News Satire Roundup: July 16th-July 19th

Monday, July 16 – The show’s back!  We opened on France’s World Cup victory, which Trevor described as “Africa’s back-up team,” followed by a quirk word on Papa John using the N-word during a call about avoiding PR crises for racial insensitivity – swing and a miss.  The big story, naturally, was Trump’s meeting with Putin.  The clips of Trump siding with Putin over his own intelligence agencies and blaming “both sides” for the present situation were staggeringly obtuse, even for him.  I loved the bit about him as Sherlock Holmes’s Watson, constantly wanting to cut loose murderers who say they totally didn’t do it.  Next up was Trump’s trip to England, wherein he displayed all the diplomatic skill of a bulldozer.  Gina came on to talk about how hatred of Trump unified the country and shared some of her favorite protest signs.  The guest, Boots Riley, talked about directing Sorry to Bother You and the Black mythology of the “white voice.”

Tuesday, July 17 – Nice opening bit on Obama in Africa – I loved Trevor’s comment that “America used to have a president who could dance and speak English.”  Quick blurb on World Emoji Day, and then it was back to Trump’s statements on Russia’s election meddling.  I appreciated Trevor’s disbelief that, after 24 hours, the best damage control Trump and his team could come up with was, “I said ‘would’ when I meant ‘wouldn’t,’” despite everything else in the statement suggesting that he believed Putin’s denial.  Ronny had a fun piece on the latest rich-person craze of owning chickens.  I loved the joke about Silicon Valley trends changing as quickly as devices become outdated:  “You like chickens?  Well, fuck you – it’s bees now!”  Rapper Wiz Khalifa was the guest, talking equally about both his music and his cannabis enterprise.

Wednesday, July 18 – Great episode!  First up were quick blurbs on lava in Hawaii, a pitcher’s bigoted tweets coming to light during the All-Star game, and possible changes in what can be called “milk.”  Mostly, though, we looked at Nelson Mandela’s 100^th birthday.  We saw Obama attending the tribute in South Africa, where someone threw shade on Obama’s dance moves – I liked Trevor’s comment that, while Obama’s dancing is impressive for an American president, Africans know better, and using his own clips from Dancing with the Stars as “proof” was great.  A speech Obama gave on Mandela led into a piece about the man vs. the legend.  After a montage of “every famous Black actor” (and Scarlett Johansson!) playing Mandela, Trevor went through some more nuanced history; the story of how he got the name “Nelson” was crazy.  The guest was author Annie Lowrey, discussing her book on a proposed Universal Basic Income.

Thursday, July 19 – Fun opening montage of Sean Spicer gaffes on his book tour (President Crump!), then a short bit on Trump’s trade war causing allies to cut out the U.S. and make direct trade deals with each other.  I liked the story on Russian spy Maria Butina, especially Trevor’s side eye at her cover story of being a “29-year-old retired furniture seller.”  Roy had a new CP Time on Black people and conspiracy theories.  I liked his point that, for all that white people laugh at the sound of these seemingly-wild theories, they sometimes have borne out – case in point, the government secretly experimenting on Black people with syphilis, as well as conspiring to “neutralize” Martin Luther King, Jr.  Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal were the guests, getting me even more excited for their movie Blindspotting.  I was really intrigued by Trevor’s remarks about a lot of the dialogue being in verse.