Monday, December 5
· Headlines – The “Twitter files,” Tampa police officer pulls over chief of police, ChatGPT chatbot
o Open blurb on big news in Iran, where the government is considering disbanding the morality police – “If that happened, it would be wild. Iran might defund the police before Milwaukee.”
o The smoking-gun “proof” that the Biden campaign convinced Twitter to “interfere” in the 2020 election boiled down to… asking Twitter not to allow someone to post nude pictures of Biden’s son – “Yeah, that’s right. The Republican frontrunner for president of the United States wants to terminate the Constitution because Twitter wouldn’t allow him to see Hunter Biden’s dick. Yeah.”
o So true – “What a start to the Trump 2024 campaign. First, he had dinner with Nazi lovers. Now he’s calling to scrap the Constitution. What’s next? Is he going to give the Lincoln Memorial enormous boobs, and still the GOP is going to come out like, ‘Well, I personally would have gone with a tasteful B cup, but I think President Trump’s heart is in the right place.’”
o Tampa’s chief of police was illegally driving a golf cart on the road, and she’s now been forced to resign after the released body cam footage shows her using her position to get out of a ticket – “First of all, I think it’s crazy that she asks if the officer’s body cam is on before incriminating herself. Because what was she going to do if the body camera was off? ‘Oh, it’s not recording? Quick, Doug, whap him over the head! Let’s get out of here! Let’s just hit him!’”
o Trevor had a fun bit riffing on the way white people do the whole “I hate to do this” routine before pulling rank on people. It culminated in this – “That’s what I love about Black people. There’s no pretending. Black people aren’t pretending that it pains them to wield their power over you. They’ll just tell you. Be like, ‘Sorry, sir, we can’t do a late checkout for you.’ Like, ‘Late check out for me, bitch, I own this hotel! Shit, I check out when I want. You don’t tell DaQuan Radisson when he can check out of his own hotel! I’ll tell you you can check out.’”
o Trevor was impressed that ChatGPT could do things like teach you physics concepts, but he was even more impressed that it could do so while also taking directions to speak like a pirate – “I wish I had this technology as a kid! The only reason I failed any subject is because the teacher was boring. But if Blackbeard was teaching me about physics, I would have remembered everything. ‘Yar, light operates as both a wave and a particle the same way you can operate as both a human and fish food. Walk the plank!’”
o I liked this observation – “It is interesting to see how our fears about AI have shifted radically over the years. Right? In the ‘80s and the ‘90s, we thought that in the future, people would be like, ‘These damn machines are wiping out the human race!’ And now our fear is that, in the future, we’re gonna be like, ‘These damn machines keep writing love letters to my wife! She’s gonna leave me!’”
o Valid – “You’ve got to admit, it’s weird that we are this obsessed with robots talking like humans, but we all hate talking to actual humans. Right? Like, everyone’s using this like, ‘Wow, it’s like I’m talking to my mom!’ It’s like, ‘Hey, your mom’s actually calling you right now.’ ‘Ah, let it go to voicemail. Let it go to voicemail. Ask it if it’s proud of me.’”
o Ronny was the headline correspondent, and he wasn’t convinced by ChatGPT – “Every time you ask it a question, it cranks out a 10,000-word think piece. Relax. We got enough humans with opinions. I don’t need my Roomba to develop a hot take on anti-Semitism.”
· Trevor Retrospective – Africa jokes
o It’s Trevor final week on the show, so they’re incorporating these nice little montages of some classic bits. This one started out with African parent jokes and branched out into general jokes on being from Africa. I especially love the one about African TSA agents clowning on passengers for being too skinny.
o Side note: In the pre-pandemic/pre-afro clips, Trevor’s head looks so little now!
· Correspondent Piece (Dulcé) – The history of drag
o Trevor introed this piece with a few remarks on the latest drag event to get shut down after armed militia turned up outside the venue – “You know, I don’t know if it’s a chemical reaction or a genetic predisposition. But any time a white man covers his face in white fabric, ain’t no good coming after that.”
o Great line from Dulcé – “Drag dates all the way back to the world’s most ancient civilizations. I’m talking the Incas, the Aztecs, the Egyptians. Basically anyone that could build a pyramid also had a fierce walk. I mean, why do you think every man, woman, and eagle in ancient Egyptian art had a smoky eye?”
o Dulcé spent most of the piece on the history of drag in Europe and the U.S. I’d no idea that one famous queen in the 1800s, William Dorsey “The Queen” Swann, was a formerly enslaved man!
o This was a nice reaction to photos of the queen Julian Eltidge, both in and out of drag – “Damn, look at those outfits. They could play both leads in Casablanca. Just look how good her makeup is. And that was before Wet ‘n’ Wild. She pulled that off with house paint and beet juice.”
· Interview – Journalist/professor Tressie McMillan Cottom
o Before bringing Cottom out, Trevor called her “one of [his] favorite guests” – She didn’t have anything particular to promote, so I wonder if this last week is just going to be Trevor interviewing some of his favorites?
o Cottom and Trevor had a really interesting discussion about Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter – Cottom observed, “I think the bigger story here is that we outsourced the public square to the private sector, right? Twitter becomes or feels like the public square. But it has never operated in practice as a public square. It cannot. It is not owned by the state or by the people. And in fact, one of the things that minority people, queer people have said for years about Twitter is that they could not participate the same way that really powerful brands could participate or politicians or particularly, especially trolls. And so in a true public square, there would be some way for people to talk back, right, to the powers that be. That’s never been Twitter. That’s never been any social media platform. That is a difference between a business and something that is truly public.”
o Trevor argued that a true “public square” run by the U.S. would probably be a mess, given how polarized U.S. politics is and how little actually gets done – Cottom countered, “That is the mess of democratic participation. It does not mean that we get it right. It means that there is a way to get it right sometimes. So we don’t have to have the whole thing figured out for us to invest in publicness.”
o I loved Cottom’s explanation for her love of lifelong learning – “I’ve got to be an idiot as much as humanly possible.”
o I really liked this – “When I’m feeling generous, I think that there is a not insignificant part of the American public that isn’t so much afraid of the other as they are of being ignorant. And some people would rather be angry than stupid.”
o Good remark – “I actually think one of the good things about Twitter has been how many people have been willing to model learning in public so that other people could see that it doesn’t have to strip you of your status or your position, that learning can happen without you flailing about.”
Tuesday, December 6
· If You Don’t Know, Now You Know – Wage theft
o World Cup opening blurb, on Morocco knocking out Spain – “I know this won’t make up for the fact that Spain once colonized parts of Morocco. But it goes a long way. It really does.”
o In the opening blurb on tax fraud convictions against two Trump corporations, Trevor reminded us that Trump isn’t the one who’ll be punished for it – “We all know that’s how that works in the world, right? All the successes in Trump’s organization, they’re due to the genius of Donald Trump. All the crimes, he had no idea. He’s like, ‘That’s right, folks. I have zero control over the things I run, which is why you should vote for me to run the country. So I can run it like one of my companies, which I don’t even run.’”
o We eased into the main piece with a montage of sensationalist news stories about the rise in shoplifting – Trevor countered, “What if I told you that the biggest theft isn’t people stealing from companies? What if I told you the biggest theft is companies stealing from people?”
o Wage theft in the U.S. costs $15 billion a year, more than car theft, burglary, and theft combined – Sit with that for a second.
o Loved this line – “Yeah, that’s right. The costliest crime in the United States is actually being committed by corporations. So I guess instead of following Black people around the store, security guards should be hovering over CEOs at their desk.”
o Good bit – “I think we can all agree, nobody—nobody should be doing work that they’re not getting paid for. Because, I mean, then that’s not a job. Now you’re volunteering at a fast food restaurant, and who would do that? Huh? Who’s there like, ‘Oh, me, I’m not in it for the money. I’m in it for the love of childhood obesity.’”
o Go, Trevor! – “Huh, that’s so strange. All of this theft occurred, but there was no mention of anyone going to jail. But then how will they learn their lesson?”
o Valid – “Oh, and before you say, ‘But Trevor, you can’t put a corporation in jail.’ Says who? Says who? They always say corporations are people, so why doesn’t America treat them like American people, huh? Why not?”
· Trevor retrospective – Trump jokes
o Featuring lots of joke middle names for Trump, along with a nice dose of Trevor’s Trump impression – There are other comedians out there who can physically sound more like Trump, but Trevor has his speech patterns and weird rhetorical tics down pat.
· Interview – Former NFL player/talk show host Michael Strahan
o Trevor noted the many hats Strahan now wears, saying, “You retired from football to do everything else.”
o Strahan was promoting a podcast he’s made on the history of American football – “Football was a white-collar sport back in the day. But they wouldn’t let the blue-collar guys play. So they created their own league to compete. And now it’s kind of turned into, it’s blue-collar guys playing, getting paid white-collar salaries.”
o They also talked about Strahan’s new skincare line, with Strahan walking Trevor through a daily routine with his products – At one point, he joked, “Look at my neck. I’m 82 years old. Look at that neck!”
· Interview – Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph
o Highlighting her long career, Trevor asked Ralph, “Talk me through the journey and what has kept you being as effervescent as you are” – She replied, “I choose to be happy. I choose joy. Yeah. I believe that since I am alive, I might as well get up, get out there, and enjoy it.”
o She elaborated, “That’s what keeps me going. That’s what keeps me enjoying what I do through all of the ups and downs, through all of the missteps and the bad breaks. I choose to carry on. I choose to look in the mirror and love what I see.”
o She expressed so much affection for the Abbott Elementary fans she encounters daily – “My life now has turned into one big photo session. Anytime I go out into the street, everybody wants to take a picture. Everybody wants you to talk to their people. And everybody wants to tell you how much they love you. And I am saying, see, that’s why I wake up happy every day.”
o I laughed at Ralph’s description of the new Christmas album she’s putting out – “It’s not your mother’s Christmas album. We’re gonna take your mother to church and the club.”
Wednesday, December 7
· Headlines – Raphael Warnock wins reelection in Georgia, China loosens zero-COVID policy, Europe considers ending “airplane mode” requirements
o I liked Trevor’s reaction to the opening blurb about Apple Music announcing a new “karaoke mode” – “I love this. This is great news for anyone who is thinking, ‘I love this Adele song, but what if it was sung by someone who sucks?’”
o Sigh, valid – “Yes, Democrats have now won 51 seats in the Senate. And you realize what that means? Basically nothing. No, because they lost the House. But still, 51 is bigger than 50, so it’s cool.”
o Great bit – “If I was Raphael Warnock, my victory speech wouldn’t have been me smiling. I would have been a lot more different. He’s a gracious man. He was talking about democracy and America’s promise. I would have been up there like, ‘Are you people kidding me with this shit? You guys are giving me a two-point win over this walking vasectomy commercial? Are you kidding me?’ But he’s a better man.”
o Trevor did not like the idea of China’s quarantine facilities – “That’s really messed up. Because the one silver lining of getting COVID is having an excuse to get out of plans, you know. But China was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no. You’ve got COVID, and you’ve got plans with 600 strangers. That’s what you’ve got.’”
o This made me laugh so hard – “It has to be in airplane mode because if anyone calls you while you’re on a plane, the plane immediately crashes into an elementary school. That’s how it works. It’s science, all right, we know this.”
o Good line – “Yes, finally. Passengers in Europe can make phone calls while on a plane! Because every time I’ve been on a plane, I’ve always thought, man, I wish everyone was having a different loud conversation right now. That baby can’t be the only one who’s allowed to make noise. Come on, man!”
o Dulcé was the headline correspondent, and as an Atlanta girl, she had to weigh in on the Georgia runoff – “Now Trevor, this was the real battle of Southern politics, okay? A pastor and a football player? The god of football and the god of God?”
· Trevor Retrospective – Accents
o Trevor has always done nice accent work, and this montage was a rapid-fire compilation of the many accents in his repertoire.
· Fake Trailer – A Vote for Love
o The show has done these fake rom-com trailers before. This time, we got a Christmas movie featuring a poll worker and a “self-appointed poll watcher” – “Hey, you can’t take these votes!” “Like hell I can’t. These are made of Chinese bamboo, you can’t fool me.”
o During an alt-right protest scene, I got a kick out of the holiday-themed signs – My favorite was “Don’t Tread on Me this Christmas.”
· Interview – Former tennis player Roger Federer
o Federer demurred when Trevor asked if he’d ever imagined he’d have such an illustrious career – “In Switzerland, we don’t dream this big, you know? We hope to be good, but not great.”
o Nice observation from Trevor – “You had this drive and this class about you that nobody understood.”
o Trevor asked how Federer maintained that drive through his long tennis career – He explained, “You also have a duty, in my mind, to represent the sport well and enjoy it while it lasts. And I really felt like I squeezed out that lemon till the last drop. And I tried my very best to the end.”
o They discussed his final tournament/match, including the memorable, emotional photos of him and Rafael Nadal – “I knew it was going to be incredibly emotional. I’ve always cried a lot in victory and in defeat when I was younger. And I don’t know why, but I do it. But I’m happy because I remember those moments even more so because of it.”
o This was a nice long interview, and Federer was very gracious and charming – He had great anecdotes, especially the one about a security guard recently turning him away at Wimbledon because he didn’t have his membership card.
o They talked a little about the charity events where they’ve played together, and Trevor joked, “We have between us 20 Grand Slam titles, it’s crazy.”
o Looking to the future, Federer admitted he’s been approached with a lot of offers that he’s mostly turned down – “I feel bad about saying no, but I think I have to take time to make the next move.”
Thursday, December 8 - Trevor's Final Show!
o These ranged from goofy bits to heartfelt goodbyes (though still with some comedy thrown in) – Here are the highlights from each correspondent.
o From Michael – “I’m not gonna talk about the market tonight. Because as much as I love numbers, there’s a different N-word I love even more: nostalgia.”
o This line from Desi made me chuckle – “On behalf of Paramount, Viacom, CBS, Comedy Central, Viacom Networks, and Paw Patrol Plus, I am here to do your exit interview.”
o Trevor tried to correct Dulcé that his middle name wasn’t actually Ezekiel – She replied, “I gave you the middle name Ezekiel because I don’t know any African words. You taught me nothing!”
o She tried to get the scoop on his post-show plans, at one point mistakenly thinking he was going on to do a travel show – “You should do one about African people. ‘Cause you know what I realized? I know more about meerkats than whoever the f**k lives in Tanzania.”
o Great timing on this line, also from Dulcé – “So you’re just leaving a job to do nothing?! Wow, you really are half white.”
o Ronny later claimed his sentimental remarks were all just a joke, but they were still lovely – “At the time, when you’re starting the show, you had closer friends than me, who were more talented than me. But you said, ‘No, I want this f**king Chinese guy,’ because you were adamant about having Asian representation on the show. And I really appreciate it.”
o Another good bit from Ronny – “The whole time here, it felt like it was just the two of us immigrants just coming together to tell Americans what was wrong with them, which they always appreciate.”
o Nice moment from Roy – “I’ve been thinking about this, bro. You know, you ain’t got to leave the country. You could just go over to Good Morning America and host over there. The light-skinned dude over there in a lot of trouble. They might have an opening for you.”
o His segment was a bit involving him trying to get Trevor to “admit” he wasn’t really African – “If you really from Africa, why you be talking all British then?”
o At the very end of this piece, Jordan came out, asking Trevor if he’d forgotten someone – “Someone you’d send out every other week to the heart of America to almost get murdered by QAnon psychopaths.”
o For Jordan’s bit, he did a Jordan Fingers the Pulse, talking to New Yorkers about Trevor leaving the show – One fan said, “He’s been such a signature. He went through COVID with all of us. That was such an important part, like, just seeing him on his house and everybody being depressed. But just he being on TV was such a wonderful thing.”
o Another said, “Good luck, and thank you for keeping us a little bit more sane.”
· Trevor Retrospective – “Get the f**k out of here”
o Just a montage of Trevor saying, “Get the f**k out of here” – Some of my favorite prompts were, “You tricked me into eating a vegetable?” and (incredulously,) “You’re not white, you’re Latin?”
· Interview – Comedian Neal Brennan
o This line from Trevor made me laugh – “Just a few more hours before I fly back home to Africa. Rafiki’s gonna be holding up the new kid. We’ve all got to be there, it’s a thing.”
o Brennan and Trevor reminisced about being on the road doing comedy, and Brennan admitted that he advised Trevor to go back to South Africa, since “Americans don’t tolerate accents on TV” – “In my defense, once Oliver started doing good, I literally called you and said—I said, ‘Come back.’”
o They compared notes on starting to tour again after the early stages of the pandemic – Brennan said, “I didn’t know how much to talk about it? Do you know what I mean? Because I couldn’t tell if people wanted to hear it or didn’t want to hear it.”
o They also talked a little about their shared history with depression – Asked what advice he’d give to others experiencing depression/anxiety, Brennan said, “Just keep trying. That’s the thing is, because it is—the thing with depression and anxiety and all these mental health things, they don’t really know what does what. So you have to keep trying and not get too discouraged about if one thing doesn’t work, then you’re broken or screwed or whatever. Then you just, like, try another thing.”
o I laughed out loud at this one – “I worry what’s going to happen when you wake up tomorrow at 1:00 in the afternoon. Do you realize that you’re not going to be the host of The Daily Show anymore? Yeah, you’re just going to be a best-selling author who does comedy in sold-out arenas around the world. #PrayForTrevor.”
· Celebrity Goodbyes
o A group of celebrities, ranging from Oprah to Tracee Ellie Ross to Hilary Clinton, said their farewells to Trevor.
o Nice remark from Nick Offerman – “At the end of a long day, having you there to make us laugh and inform us, it meant the world.”
o The joke here was that, as they considered all the tough times The Daily Show got them through, they started to blame Trevor for it – As Issa Rae put it, “You know, now that I’m saying this shit out loud, it didn’t get bad until you showed up, actually.”
o From Offerman again, loved it – “You killed the queen, didn’t you?”
o It was fitting that the last segment was just a Between the Scenes-style piece of Trevor talking to the audience – “Don’t be sad. I know a lot of people are sad, but please don’t be sad. You should be happy that an African leader is peacefully leaving power. That’s never a guarantee.”
o For much of the piece, he reflected on what he’s learned during his time on the show/in America – “The first lesson I learned is something that took me a long time to realize. Issues are real, but politics are just an invented way to solve those issues.”
o Good observation – “We get tricked a lot of the time, not just in America, but everywhere in the world, into liking or not liking something based more on the tribe that it comes from, the tribe that it emanates from, that what the idea actually is.”
o While he emphasized that he wasn’t advocating for some sort of “Kumbaya” existence, I liked this sentiment – “I think as we live in a society where we increasingly introduce ourselves with the things that separate us, we forget that real friendships come from the similarities. And then, the disagreements are how we polish each other as human beings.”
o Given the sorts of things Trevor has talked about recently, this one made a lot of sense – “The second lesson I learned is, never forget that context matters. You know? Never forget how much context matters.”
o Nice analysis – “I feel like we live in an age of limitless information right now. But we never seem to acknowledge that there’s a shortage of context. In many ways, it’s why I started doing Between the Scenes. I realized, in the short time I have on the show, there’s only so much I can convey as a message. And you know, that message is, I understand, distilled and synthesized for people. But we process everything in bytes. And we don’t realize that we have a lot of information, but we don’t have the context that is so necessary for us to process that information, which is so important. Context is everything. It’s truly everything.”
o Trevor’s been one of the few public figures consistently pointing out stuff like this – “We see a clip, a video. It’s designed to make us angry. We respond to it accordingly. We don’t know how it started. We don’t know how it ended. We don’t know what the actual story is.”
o I appreciated this – “I guess the final lesson I learned at the show—and I learned it not at the show but because of the show and the news I was covering—is, please don’t forget that the world is a friendlier place than the internet and the news will make you think.”
o He elaborated, “My comedy has taken me to places and to people. I’ve been lucky enough to do comedy from Florida all the way through to, you know, Washington State. I’ve been lucky enough to travel around the world and meet people, and people are a lot friendlier than social media would have you believe.”
o This made me smile – “The news is designed to tell you what is happening, and generally, what is bad is what’s going to make news. But not everything is bad. You know, old ladies aren’t just being punched everywhere in New York City at every corner, you know? Sometimes they’re punching people.”
o From there, Trevor moved on to expressing his gratitude – “I always tell the people I work with, I go, you know, I wish you could be with me all the time when I meet people who enjoy the show, and they go, ‘Great show!’ And I’m like, yeah, but I wish they could see that as well, they could experience that, and they could also get the death threats, too. We should share these things, is what I’m saying.”
o He remembered getting the initial call from Jon Stewart, how astonished he was, and thanking all the producers who believed in him and hung in there when his early episodes received a lot of derision.
o I’m not surprised that he thanked the audience as well – “Honestly, most importantly, I’m grateful to you. Every single one of you. I am—I’m so grateful. I remember—I remember when we started the show, we couldn’t get enough people to fill an audience […] And then, I look at this now. I don’t take it for granted, ever. Every seat that has ever been filled, to watch something that I’m doing, I always appreciate, because I know the empty seats that sit behind it. So thank you.”
o I especially loved his final remarks here – “Special shoutout to Black women. You know, I’ve been—I’ve often been credited with having these grand ideas, and people are like, ‘Oh, Trevor, you’re so smart!’ And I’m like, who do you think teaches me? You know? Who do you think has shaped me, nourished me, informed me? From my mom, from my gran, from my aunt, all these Black women in my life—but in America as well.”
o Beautiful – “I always tell people, if you truly want to learn about America, talk to Black women. ‘Cause unlike everybody else, Black women can’t afford to f**k around and find out. Black people understand how hard it is when things go bad, especially in America, but any place where Black people exist, whether it’s Brazil, whether it’s South Africa, wherever it is. When things go bad, Black people know that it gets worse for them. But Black woman, in particular—they know what shit is, genuinely. People would always be shocked. They’d be like, ‘Why do Black women turn out the way they do in America? Why do they vote the way—’ Yeah, because they know what happens if things do not go the way it should. They cannot afford to f**k around and find out.”
o In lieu of a traditional Moment of Zen, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” started playing in the studio, and the audience serenaded Trevor – loved it.
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