Sunday, August 13 – John began, of
course, with the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville and the violence
that followed. He hit the horrifying
nature of the event hard and paid particular attention to Trump’s damning non-answer
when asked to condemn white nationalism.
I loved the line (re: the
alt-right’s support for Trump,) “Nazis are a lot like cats. If they like you, it’s probably because
you’re feeding them.” The main story was
also quite timely, as John looked at North Korea, covering Trump and Kim
Jong-un’s recent threats but digging into the situation in general. He attempted to sort out fact from fiction on
crazy stories we’ve heard, showed the anti-US propaganda its people are fed,
and examined the motivations for Kim’s threatening stance. He ended with a direct appeal to North
Koreans (in case the episode was smuggled in on a flash drive,) with an assist
from Weird Al (given North Korea’s love of accordions.)
No Daily Show again this week. First of all – goodness gracious, are they
going to have stuff to catch up on. I
hope they have time to give the events of this week their due.
This
week, I want to highlight the “Between the Scenes” clips on the show’s website. Periodically, the show posts
short clips of Trevor chatting with/riffing to the audience between takes, and
while these bits are often less polished than the material we get in the
episodes, they’re still funny and insightful.
The
between-the-scenes stuff often feels like Trevor “test-driving” bits in front
of an audience, and some jokes and observations made there have appeared in a
more finished form in later episodes.
For instance, Trevor tried out the notion of comparing the GOP’s
attitude toward Obamacare to “playa haters” in R&B – guys who croon about
how “girl, I would treat you so much better,” the twist being that, given the
reins and the chance to actually do
better, they have no real ideas – an observation that later appeared on the
show. Ditto for a comment about the
terrifying/ridiculous dichotomy of Trump news, comparing it to a “penis-shaped
asteroid” hurtling towards Earth.
Often, it’s
continuing remarks on stories the show has just presented in the prior
take. I really appreciate the clip of
Trevor talking about Philando Castile’s history of getting pulled over by the
police, along with his own. I’d always
figured the whole “flopping his upper torso through the open window” thing from
his getting-pulled-over story in his Lost
in Translation special was an embellishment for comedy, but his description
in that clip makes it sound like that’s something he genuinely does each time
he gets pulled over, a conscious decision that he’d rather look dumb and be
100% sure the officer knows exactly where his hands are.
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