Last Week Tonight is off until the end of
the month – as soon as one show comes back, the other leaves! Last week’s spectacular Warren G. Hardin
biopic trailer made me think of another reason to love the show: their constant high-quality cameos from
impressive stars (case in point, the trailer included the likes of Anna
Kendrick, James Cromwell, and, in its own words, “Laura Fucking Linney.”) From “here’s a celebrity to talk to you about
this issue” PSA parodies to spot-on fake trailers, the show consistently pulls
in big names to lend authenticity to the satire. I image it’s equal parts a) enjoying the show
themselves, b) wanting to be a part of something that’s so popular and apt to
go viral, and c) getting a kick out of taking part in the sheer ridiculousness
of it. I think my favorite so far was
the trailer for an “intense action drama” about infrastructure starring Edward
Norton, Steve Buscemi, and Vincent D’Onofrio, among others.
Monday, July 10 – First up was the G20 summit, featuring conflicting reports of Trump’s meeting with Putin and the
rest of the world pushing forward to combat climate change. I loved Trevor’s riff on Angela Merkel’s
lackluster interpreter, and the piece came together neatly at the end with the
rest of the West banding together to stand with the rest of the world against
climate change (while Trump pouted in the corner.) Naturally, we also had to cover the latest in
the Russia investigation, with news of Donald Trump Jr’s. meeting with a
Kremlin-connected lawyer. Trevor did a
great job going through the descending stupidity of the administration’s
excuses when it comes to Russia.
Excellent, funny interview with Kumail Nanjiani, promoting The Big Sick. He talked about writing the movie with his
wife and the film’s “radical” statement that Muslims are people, too.
Tuesday, July 11 – More on Donald Trump
Jr., with the latest development of him releasing his emails about Russia. Trevor’s comments on Trump Jr.’s contact were
great, and I liked his summation of the issue as it stands: we now know for sure that we’re definitely on fire, and while that’s a
whole new problem, at least we know. New
correspondent Michael had a desk piece on America’s divide, positing that the
extreme right and extreme left have more in common (as fringes rather than as
conservatives/liberals) than people would think. For a first piece, it wasn’t bad, but it was
a little “meh” – I appreciate that he was actively trying to do something
different than Jordan, though. Former Dallas
police chief David O. Brown was the guest.
As both a Black man and a police officer, he shared his perspective from
both sides on the issue of police violence, including terrible experiences he’s
had personally and professionally.
Wednesday, July 12 – Continuing with
Russia, Trevor shared the results of the “Doncathalon,” the acrobatics Fox News
performed in an attempt to downplay the situation with Donald Trump Jr. From “what about Hillary?” to “where does it
say collusion is a bad thing?”, all
performed at their peak, and Trevor’s impression of Trump Jr. dismissively confessing
was hilarious. Neal Brennan made an
appearance to praise the GOP as the true leaders of the resistance, what with
their inability to pass a health care bill with control of both houses of
Congress and the presidency – and of course, Trump himself, the best means of
convincing people to join the cause. I
really enjoyed the interview with James Davis talking about his new show Hood-Adjacent. I liked what he had to say about the show’s
inception, and it sounds really creative and clever.
Thursday, July 13 – Trump’s assertions
that Russia didn’t hack the election were straight-up ridiculous, and Trevor’s
jokes about it were perfect. Trump
hitting on Prime Minister Macron’s wife led into a good piece from Desi on
interpreting for Trump. I love that the
ASL interpreter was the most on-point, not holding back from showing Trump in
all his crude, hateful glory. The piece
from Roy on happenings with drugs (from snortable chocolate to Jeff Sessions
wanting to resurrect the war on drugs) was good, but the blurb that prefaced it
was even better. I could not stop laughing at Trump insisting
that the border wall be transparent so Americans strolling by won’t be hit by
bags of drugs being thrown over from the other side. Thrilled to see Minnesota state
representative Ilhan Omar as the guest.
I liked hearing about her attempts to reach out to the Trump to let him
get to know a few of the people he’s sworn to represent.
No comments:
Post a Comment