Sunday, June 30 – After a quick nod
to the G20 – in which, as John pointed out, Trump showed more respect for Kim
Jong-un’s boundaries than women’s – we looked at the sorry state of Jared
Kushner’s “plan” for peace in the Middle East. The main story was on warehouse workers, with a special emphasis on Amazon. Even though I already knew most of
this on a basic level, it was still affecting to see it all put together
(timing workers down to the second, workers skipping bathroom breaks to
maintain their rates, workers in one warehouse told to keep working with the dead body of a heart-attack victim still on the floor.) I always love when John
explains what the show’s lawyers have told him he can/can’t say, in a way that
makes his own view stunningly clear, and he did that a few times in this piece.
I also liked his emphasis on the “why” of it all – why is next-day delivery on
my Oreos (or whatever) worth putting workers through such hell?
The Daily Show was off this week
(and I believe they’re airing clip shows next week, not coming back with new
episodes until mid-July.) One thing I’ve noted with The Daily Show is that, as it’s gone on, I think its coverage of
LGBTQ issues has gotten better. This isn’t just a recent occurrence – it was
back in 2016 when it did an entire episode on trans issues – but it is
something that I think has been improving over pretty much the entire course of
the show, to where, now, I think it’s quite solid in its LGBTQ coverage.
The show has actually always been pretty good with the “T,” which I
applaud it for. Maybe that’s because, by the time Trevor took over, trans
people were already more in the public eye, through the visibility of folks
like Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner, or maybe it’s because bathroom bills were
becoming a major issue in season 1 and Trevor and co. found a good angle
through comparisons with segregated bathrooms in the Jim Crow-era South. Either
way, the show’s coverage of trans-related news has always been both smart and
empathetic, and Trevor has interviewed a number of trans guests, including
trans women of color and a few non-binary/genderqueer people.
As for the “LGB” (especially the “G,”) that’s where I see more growth. I
wouldn’t say I ever found the show wildly homophobic or anything (though
mileage certainly may vary on that,) but I do
think there was a tendency early on to mine a little comedy from the implied “salciousness”
of gay dudes. While, again, I think there were far more overtly-offensive entertainment
sources out there, I remember feeling just a tiny bit on edge when the show
would cover gay stories, knowing the humor would at-minimum skirt the line.
Along the way, that started to change. It was a gradual shift, so I can’t
pinpoint exactly when it started or why. I will say I’ve noticed an increase in
LGB guests as the show has gone on, and I like that, when Jaboukie joined the
show, he was initially branded as the “youth” correspondent and him being gay
wasn’t brought up until a handful of appearances later (when he was covering
the whole Jussie Smollett thing.) At any rate, I no longer feel at all tense
when the show includes gay-related stories, which I feel have become more
normalized on the show. One recent story that comes to mind is J.K. Rowling’s
announcement that Dumbledore and Grindelwald had “an intense sexual
relationship.” Rather than rehashing the whole “gay Dumbledore” business,
Trevor had more of a “why is this news?” take, asserting that, because one was
good and one was evil, “Of course the sex was hot!” Bonus points for, “Leave
the Sorting Hat on!” It might be weird to use a story specifically talking
about sex to show how they’ve toned down the “salaciousness” winking, but I
think it’s a good fit. Even in a piece about hot sex, none of the jokes are
about the participants being two men – instead, it’s “frenemy sex” with a dash
of “Hogwarts sex.”
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