News Satire Roundup: August 7th-August 11th

Sunday, August 7 – First up was the Olympics.  Mostly the opening ceremony (with a good point about the newscasters’ depressing commentary on each country’s hardships during the Parade of Nations,) but Brazil’s political problems were mentioned as well.  Mostly, though, this was so John could share a terrible “intimate” poem published by the acting president.  The main story was on journalism, specifically how so many print newspapers are struggling to keep afloat in the digital age.  Some of the clickbait-centered executives were fairly gross, and I liked what John what about how newspapers feed other news sources, like websites and TV news, and how we need them in order to sustain that ecosystem.  The closing fake trailer was great, too, with Bobby Cannavale as an investigative journalist trying to uncover corruption at City Hall while his editor is more concerned with cat pictures and tweet quotas.

Monday, August 8 – An Olympics-style cold open, with Roy and Jordan commenting on Trevor’s showing in the “men’s 100 meter satiric newscast, had some good laughs.  There was a quick Trump recap, featuring Trevor lamenting that, after Trump picked a fight with a baby, there’s nothing left for comedians to make up.  Trump’s prediction that the election will be rigged led to a bigger story about election corruption, mainly via gerrymandering and discriminatory voting laws like voter ID and ex-felon bans.  Really liked this story – both the jokes and the commentary were on point.  The guest, filling the remaining two segments, was SNCC co-founder and U.S. Representative John Lewis.  He sometimes molded Trevor’s questions to fit his prepared answers, but it was still very cool to hear him talking about the Civil Rights Movement, the push for gun control, and Black Lives Matter.

Tuesday, August 9 – First up was the Olympics.  Trevor covered the unfortunate aptness of the U.S. getting the first medal in shooting and some of Brazil’s serious issues affecting the games.  He also talked about Zika in the U.S. and Congress’s less-than-proactive response.  I was really irritated at Marco Rubio’s comments about Zika and abortion, because women already have the right to abortion without qualifiers as to why.  What is he proposing, a law that says women can have abortions, unless it’s Zika-related?  It feels like he’s being inflammatory just for attention.  Desi fact-checked Trump’s outline of his economic policy – my favorite was his strong stance on ending death taxes, which affects the wealthiest 1%.  Guests Riki Lindhome and Natasha Leggero talked about being the 1902 Kardashians on their show Another Period and shared the fruits of their research on the deplorable state of women’s rights at the turn of the century.

Wednesday, August 10 – Trevor did a great job covering Trump’s wait-did-he-just-advocate-killing-Clinton? remarks.  He brought up the importance of people knowing what a president means, pointed out that even if it was a joke, it didn’t belong in a presidential campaign, and demonstrated that, regardless of what Trump intends, his supporters take it seriously.  The montage of his supporters spewing hate and threats of violence was scary.  Jordan and Roy kept up the Olympics theme, commenting on the “gymnastics” of Republicans trying to explain away Trump’s statement.  Guiliani saying that, if Trump was really suggesting someone kill Clinton, his supporters would’ve cheered the stadium down, was insane.  Author Mychel Denzel Smith was the guest.  He was great, thoughtful and passionate as he discussed police shootings and the “education” young Black men receive in what they have to do not to get killed.

Thursday, August 11 – After a brief bit about Turkey meeting with Russia, we had Trump calling Obama “the founder of ISIS.”  A radio interviewer afterwards did his best to help Trump clarify the comment, but he wouldn’t walk it back, and his reason was what Trevor highlighted:  Trump knows perfectly well that, the more inflammatory his comments are, the more press he gets.  Trevor wound up having to defend South Africa from Roy and Jordan, who brought up the vuvuzelas from the World Cup in their Olympics commentary.  Next was the police shooting of Paul O’Neal; more specifically, a look at conveniently-unreliable police body cams and the way O’Neal was mistakenly believed to be armed when officers heard shots fired by other officers.  The guest was comedian/writer/actor Mike Birbiglia talking about his new movie Don’t Think Twice, about a group of friends working in comedy whose friendship is tested by success.