News Satire Roundup: April 16th-April 20th

Sunday, April 16 – John opened on Sean Spicer declaring Assad worse than Hitler and bizarrely doubling down on his “Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons” claim – what is even happening here?  The show continued the story from last week about the praise Trump received for bombing Syria, with the “mother of all bombs” drop in Afghanistan adding to that pile.  Trump’s word vomit failing to state whether or not he approved the strike was disturbing.  The main story was on France’s upcoming election.  I knew France was one of the countries that’s experienced a troubling rise in nativism, and I knew a lot of people have been watching Le Pen’s campaign with concern, but as usual, John filled me in on plenty I didn’t know.  John expertly laid out the dangers behind Le Pen’s “rehabilitated” image of her party and still found time to share pastry-based political protest and the amusement of the “So You Think You Can France” candidate.

Monday, April 17 – I like when Trevor shares about what he’s been up to when the show’s been on break, and this time, he described his encounter with penitents in Spain, whose traditional pre-Easter outfits eerily resemble KKK robes.  I laughed at the props he gave them for not giving up “their thing” just because it now has hate-group associations.  Next was a run-through of foreign nations the US has recently tangled with.  We covered Syria (with Trump misstating the country he bombed to a journalist,) Afghanistan (featuring some good jokes on the “mother of all bombs” title,) and North Korea (where Mike Pence took his wife to the DMZ in case he ran into unchaperoned women dining.)  Quick piece on the White House Easter Egg Roll, in which Melania evidently nudged Trump to put his hand to his heart for the National Anthem.  Economist Austan Goolsbee was the guest, scratching his head at Trump’s non-plan for taxes.

Tuesday, April 18 – The show opened with the results of Turkey’s election, in which Erdoğan was made dictator; Erdoğan’s “talk to the hand” remark led to some good jokes about a “sassy dictator” using ‘90s sitcom catchphrases.  Pretty good story on Alex Jones’s custody battle in court, declaring that his conspiracy-theory-touting fearmongerer persona is just that, a “character” he adopts.  Trevor did a nice job explaining a) why that was crap and b) why, even if it was true, Jones’s words still have extreme real-world consequences.  The “Trump oracle” bit, with Roy playing a fortune teller who predicts Trump’s future actions by reading his past tweets and reversing the position, fell flat for me.  A good concept, and they picked some apt tweets to use, but it dragged and never quite came together.  The guest was Representative Adam Schiff, there to talk about the probe into the administration’s associations with Russia.

Wednesday, April 19 – I liked the joke that Serena Williams’s pregnancy should nullify her recent win, since it means she was technically playing doubles – ha!  Good piece bidding a not-so-fond farewell to Bill O’Reilly, covering many lowlights of his career but paying special attention to his racist remarks about Black people.  Trevor’s reaction to his comments about eating at Sylvia’s in Harlem was excellent.  Hasan had a solid field piece on the water crisis in Ranger, Texas, highlighting that Flint isn’t the end of the story on unsafe drinking water.  The piece hit on the insane, unfair, and demoralizing ways this crisis affects people’s everyday lives, and it dovetailed nicely into the interview with guest Marc Edwards, who helped uncover the lead in Flint’s water.  His point that some of the country’s most disadvantaged individuals pay the highest bills for water they can’t even drink/use safely was just awful.

Thursday, April 20 – Fun opening on Russia’s new “definitely not a Terminator” robots.  Next, in honor of 4/20, Trevor gave a rundown of shifting public opinion on marijuana legalization and the unlikelihood of drug laws becoming anything but more stringent under Jeff Sessions.  The piece also featured Trevor’s theory that Trump is high all the time (using his “lost armada” as a major piece of evidence.)  Decent story on relaxed Internet privacy regulations that will allow ISPs to sell customers’ private information.  The porn angle was expected but not especially creative (along with the accompanying faux-informercial from Roy) – much more fun was Trevor’s observation that Trump basically “browser histories” his way through life and rolled back regulations so everyone will be forced to be as transparent as him.  Rashida Jones was the guest, talking about her new documentary series examining the porn industry.