News Satire Roundup: June 12th-June 15th

Sunday, June 12 – First up was Comey’s testimony.  I enjoyed the montage of Fox News folks unsure how to spin it in Trump’s favor, Trump’s baffling claim that the testimony was full of lies and completely vindicated him, and John’s endless supply of “tall Comey” jokes.  The main story was on the U.K.elections and the upcoming Brexit negotiations.  The bizarre analogies newscasters gave to describe the difference between “hard” and “soft” Brexit were indeed bizarre, and John, naturally did a much better job of laying out the importance of the difference and just how difficult it’s gong to be to figure out everything that needs to be settled in the next two years.  He also had some scathing remarks for Theresa May and delighted over the more offbeat elements of the election, culminating in an appearance from oddball candidate “Lord Buckethead” himself.

Monday, June 13 – After a quick update on Saddam Hussein’s favorite diva (it was Mary J. Blige, by the way,) it was straight into the aftermath of the Comey testimony.  Trevor covered the lies/vindicated tweet as well as Trump’s eager offer to testify himself.  The show also looked at the “top five” Republican defenses for Trump’s behavior with Comey, which were staggering.  Awesome jokes here – I loved Trevor’s in-depth explanation of how you know the phrase “I hope” is a threat, and his plan for undocumented immigrants to use Paul Ryan’s “I’m new to this” excuse was great.  Next was a piece on people in the Trump camp being quick to brush off his tweets to the news media, the old “Twitter doesn’t count” routine.  Roxane Gay was the guest, and her discussion with Trevor – about her new memoir about her body/her weight – was honest and unflinching.

Tuesday, June 14 – First up was the hubbub over a production of Julius Caesar with a Trump look-alike; good on Trevor for bringing up a past Obama-themed production.  The next story looked at a few different things, contrasting news “theater” with other, less exciting news.  There were the rumors (and that’s all for now – rumors) of Trump wanting to fire Robert Mueller and Jeff Sessions’s testimony before Congress, in which he hamfistedly wriggled out of all manner of questions.  But, Trevor emphasized, while the media has been eating up these stories, there was little mention of a vote to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act.  Roy reported on the latest news about the Russian hackers, unwittingly suggesting that U.S. hackers need to step their game up.  I really enjoyed the interview with Selenis Leyva from Orange is the New Black; she had some nice stuff to share about the show and the work she’s done with incarcerated women.

Wednesday, June 15 – The show opened, naturally, with the shooting in Virginia.  Trevor applauded the bipartisan unity in Congress and shook his head at Newt Gringrich’s tasteless response.  Good story on the sexual harassment issues at Uber, marked by a sexist joke caught on tape during a meeting about addressing the issue.  Michelle came on to dispel the idea that women talking/interrupting more than men, despite the persistence of that myth.  Next, Trevor floated a few ideas for Fox News now that they’re dropping the “Fair and Balanced” slogan (“4chan for Old People” was my favorite) before moving onto Trump’s “birthday present” of being sued by 200 congressmen.  I loved Trevor’s riff on the word “emoluments,” as well as his comments on the emphatic wording about it in the Constitution.  Fun, bonkers interview with rapper Vince Staples, who was all over the place with random facts/tidbits – very entertaining.

Thursday, June 16 – Trevor touched briefly on the investigation into possible obstruction of justice before turning to the Senate’s shadowy dealings re: the healthcare bill.  I agree that not including any Democrats in the committee for the bill and refusing to let them even see it but still saying they’re “including” Democrats in the process is gangsta, and with Mitch McConnell, we got to play another round of “watch how the politician completely reverses their stance when it’s something their side is doing.”  Hasan had a great segment on the Authorization for Use of Military Force.  Very informative – I had a ballpark understanding of the law but didn’t know all the specifics.  I enjoyed the Just Because interview with Whoopi Goldberg, although I could noticeably feel the editing.  I was especially interested in her comments on The View and people’s perceptions of relationships between women; wished we’d gotten more of that.