News Satire Roundup: July 17th-July 20th

One week to go without a new episode, and I’m definitely champing at the bit for the show to be back.  Today, I want to commend it, and John, for the care that goes into making some of the incredibly dense, confusing, and/or actively-boring information in their main stories clear and accessible.  The show has taught me a lot about issues I knew very little about and given me a much better understanding of issues I only had a vague handle on.  John is great at talking you through a series of statistics or the finer points of a law and explaining what they mean as well as why they matter.  These pieces are so enlightening and really helpful for putting things in such a way that laypeople can understand them – I totally used John’s story on financial planning to make sure I’m doing the best I can with my retirement savings, and I’ve pulled stats from his pieces before to use in discussions.

Monday, July 17 – We opened on Winnie the Pooh being banned in China, with Trevor delivering some good jokes on the meme with President Xi as Pooh and Obama as Tigger.  Update on the healthcare bill.  I loved the joke about everyone being covered – some by insurance, others by white sheets over their bodies – under the new plan, and of course Trevor had to address the irony of the vote being delayed while John McCain recovered from surgery.  Roy reported on the “tragedy” of Ann Coulter having to switch seats on a plane; Trevor’s rebuttal, a montage of Coulter belittling “complainers” and “whiners,” was awesomely on-point.  Regina Hall was the guest, there to talk about Girls Trip.  She and Trevor spent a fair amount of time talking about the film’s full-frontal male nudity, and Trevor acknowledged his differing reactions to female vs. male nudity onscreen.

Tuesday, July 18 – First was the latest on the healthcare bill.  Trevor’s impression of Trump-as-Baby-Groot doing “repeal and replace” was awesome, and I loved the irony of the GOP’s repeated claims that Obamacare is in a “death spiral” when it’s the only plan still standing.  Next was Trump’s “Made in America” week.  The notion that it was all a front to get Trump to pick any other job was great – “You wanna be a baseball player?  No – how ‘bout a fireman?”  More on Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer, with Trevor reviewing more of the justifications given for it.  I absolutely loved the observation that Trump’s “everybody would’ve taken that meeting” is the new “locker-room talk.”  Michael, the new correspondent, also had an amusing bit on the woes of looking vaguely like Trump Jr.  The interview with 50 Cent was fine, if a little scattered.  I liked him comparing his show, Power, to Game of Thrones.

Wednesday, July 19 – Crazy opening blurb on Putin declaring fidget spinners a brainwashing tactic used by his opponent in the Russian election – I loved Trevor’s point that it gives American teenager a great excuse to keep using them in class.  Next was a good story on Trump’s hitherto-unknown meeting with Putin at the G20, with Trevor advising against meeting secretly with Russians during an open investigation about your administration meeting secretly with Russians, and Jordan interviewing an ex-KGB agent to learn about how the organization operates.  Michelle had a desk piece on emojis, railing against the unfairness of not having any redheaded emojis; the joke about a relationship being [dinosaur] [asteroid] was great.  The guest, Governor Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, talked about the administration’s voter fraud commission and his own efforts to reenfranchise ex-cons in his state.

Thursday, July 20 – Trevor trolling OJ Simpson’s comment about his practically “conflict-free” life was great.  Trump’s interview with the New York Times got a lot of air time.  Trevor covered both the crazy (claiming that French troops in Russia froze to death because Napoleon arbitrarily decided not to go there one night) and the unsettling (disclosing that he wouldn’t have appointed Jeff Sessions had he known Sessions would recuse himself in the Russia investigation.)  I loved the observation that it’s the former that puts the “fun” in “fundamentally unfit to be president.”  Roy talked about the newly-announced show Confederate, wondering how anyone possibly dreamed up the idea of an alternate-history show where Confederate flags fly proudly, Black people are systematically oppressed, and white supremacists rule the country.  Issa Rae was the guest, promoting Insecureand amusing Trevor with her use of the term “ho-ery.”