Sunday, October 30 – John’s dismay at
the FBI investigating more potential
Clinton emails, which is virtually guaranteed not to be finished before the
election, felt cathartic. Like him, I’m
ready for the whole mess to just be over.
I thought the main story was great.
It was on school segregation, which still occurs with depressing
frequency. John explained how segregated
district lines from racist housing practices were specifically left out of
federal desegregation mandates in the ‘60s and had horrible statistics to back
up why this absolutely matters. The
montage of 21st-century white parents railing against the prospect
of Black and Latin@ students from the next district being bussed in was so ugly
– such open racism is just chilling. The
show wrapped with a “Why is This Still a Thing?” on Tuesday voting (turns out,
it’s so farmers in the 1800s could travel to distant polling places without
having to miss church on Sunday.)
Monday, October 31 – In lieu of a
regular episode, we got a “pirate broadcast” in the abandoned wreck of the Daily Show studio after nearly four
years of a hypothetical Trump presidency, the gimmick being that Trevor emerged
from hiding to implore people to vote and prevent another four years of
hell. Overall, I’d say I appreciated the
episode more than I enjoyed it – it wasn’t as funny or as sharp as usual, but I
liked the concept and the ambition of it.
Some of the jokes about how society collapsed under Trump were pretty
good. I liked the clip of John Oliver
being carted away by the police in the middle of a story, and Desi’s bit about
women having to wear electronic bracelets that assigned them attractiveness ratings (and the rights granted for each – as an 8, Desi could vote and voice
her opinions to men if she raised her hand) was excellent.
Tuesday, November 1 – After a goofy clip
of Obama uncoolly dancing to “Thriller,” Trevor dove into the latest Clinton email mess. Predictably, much was made
of Anthony Weiner’s tie to the story – I laughed so hard at Trevor’s theory
that this was the penis’s last-ditch effort to keep a vagina out of the White
House. Michelle had a pretty good
one-on-one with Trevor on a couple of health stories. I enjoyed her lambasting the men who dropped
out of a male birth control trial because they couldn’t handle the side
effects, even though, as she pointed out, “medical side effects” is the one
area in which women earn more than men.
And her worries that an uptick in oral cancer among young males (with
some research pointing to HPV) would make men stop going down on women felt
fittingly incredulous. Decent interview
with security advisor Susan Rice; can’t go wrong with a photo of an ambassador
playing catch with the president in the Oval!
Wednesday, November 2 – While hockey is
more popular with Black folks than Trump (and, as Trevor pointed out, it’s the
only sport with a “prison”/penalty box,) Trevor maintained that the reason
Clinton does well with Black voters is that she’s basically “living the Black experience.” As evidence, he cited a)
multiple investigations against her despite no clear proof of wrongdoing, b) an
inherent belief that she’s a criminal, and c) her Black preacher-esque wardrobe. Desi had a so-so field piece trying to get to
the bottom of Trump’s appeal. She
interviewed one of his “regular Joe” colossally-rich supporters, who insisted
that Trump would make America as great as his exclusive country club (after
assuring Desi that the club was “very diverse,” she struggled to name any PoC
who weren’t on the payroll.) Kal Penn
was the guest; he talked about his time working in politics, the fake politics
of Designated Survivor, and his
thoughts on the election.
Thursday, November 4 – Roy showed up to
celebrate the Cubs’ World Series win, clad in his lucky bathrobe still dripping
with game 7 precipitation. Good story on
a handful of Senate races – Trevor looked at several battles that could
potentially lose the Republicans their majority. Some fantastic lines, including, “This
awkward pause brought to you by racism!” and, “Shit’s about to get vague.” I liked the concept of a behind-the-scenes look
at Trump’s “speech writer,” a petulant child that Trump’s staff follows around
to write down his every non-grammatical word.
The execution could have been better, since the kid didn’t quite sell it
for me, but I laughed every time they cut to a clip of Trump delivering the
same words (complete with the “bing bing bings.”)
Common was the guest, discussing his choice to get political in his
latest album. He also talked about
contributing to Ava DuVernay’s documentary The
13th, which I really need to watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment