Monday, January 16 – Interesting choice
to juxtapose Steve Harvey and John Lewis’s very different approaches to
Trump. Harvey (with Roy doing a pretty
good impression) emphasized the importance of working with Trump, yet simultaneously blamed Obama for making him do
it. Lewis, meanwhile was not having it,
and was ludicrously called “all talk, no action” by Trump for his comments; I
thoroughly enjoyed Trevor’s indignation at that one. Two guests, the first of which was journalist
David Farhenthold, who famously broke the Access Hollywood tape and has dug
deeply into Trump’s alleged charitable giving.
I really liked his description of what it was like to get the Access
Hollywood tape. Bryshere Gray, of Empire, was the second guest. Despite not watching Empire, I enjoyed him a lot.
It seemed apparent from the interview that he’s really got his
priorities straight and considers himself blessed for his opportunities.
Tuesday, January 17 – We opened on
controversial footwear: boots that
inadvertently leave swastikas in the footprints and flip-flops featuring
Gandhi’s picture. I loved Trevor saying
you had to call Nazi boots “alt-footwear” now and challenging Gandhi’s flawless
image (especially when Hasan tried to return like for like by criticizing Nelson
Mandela – “Nelson Mandela was perfect!!!!”) Next was a story on Obama’s final days inoffice, and Trevor’s analogy of Obama “baby-proofing” the presidency was
surprisingly apt. Lewis had a great Back
in Black on Trump’s impending inauguration.
I laughed heartily at the schadenfreude of no entertainers wanting to
perform and visibly shuddered at the “theme” description of “soft
sensuality.” John Zimmer, founder of
Lyft, was the guest. He and Trevor
talked ride-sharing, self-driving cars, and the future of driving as an
industry.
Wednesday, January 18 – The jokes tended
toward sophomoric, but I did enjoy hearing about the topless protester in Spain
who crashed the unveiling of a Trump wax statue while shouting, “Grab the
patriarchy by the balls!” Glad they
covered Betsy DeVos’s confirmation hearing, which makes my head spin. My favorite parts were a) that the show
called the school in Wyoming to see if they have a gun to protect against bears
and b) Trevor’s “I’d like to enter that shade into the record,” after Franken’s
takedown of DeVos. A blurb on Trump’s historically-low approval rating (below post-Katrina
George W. Bush!) turned into a one-on-one with Michelle over how badly Trump
doesn’t want to be president. I loved
the guest, America’s UN ambassador Samantha Power. I think she did a really nice job of breaking
down some of the challenges of her work while highlighting the importance of
finding common ground in this global society.
Thursday, January 19 – I liked Trevor’s
point about the obviously-staged photo of Trump “writing” his inaugural address,
acknowledging it as yet another “promo” from our reality TV
president-elect. Interesting story on
recent disruptions of news feeds following mentions of Russia. Again, Trevor’s point was well-made, that whether
or not Russia was responsible isn’t the only concern – that it’s also about how
just the threat of possible Russian
interference undermines our faith. Another
two-guest night. The first was
journalist Scott Conroy, who talked about the importance of having embedded
journalists for presidential campaigns, who see what’s happening on the ground instead
of in a studio. Also interviewed was
James McAvoy, discussing his new movie Split.
It was an easy joke, but I enjoyed
Trevor wondering if M. Night Shyamalan’s regular life is a constant series of
twists – “Surprise! Breakfast!” was a
great line.
Friday, January 20 – Extra show for
inauguration day. Trevor touched on the
low turnout and dark negativity of Trump’s address (with “American carnage” as
the obvious standout.) He also used
Michelle Obama’s facial expressions to catalog the events of the day and bid
the Obamas a wistful farewell. Comparing
the day to the moment in a Disney movie when the villain takes over, he segued
into a bouncy musical number about how it’s time for Trump to have to actually “do
shit” – tonally bizarre for the night, but I enjoyed it. Roy talked about how Trump’s presidency will put a further shine on memories of Obama, and Desi gave us a skit of a mother
spiraling out as she tried to reassure her young son about the
inauguration. MSNBC’s Joy Reid was the
guest. In discussing her new book
looking at Obama’s speeches, she and Trevor contrasted Obama and Trump’s public
addresses (spoiler alert – there were no similarities.)
No comments:
Post a Comment