No John
Oliver this week – under the current administration, it seems like any time one
of these shows takes a week off, there’s a mountain of news that passes it by,
and as a once-a-week show to begin with, Last
Week Tonight, doesn’t even try to go in-depth in keeping up with all the
Trump craziness. Instead, John has taken
to mostly doing his “this week in Trump…” catch-all during the opening
segment. In these pieces, I like that
he’s introduced a new running gag based on the idea that “President Trump” are
two words that will never sound natural together. His examples of similarly-incongruous word
pairings are consistently great, from the unsettling (“Walrus Porn,” “Baby
Pubes,”) to the shade-throwing (“Dr. Oz,” “Wolf Blitzer,”) to the outright non
sequitur (my personal favorite, “Horse Pope.”)
It starts out each Trump story with a reminder not to let any of this
seem like business as usual.
Monday, March 27 – Nice point in the
story about two girls in leggings needing to change before boarding a United flight – since the healthcare bill didn’t go to a vote, we can afford to be “outraged”
by “leggings sexism.” Speaking of the
healthcare bill… Loved Trevor’s mirth at Trump trying to blame Democrats for
the bill’s failure, and Trump’s “subtle” back-and-forth on Paul Ryan’s
culpability was ridiculous. Another
blurb on Trump golfing, this time looking at the rather silly attempts at
subterfuge to suggest that he’s not
golfing. The Fox News “news alert”
covering for him was crazy. Trevor’s
right – “the President is spending the weekend working” shouldn’t be news. John Singleton was the guest. After the obligatory geek-out over Boyz n the Hood, Trevor talked to him
about his new series Rebel, which
explores the tightrope walked by Black police officers who tend to be viewed as
traitors by both groups they belong to.
Tuesday, March 28 – Good jokes on Trump’s
executive order on climate; I loved the crack about Trump destroying the world
in order to get out of being president.
The show touched on the proposed budget, with Jordan using stacks of
cans to compare US defense spending with other nations. Taking from the EPA and the State and Justice
Departments (to stay abreast of “3-can Mexico”) was a ludicrous visual, especially
when Jordan added the dust specks representing PBS and Meals on Wheels. For the latter, Roy had a goofy field piece on
militarizing Meals on Wheels to trick Trump into thinking it’s defense. Quick story on how Trump has “shone a blacklight” on American politics, things that we’ve always believed were secure
but, it turns out, aren’t actually guaranteed.
The guest, author Helene Cooper, discussed her book on Africa’s first
female president and what Liberian women undertook to see a woman in power.
Wednesday, March 29 – We opened with a few
jokes about Trump not throwing the first pitch on Opening Day, including
comparing his pitching to his healthcare plan.
After the executive order rolling back climate regulations, Trevor
looked at Trump’s campaign promises to bring back coal jobs, despite the fact
that those jobs aren’t coming back for numerous reasons. I liked the point about how finding a way to
shift these workers toward renewable energy industries is both more feasible
(there are way more jobs there) and innovative (planning for a cleaner future;)
the analogy with JFK cracked me up. Roy
and Hasan hawked Third Month Mania a little more. Even though I think the Trump-tweet focus is
better than last year’s, I still feel it eats up time I’d rather spend on news
stories. I’d never heard of the guest,
rapper Residente, but I thought he was great.
His new album musically examining his cultural roots sounds super
interesting.
Thursday, March 30 – Paul Ryan lamely
trying to laugh off the whole Trump/Judge Jeanine thing was as painful as it
was hilarious. Another Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That, this time featuring Ivana Trump’s now-official White House
position, the impeachment and arrest of South Korea’s corrupt president (and
fond fantasy about what that would be like,) Trump declaring war on hard-liners
within his own party, and the not-exactly-a-victory of of North Carolina
overturning their bathroom bill. With
Rachel Dolezal back in the news, Trevor asked Michelle about being a white
person who’s frequently assumed to be Black and how, wonder of wonders, she’s
never felt tempted to pass herself off as such.
Excellent interview with Chris Hayes about his new book on policing and
the Black community, positing that the Black experience of police is similar to
how a colonized country is treated by its occupying force.
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