No Last Week Tonight this week. As I said on the last News Satire Roundup,
it’s tough whenever one of these shows is off-air because the news is so
relentless. But, in the absence of new
John this week, I want to mention another aspect of his show that I love. I really appreciate his inclusion of small
bits that are purely there for happiness.
There’s a lot of troubling stuff in the world, and Last Week Tonight’s in-depth main stories explore some especially
disheartening subjects. John doesn’t
pull any punches on these topics, but he also recognizes that people can get
dragged down hopelessness. As such, he
frequently takes time to offer up joyous, silly, off-the-wall things just
because. One of the most recent has been
the green-screen traffic zebras, but I’ve also loved, among others, the show’s
increasingly-bizarre ideas for city mascot costumes and a sloth in pajamas for
no other reason than that we needed to see it.
Cheers for that, John.
Tuesday, May 30 – After touching on
the U.S. Representative candidate who bodyslammed a reporter and giving a quick update on the Russia investigation (now with added Kushner!), it was straight
into Trump’s international trip. Using
Trump’s hands as a theme, Trevor hit on all the obvious moments: the “glowing orb,” the handshake with Macron,
Melania slapping his hand away (re: Fox
News’s obfuscation thereof, I loved Trevor’s joke about Fox News not
recognizing what rejection from a woman looks like,) and shoving the prime
minister of Montenegro. He also looked
at reactions from Europe after the NATO summit, with Jordan weighing in on how
Trump’s America-first attitude could impact the rest of the world. Great guest – Elizabeth Ford, who treats
mental illness in incarcerated populations.
She had some moving words about finding everyone’s humanity.
Wednesday, May 31 – The show opened on “covfefe,”
which served as a nice entrance to spin in the administration. With some in the Trump camp falling over
themselves to explain how brilliant that Twitter typo was, Trevor segued into
Sean Spicer’s propaganda-sounding praise for Trump’s recent trip. Trevor naturally found parallels with
authoritarians (such as Kim Jong-un’s body being so perfect, he never has to
use the bathroom!) and offered examples of people on his team going out of
their way to paint him as, not just a great president, but superhumanly amazing
in all regards. Michelle talked about Wonder Woman and “the future of female
superhero movies” riding on its shoulders.
I loved her graphic about a few of the (many, many) “man movies” that
got made while waiting for Wonder Woman. Nice interview with Logan Browning –
definitely a check in the “get off your butt and watch Dear White People” column.
Thursday, June 1 – The big story was of
course Trump pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord. I liked the joke about Trump “teasing” the
announcement like an episode of The
Bachelor, and I was struck by how genuine Trevor’s reaction seemed to Trump’s
remarks about the world “laughing” at the US for the deal. It’s still part of the joke, but just the way
he says it, “Oh, Donald, no one laughing at you – about that, I mean…” has such a ring of “this is why you’ve done what you’ve just done? Why?”
to it. Comedian Jim Jefferies discussed
Trump’s cabinet from an Australian perspective.
I loved his point that it’s a really
bad sign that he feels he has to know so much about the inner minutiae of the
administration. Al Franken was the
guest. Naturally, the climate
announcement was a big focus of the interview, but he also talked about a few
of the less partisan interactions among the Senate.
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