annoyed at roads being
closed, subways not running normally, and being woken up with a mass-text alert
about the suspected terrorist (complete with frustrated ISIS members realizing
they could’ve just been mass-texting Americans all this time.) Michelle had a nice piece on burkini bans in
several French cities. She covered the
hypocrisy of dictating what women can wear on the grounds that their religion
shouldn’t dictate what they wear, and she made a shrewd point that their “fighting
terrorism” means they’d prefer that their “terror suspects” blend in more. Guests Ben Schnetzer and Nick Jonas promoted their movie
The Goat. The film (a dark story about fraternity
hazing) brought them to toxic masculinity and the damaged caused when young men
feel like they can’t be vulnerable.
Tuesday, September 20 – Trump’s son’s
horrible “Syrian refugees = poisoned Skittles” analogy provided the framework for
the first segment. After eviscerating
Trump Jr.’s factually-devoid fearmongering, Trevor used his own Skittles
analogies to “helpfully explain” Trump’s recent charity scandals and derisive
“finish” of birtherism. I loved Trevor’s
comment that Trump was basically saying, “Let’s forget the racist thing I’ve
been saying for the past five years so we can all focus on my new racist ideas!” Jordan’s field piece asking Trump supporters
for their conspiracy theories (Obama being a secret Muslim, Obama causing 9/11,
Clinton having a secret double) was staggering; I know they’ve done plenty of
these stories and pretty much proved that there’s no bottom with this stuff,
but it still shocks me. Jada Pinkett-Smith was the guest, talking Gotham
and the possibilities now that she and her husband are both in the DC universe.
Wednesday, September 21 – Whoa, central
Minnesota on The Daily Show! And… surprise, it’s about Islamaphobia! Much love for Trevor snarking on the
restaurant owner defending his “Muslims Get Out” sign with such gems as, “I don’t
mean my place of business, I mean America!” Fantastic response from Trevor to the police
shooting of Terence Crutcher. I’m amazed
at how he can keep doing these stories that bring new insights to the same old
horror. Here, he talked about what
happens when police only interact with Black communities in the context of
crime and called out the U.S. for the phrase “all-Black high school” not
raising any eyebrows. Adam talked about
the Wells Fargo cross-selling scandal and all the audacity that went down there
– decent piece. Talk show host/media
empress Wendy Williams was the guest, and I enjoyed watching Trevor’s fanboy
tendencies coming out in full force.
Thursday, September 22 – Quick bit on Mark
Zuckerberg’s plan to “cure all disease” – I laughed at Trevor’s admiration of
his “billionaire T-shirt” – before the story shifted to Facebook as a news
source. The primary news source, in
fact, for a very large percentage of people.
Trevor highlighted the problems with this, like the fact that nothing on
Facebook needs verification and that its “suggested for you” algorithm creates
an echo chamber that only gives people what they already want to hear. He also shared some choice clips from Tomi Lahren, a far-right commentator whose videos get millions of views from
likeminded Facebookers. I enjoyed the
interview with Lisa Ling discussing her CNN show This is Life. She and Trevor
talked about two episodes, one on mass incarceration and one on policing in
Black communities, and both sounded fascinating.
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