News Satire Roundup: April 2nd-April 6th

Sunday, April 2 – In his continuing coverage of “Stupid Watergate” (the investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s team and Russia,) John looked at the Devin Nunes craziness this week, beautifully highlighting just how idiotic Nunes’s predicament is.  He also touched on the UK’s breakup letter to the EU and Britain’s forthcoming official withdrawal in 2019.  The main story was on the trickiness of marijuana laws, which was interesting to me because I knew very little about it.  It seems to be a case where internal matters are changing much faster than external structures, so a lot of state laws are now clashing with federal laws and resulting in situations where you can still be arrested/fired/evicted/separated from your kids over marijuana your state legally allows you to have – huge mess.  Finally, we got an update on Bolivia’s “traffic zebras,” specifically Bolivia’s reaction to John’s earlier piece.  Very fun and super cute.

Monday, April 3 – Nice takedown of Twitter’s default-avatar change failing to address harassment, with Trevor showing that an egg and a human silhouette can both tell him to “go back to Africa.”  With Trump’s announcement of Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, the show recapped his numerous sexual assault/harassment allegations before looking at the flipside with Mike Pence’s refusal to dine alone with any woman besides his wife.  I loved Trevor’s comments about people who equate Islam with misogyny and yet have no problem with Pence.  I was surprised Roy’s field piece on Black Twitter was pretty much, “What is Black Twitter and why does it matter?”, but I still enjoyed it.  The barbershop comparisons were fun, and I appreciated the examples of how powerful it can be.  The guest was Dr. Willie Parker, a pro-life-turned-pro-choice doctor who discussed his views and his new book on the subject.

Tuesday, April 4 – Trevor opened on Trump’s requirements for the wall – great joke on the “bad hombres” who’d be willing to dig a six-foot tunnel and no deeper.  A new “Who is the Real President?”, with Jared Kushner taking the top slot.  Trevor listed Kushner’s insane number of tasks, from “making peace in the Middle East” to “reforming the criminal justice system” – the bit about Kushner getting his to-do list all jumbled up, ending with him inviting ISIS to Mar-a-Lago, was great.  There was a quick story on Turkey’s upcoming election, where President Erdoğan hopes to elected dictator.  The Trump comparisons were obvious from space, and I liked the joke asking how he keeps putting critics in prison when he’s already jailed the judges and prosecutors.  Trevor had fun with guest Chelsea Handler, talking about the new season of her show and how not having a clothing line allows her to say what she likes about Trump.

Wednesday, April 5 – Trevor ran with Pepsi’s ad co-opting protest imagery, inserting product placement into images of people like Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela.  Next was an amusing bit splicing footage of Sean Spicer’s press briefings with a “kindergarten class,” to show how he treats grown professionals like naughty children.  It was amazing how seamless it felt.  After Trump blamed Obama(?) for a chemical attack in Syria, I liked Trevor’s reflection about how he wants someone to take action on the incredibly-delicate situations in the Middle East, but desperately wants that person not to be Trump.  Roy and Hasan announced the Third Month Mania winner, going for irony points with, “Are you allowed to impeach a president for gross incompetence?”  I enjoyed the interview with Michelle Rodriguez.  Trevor’s clearly a fan of the Fast & Furious films, and you could tell they both had fun talking about it.

Thursday, April 6 – This kicked off a brief series of clip shows, one on each correspondent.  Jordan was the feature here, and while he’s my least favorite correspondent, they picked some good bits for him.  It was a show featuring longer clips of fewer pieces, giving us an edited-down version of his excellent “Good Guy with a Gun” field report, cuts from several of his always-reliable Trump-rally field pieces, a thing of him asking a group of white kids what effect only having a Black president in their lifetimes has had on their psyches (the only only that felt out of left field to me,) and the great interview he had with the reverend from the RNC benediction, the one who blamed Clinton for her husband’s cheating but not Trump for his own cheating.  I wonder if Jordan gets tired of being the only correspondent who can play the “white male privilege” angle; it was nice that the episode didn’t spend the whole time on those sorts of pieces.