Top Five Gags: Oh, Doctor!

September 30, 1917 – the day Oh, Doctor! was released.  This one is both fairly light on Buster overall (more than, say, The Rough House, but a lot less than the shorts to follow) and features him in one of his more unusual roles ever, playing what appears to be Fatty’s actual child.  He wears short pants, calls Fatty “Pop,” and cries whenever Fatty wails on him, with not even a nod to the fact that Buster is clearly a grown man in his 20s.  Ha!  That said, it means he appears only briefly on today’s post.

Parking the Car

When Fatty and his family get out of the car for an outing, Fatty appears to “drop anchor” beside the curb.  Even better is the fact that the makeshift anchor tied to the car in tiny and can’t weigh more than five pound – great sight gag.

DIY Binoculars

Another sight gag – with his wife hogging the binoculars at the horse race, Fatty improvises, making his own out of a pair of empty wine bottles.  Resourceful and funny!

Giving Junior a Wallop

Only one Buster moment on this list, but it’s a goodie.  Most of these shorts have a hilarious moment that I mention every time I talk about the short, and this is the one for Oh, Doctor!  It’s awesome enough that Fatty smacks Buster in the face and he somersaults backwards over the table, landing perfectly in the chair on the other side.  What make it art is when the camera cuts back to him not two seconds later and he’s already struck a wholly careless pose, nonchalantly reading a book with his feet crossed on the table.  Love it!

Drumming Up Business

Fatty, driving by a snakeoil salesman promising a cure-all to put doctors out of business, decides to do something about it.  He hops out of the car while it’s still running and watches it plow right through the crowd.  The kicker is when he strolls up afterward handing out business cards to all the new prospective patients.

The Only Remedy

Fatty and the lovely lady both know her claim to need a doctor is just an excuse for canoodling, and their early maintenance of that pretense is just flirting.  When Fatty declares that “courage” is the only remedy for what ails her, he opens up his doctor’s bag, revealing several bottles of liquor, two glasses, and a cocktail shaker.

News Satire Roundup: September 24th-September 28th

Sunday, September 24 – First up was Trump’s feud with protesting NFL players – I appreciated John including Colin Kaepernick’s mom’s response to the president indirectly calling her son a “son of a bitch.”  We also covered two private-plane controversies in the administration:  Tom Price spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for unnecessary flights and Steve Mnuchin (unsuccessfully) requesting a government plane for his honeymoon.  The main story was on corporate consolidation, with John looking at how many industries are controlled by just a few companies and the effect that has on consumers.  Highlights include him calling Jim Cramer a “business-casual Louis C.K.” and showing the power that a company in an oligopoly, like United Airlines, can garner when there are so few competitors that consumers really have no other options and can’t take their business elsewhere.

Monday, September 25 – Superb episode.  Most of the night focused on the NFL protests and Trump’s remarks about that.  Trevor covered a ton of angles with insight and dexterity – a president calling for private citizens to be fired for using their First Amendment rights, the smoke and mirrors of claims that players are “disrespecting the flag,” the fact that the protests were never about the president and predate Trump, the suggestion that Black celebrities who protest are being “ungrateful” (for what?), asking when/how is the “right way” for Black people to protest, and comparing Trump’s remarks here to his dithering over Charlottesville – and each one hit it out of the park.  Really topnotch work.  The guest, meanwhile, was journalist Katy Tur, who’s written a book about covering the election.  Her story about Trump kissing her made my skin crawl.

Tuesday, September 26 – After blurbs on the death of the new healthcare bill and Saudi Arabia lifting its ban on female drivers, Trevor looked at the number of White House officials who’ve used private email accounts, leading him to ponder how many things the administration accused Hillary Clinton of doing that they’ve done themselves.  More on the NFL protests, with Trump doubling down and hundreds more players/owners taking up the protest in response to his condemnation – I liked the hypothetical ad for the “pregame protest kneel” and accompanying sponsorship deals.  Roy reported on two women who are “tricking white people into paying reparations” with their how-to-be-an-ally subscription boxes.  Guest Kathryn Miles spoke about the likelihood of major earthquakes hitting the US in coming years and America’s lack of preparedness for it, thoroughly freaking Trevor out.

Wednesday, September 27 – In-depth look tonight at the Alabama special election to fill Jeff Sessions’s Senate seat, with Trump campaigning for Luther Strange as the Republican nominee and many Trump affiliates throwing their weight behind Roy Moore.  I really liked what Trevor said about Moore’s victory being a demonstration of how Trumpism can exist without Trump, with his supporters voting for Moore in Trump’s name despite Trump backing the other guy – horrifying, but fascinating.  Michelle had a piece on the NCAA, presenting what she saw as the only options:  either pay the players or make everyone (coaches, colleges, etc.) do it “purely for the love of the game” like they do.  America Ferrera, promoting Superstore, gave a great interview.  I loved her words about the importance of media representation in changing hearts and minds.

Thursday, September 28 – Awesome opening bit on a brawl in the Ugandan parliament.  Trevor covered all the highlights, from the “Ugandan Michael Jackson” to the American news anchor who evidently couldn’t identify a mic stand.  Next was Hurricane Maria and Trump’s slow response in getting aid to Puerto Rico.  I appreciated that the story hammered home how important it is that so many Americans don’t realize Puerto Ricans are American citizens, and I liked Trevor’s suggestion that everyone consider their donations “paying Puerto Rico back” for Lin-Manuel Miranda, J-Lo, etc.  I loved the piece on Trump’s announcement of his “miraculous” tax plan; I laughed so hard at Trevor’s “golly gee” reaction to Trump saying, “Believe me.”  Craig Robinson was the guest, talking about his new show that Trevor dubbed “a male Ghostbusters” – ha!

Countdown to Thirteen: The Assets: Episode 3 – “Trip to Vienna” (2014)

This was a slightly odd episode – in some ways, it feels like a bit of a tangent, but it others, it most definitely feels like it’s setting the major wheels into motion.  I’m curious to see where we go from here.

Debriefing with the CIA’s new defector has stalled, as he’s making demands that are hard to fulfill.  However, intel he revealed in the previous episode has led the agency to put a pair of fresh eyes on Edward, a disgruntled ex-agent who may have given away state secrets.  Sandy looks for signs that an asset is reaching out, and another agent, Art, wants to hit the problem harder.  The episode ends on the introduction of what promises to be a new key player.

I don’t know why the flashback structure of this series feels so novel to me – plenty of shows use regular flashbacks.  I suppose the difference is that, while shows like Lost and Once Upon a Time use flashbacks to poke around in the backstories of their major characters, all of The Assets’s flashbacks, so far, have been story-driven, focus on less prominent characters, and feature only fleeting appearances from the main cast.  Here, for instance, we look at Edward and the circumstances that led to his dismissal from the agency.  It’s immediately relevant to the plot at hand, and what happened then has bearing on what happens now.  At any rate, I’m liking how the show is employing the technique.

After two episodes that had a pretty strong forward momentum, this one feels more like it’s spreading outward.  The different parts of the plot don’t all fit together quite as well, and even though there’s some interesting stuff happening, elements of it do feel like a detour.  This episode also has the smallest role so far for Jodie Whittaker, with Sandy occupying what’s probably the C-plot.  What she does is still pretty cool – using her instincts, knowhow, and tenacity to sniff out a potential distress call – but there isn’t much of it.  Since I’m already a definite fan of Sandy, that’s a little disappointing.

The ending, though, is solid, and it feels like a decisive action on the chess board, like things are coming together.  Plus, the final shot gives us a glimpse at another talented British performer gracing the scene:  Harriet Walter.  I’ve seen her in all kinds of stuff, from Downton Abbey to Call the Midwife to Little Dorrit, but I know her best as a pitch-perfect Fanny Dashwood in the Emma Thompson/Kate Winslet Sense and Sensibility.

Character Highlight: Daniel Sousa (Agent Carter)

Sigh… pour one out for Agent Carter – still hurts.

Given that he’s played by Enver Gjokaj, who was so utterly Everything in Dollhouse, Sousa doesn’t really live up to my (admittedly-high) expectations.  Sousa, Peggy’s fellow SSR agent and potential love interest, isn’t bad, but he’s a little generic.  Unfortunate, because I know what Gjokaj can do when he has something to really sink his teeth into (a few season 1 spoilers.)

Like I said, Sousa really isn’t a bad character.  He’s a hard-working agent with fairly solid instincts – since he doesn’t know that Peggy is running her own counter-investigation in season 1, his deduction that she’s in league with the baddies is reasonable, and props to him for following through on it even though he clearly doesn’t want it to be true.  Like Peggy, he’s used to having his talents dismissed.  While her gender keeps her on the outs of the SSR boys’ club, Sousa’s disability has his colleagues viewing him as less of a man.  He uses a crutch as a result of a wartime injury, which makes him have to fight harder to prove himself worthy in their eyes.

Because of this, Sousa is better able to recognize the unequal treatment Peggy receives at the hands of their fellow agents.  He knows what it’s like not to be judged by his merits and sympathizes with Peggy.  However, while he’s a good, decently-open-minded guy, he’s also something of a product of his time.  So, his first reaction to Peggy’s mistreatment is usually to stand up for her – on the face of it, there’s nothing wrong with that, but as someone who’s so often viewed as lesser or incapable, he ought to realize how important it is for someone in a similar position to fight their own battles.  He’d be better served by supporting her in private and letting her speak for herself in public, which he starts learning to do only gradually.

I do like him better in season 2 (will-they-won’t-they-ness aside.)  In season 1, Sousa, like the rest of the guys, don’t know what Peggy’s actually up to, which makes it much harder for him to relate to her as she really is.  When the second season rolls around, though, he’s more up to speed and they’re able to work together more than at cross purposes.  He gets to see firsthand what Peggy can do, which helps him to treat her less like a “lady” and more like an agent.

I suppose the real problem with Sousa is that he just doesn’t measure up to so many of the other male characters in Peggy’s life.  There’s Cap, obviously – Thompson needles Sousa by asking what woman would possibly go for a guy like him (ie, a disabled one) after having been with Captain America – but Peggy’s relationships with Jarvis and Howard are definitely more interesting as well.  I’ve already written about how much love I have for Peggy and Jarvis’s partnership, and while Howard is a decidedly-sexist playboy, he clearly respects Peggy’s abilities and treats her as such (at least, as much as someone so self-centered is capable of doing.)  Not that I would want to see either Jarvis or Howard with Peggy romantically, and Cap isn’t an option on the show, but I still prefer the friendships she has with these men to the maybe-thing she has potentially going on with Sousa.  That’s never a good thing, but unfortunately, Sousa’s not alone in this less-than-stellar characterization.  Provided it’s not a dual-protagonist show, being the “designated future love interest” of the main character doesn’t usually bode all that well for character development.  I think female love interests tend to get the worst of it, but men aren’t immune, either.

A Wind in the Door (1973)

Even though I know it’s not in the same league as A Wrinkle in Time or A Swiftly Tilting Planet, I still have a soft spot for A Wind in the Door.  It might be the most out-there of the time quartet, and for a series whose first book features the likes of Mrs. Whatsit, that’s saying something.  There’s a lot of neat stuff here, even if it doesn’t quite come together as well as it should.

Meg is worried about her little brother Charles Wallace.  At first, she thinks it’s just the awfulness of him being a super-genius 1^st grader in a town full of people who are suspicious of anyone different, but it’s more than that.  There’s something wrong with Charles Wallace, deep within his cells – there’s something wrong with the universe, in fact, at both the macro- and microscopic levels.  With the aid of a mysterious otherworldly “Teacher” and an awesomely-monstrous-looking cherubim, Meg and Calvin fight to save Charles Wallace from the forces that would destroy and erase.

In a way, this book is a bridge between A Wrinkle in Time and A Swiftly Tilting Planet.  It gets a lot more into kything, the type of deep soul telepathy that Meg and Charles Wallace have been doing unconsciously, and brings it forth as a conscious practice, which factors big into A Swiftly Tilting Planet.  I like the kything scenes between Meg and Proginoskes, and it all pays off well when our heroes are in Yadah, where everything is conducted through kything.  The book also introduces the Echthroi, who, again, are a big deal in A Swiftly Tilting Planet.  Their MO between the two books seems a little different, and on the whole, I’d say they’re freakier and more menacing here.  The whole concept of X-ing is really eerie, and that first scene with the false Mr. Jenkins seriously wigged me out when I was a kid.

There are a lot of interesting bits here:  the idea of farandolae “living” within a mitochondrion, whose human host is like a galaxy to them; Proginoskes and his whole slightly imperious but genuinely caring vibe; Meg toiling to discover the real Mr. Jenkins.  However, it’s undoubtedly messier than A Wrinkle in Time, and I think it succeeds with overarching themes and individual details more so than with a cohesive plot.  It’s weird – even though there are many different threads to pull at in A Wrinkle in Time, the book never really feels disjointed or overly busy to me, but it doesn’t work quite as well here.

It doesn’t help that Charles Wallace, while very important to the story, doesn’t have a very big role within it.  Little-boy Charles Wallace is such a knockout of a character, and this book sidelines him for much of the time.  We get a little of him being inscrutable and amazing, like with the “drove of dragons” in the first chapter, but not nearly as much as I’d like.  Not that I don’t love Meg and Calvin, because I really do; however, it’s the dynamic between the three of them that I love best of all.

Warnings

Scary moments for kids, sci-fi/fantasy violence, and thematic elements.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013, PG-13)

(The usual Buster Monday post is being saved for later in the week; we have another 100 Years of Buster Keaton anniversary coming up!)

Even though it certainly still has its flaws, watching Catching Fire was like a sigh of relief for me after The Hunger Games.  As I said in my Hunger Games review, it’s improved for me on rewatch, but I still find Catching Fire a much more exciting, watchable film that, for me, is a lot more successful at what it sets out to do (premise spoilers for this film, as well as some from The Hunger Games.)

After the events of The Hunger Games, Katniss is back home struggling with how to move forward.  Her bold move in the Arena is fanning sparks of rebellion in a number of districts, and on the eve of her shared “victory tour” with Peeta – with whom she has to continue the ruse to the Capitol that they’re madly in love – the president personally lets her know that the lives of everyone she loves will be on the line if she can’t do her job as Capitol puppet and pacify the masses.  Amid the rumblings of dissent across the country, the important 75^th Hunger Games is announced with a very distinctive hook.  All the tributes will be reaped from each district’s surviving victors, and District 12 doesn’t have victors to spare:  Katniss (and either Peeta or Haymitch) will be sent back in.

A lot of the nuts-and-bolts problems I have with The Hunger Games are smoothed over here.  Francis Lawrence’s direction feels a lot tighter and more suspenseful to me, and both the score and the costumes are used to better effect.  Serious stuff goes down in this movie, and the film definitely knows that, an impression I don’t always get in The Hunger Games.  And overall, I’m fairly pleased with the screenplay.  This book covers a lot of ground, and while there are of course wonderful lines, gems of scenes, and perfect character moments that didn’t make the cut (there always are,) I think the film mostly does a good job hitting what’s important in a way that doesn’t feel choppy or rushed.  If I’m going to find nits to pick, I’ll single out the foreshadowing on District 13, which is too skimpy for me.  It also would’ve been nice to work in at least a little bit about Haymitch’s Games, and I’d have liked a bit more with Finnick, just ‘cause I love him as a character.

The new cast members, for my money, all hold their own pretty well.  I especially like Jeffrey Wright, who’s pitch-perfect as Beetee, Lynn Cohen in her understated but affecting role as Mags, and Jena Malone’s fierce turn as Johanna.  Additionally, Amanda Plummer hits the right offbeat notes as Wiress, and while Sam Claflin doesn’t completely sell me on Finnick as a shallow Capitol playboy, he handles Finnick’s greater complexities in the Arena really nicely.  And I know she was in the previous film, too, but Elizabeth Banks’s performance as Effie in this movie made me realize what a gem the franchise has in her.  This is a series that has a lot of great actors all-around, but I think Banks’s Effie might be their secret MVP.

Warnings

Lots of violence, thematic elements, brief implied nudity, alcohol, and language.

Travel Trends on Doctor Who

I was curious about what sort of patterns emerge in how the Doctor and his companion(s) tend to arrive at their adventures – how they most frequently tend to happen upon some invasion that needs thwarting or some planet that needs saving.  I was also curious about what effect outside-show forces may have on these patterns, i.e., whether the Doctor and co. tend to travel differently between the RTD and Moffat years.  So (very non-pointlessly,) I divided new Who’s stories into categories that emerged as I went along.  Yeah, new Who only – maybe someday I’ll try and tackle classic Who, but today is not that day.

What surprised me most was how often the decision of where to go is made for our heroes.  I don’t just mean the TARDIS taking the Doctor somewhere other than where he meant to go, although that does make up a tidy little subset of general time-and-space sightseeing – off-course sightseeing.  No, I mean instances where team TARDIS is either called somewhere or forcibly brought there.  On the latter front, this happens in all sorts of ways – being kidnapped (“Bad Wolf” / “The Parting of the Ways,”) falling through a tear in the universe (“Rise of the Cybermen” / “The Age of Steel,”) getting yanked into a creepy dream state (“Amy’s Choice,”) being hijacked by one’s companion (“Dark Water” / “Death in Heaven,”) and so forth.  The Doctor and his companions are very prone to being dragged somewhere against their will, both accidentally and as part of some evil plot.  Just the same, they’re also very prone to being summoned.  This happens occasionally during the RTD years but really ramps up in the Moffat era, in part because River makes her home there and she loves having the Doctor at her beck and call, but also because it just seems to be a device Moffat likes.  From Churchill to Davros to a scared little boy to a future version of the Doctor himself, everybody wants words with the Doctor.

The other most popular types of travel are specific sightseeing and aimless flitting-about, both with the overall aim of seeing the universe.  At times, the companion has something specific they want to see, like Sherwood Forest, while at others, the Doctor has something in mind that he’s eager to share with them, like the Globe theatre, a space cruiser honeymoon, or the end of planet Earth (ah, angsty Nine.)  And of course, sometimes the Doctor flings open the doors, anxious to show off, and finds himself cheerfully the wrong time and/or place.  The errors can be slight (off by a continent and a few years in “The Idiot’s Latern”) or significant (rural Wales instead of Rio de Janeiro in “The Hungry Earth” / “Cold Blood.”)  But while they often set out with a destination in mind, there are other occasions where they happily step out of the TARDIS with no idea when or where they are (“The Long Game” and “The Impossible Planet” / “The Satan Pit,” for a couple examples.)  I like that the show does this – because it’s cool to see the iconic time periods, meet the famous historical figures, and visit the Doctor’s favorite locales, but it’s also nice to remember that, more than anything, it’s about the journey and the adventure, and they don’t need to have a specific aim to enjoy themselves or do some good in the universe.

RTD has a greater tendency to open on the Doctor already on 21^st century Earth investigating something – that’s his go-to move for introducing new companions.  Rose, Martha, and Donna (as well as Lady Christina) all meet the Doctor after something has already piqued his interest and he’s looking into it.  RTD is also fond of home visits.  The Doctor and Rose in particular stumble across alien craziness several times when Rose drops by to visit Jackie.  Neither of these devices are used nearly as often by Moffat.  I suppose, since both Amy/Rory and Clara spend at least part of their tenure on the show as part-time companions, there’s no reason to make a special trip home to see their families (plus, their families really don’t matter to the show in any meaningful way, so why spend time going to see them?)

So what else does Moffat like?  Travel that has a goal in mind, arriving somewhere due to a clue, a signal, or something else that’s caught the Doctor’s attention.  Whether following something odd in a van Gogh painting or tracing an alien device that shouldn’t be there, Moffat’s Who likes to open on “can’t resist a good mystery” scenarios.  Within that, he’s exceptionally fond of episodes where the TARDIS lands based on a hidden agenda of the Doctor’s.  It has shades of Seven in it, with the Doctor subtly moving pieces into place or investigating something his companions aren’t privy to.  We first see this when the Doctor is looking into the Flesh, it gets used a lot with Clara and Eleven (in “The Bells of Saint John,” “Hide,” and “The Crimson Horror,” all in service of figuring out the Impossible Girl thing,) and it comes up a couple times in series 8 – “The Caretaker” and “Mummy on the Orient Express” – mostly in service of Clara’s “proof” that Twelve isn’t like the nice lovely Doctor she had before (even though, as I just said, Eleven did the exact same thing with her multiple times, and he was actually investigating her.)  By and large, I don’t like these setups as well, because they feels designed to make the Doctor seem “darker” when he doesn’t need to be.

Relationship Spotlight: Zhu-ge Liang & Zhou Yu (Red Cliff)

There are two Red Cliff movies, so it’s only fair that I have two A Little TLC(w) posts in lieu of the reviews I already wrote.  Last time was a Favorite Characters post on Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s character Zhou Yu, and today, we’re looking at the relationship in the films between him and Zhu-ge Liang (some Zhou Yu-Zhu-ge Liang-related spoilers.)

From the start, the circumstances between these two are perilous.  They back different leaders – Zhu-ge Liang is a strategist for Liu Bei, while Zhou Yu serves as a viceroy under Sun Quan.  The two kingdoms aren’t in conflict with each other at the moment, but it’s a contentious time, and land and resources could certainly bring them to blows sooner rather than later.  However, Zhu-ge Liang is the one who has the vision that the two leaders need to unite their armies in order to beat back the tyrannous Cao Cao, and he convinces his lord to send him south to try and broker an alliance.

Getting Sun Quan, the young southern duke, on his side is no easy task, and in order to do that, Zhu-ge Liang first has to win over Zhou Yu, who has the duke’s ear and can bring him around.  As soon as these guys are onscreen together, they’re wary of one another but also impressed with what they see.  Zhou Yu notes Zhu-ge Liang’s frankness and cool practicality, and Zhu-ge Liang admires Zhou Yu’s integrity.  However, it’s not over training maneuvers that they decide to come together.  Zhu-ge Liang proves himself to Zhou Yu by helping one of his horses through a difficult birth, and the two later bond over music.  Playing the qin together, they don’t come to any agreements about the war, but Zhu-ge Liang leaves for the night convinced that Zhou Yu is in, declaring that he heard Zhou Yu’s answer in his playing.

That’s a rather unconventional way to become allies in a war together, but hey – it seems to work for them.  There are a lot of competing voices from both sides of the blended army, but it’s always Zhou Yu and Zhu-ge Liang who are the strongest voices of reason and intuition.  Both have an immense talent for strategy, though each brings his own skill set to the table; Zhou Yu is a great observer of human behavior and can predict Cao Cao’s next moves, while Zhu-ge Liang employs his knowledge of science to use the natural world to their advantage.  Each has his moments of brilliance, where the other just sort of sits back and admires his ideas, and they also work incredibly well off each other.  They often take a thought together, passing it back and forth and fine-tuning it until it becomes what their army needs.  I love how eager each is to listen to what the other has to say – this is, by and large, a partnership without ego, and each would rather be right together than surpass the other.

Which isn’t to say that all is love and brotherhood between them.  Running beneath their interactions – unspoken most of the time, although they do discuss it with each other on occasion – is the fact that their ultimate loyalties tend different ways.  It’s all well and good coming together to fight Cao Cao but if, in the future, Liu Bei crosses swords with Sun Quan, Zhu-ge Liang and Zhou Yu will find themselves on opposite sides.  Both hate the idea of fighting the other, which they openly admit to one another, but they also make it clear that they will fight if it comes down to it.  As such, the alliance between them is deep, full of respect for each other’s knowledge and abilities, but it’s also fragile, subject to the whims of their individual leaders – all in all, it makes for a really intriguing dynamic between them.

News Satire Roundup: September 18th-September 21st

No Last Week Tonight again, but that’s because of the Emmys this past week.  Kinda hard to record a show when you’re so busy bringing home gold!  Congrats to the show on its wins for Outstanding Variety Talk Series and Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series – both were well-deserved, and I heartily enjoyed both of John’s speeches (along with host Stephen Colbert’s bit commiserating with Jimmy Kimmel afterwards.)  It admittedly boggles my mind to see The Daily Show get pretty much zero love (though its online “Between the Scenes” segments did win a Creative Arts Emmy beforehand,) but even though I would’ve nominated that show for both categories, I’d have still given the trophies to John and co. for some truly excellent work.  This show fires on all cylinders pretty much all the time, and the dedication really shows!  And hey – with Game of Thrones ineligible for awards this year, someone had to carry the HBO banner!

Monday, September 18 – Nice Emmys excitement at the beginning, although, among the big wins for Black folks, I wish they’d mentioned Riz Ahmed too, since he’s the first Asian man to win an Emmy in any acting category ever.  Glad they covered the awful interpreter for Hurricane Irma (as soon as I saw the bright yellow shirt and the blank expression, I knew it was gonna be bad.)  Because this is our world now, there was another story on Trump tweets, this time on him calling Kim Jong-un “Rocket Man” and retweeting a doctored GIF of him hitting Hillary Clinton with a golf ball; I enjoyed Trevor’s proposition that Trump can pander to his base with immature GIFs as long as he keeps working with Democrats on policy.  Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin got a profile – I loved Trevor wondering how often he’s had to explain to Trump that he doesn’t really know Batman.  Rapper Gucci Mane was the guest, talking about his new book and album.

Tuesday, September 19 – Amusing observation that a story about Donald Trump Jr. dropping his Secret Service detail included lots of counterintuitive details about his whereabouts.  Excellent story on Trump’s speech at the UN general assembly.  The jarring dissonance between the disparate “you do you” and “you do what we tell you” themes was absolutely bizarre, but Trump’s threat to “destroy North Korea” had me shaking.  Regardless of whether or not he’d actually do it, the fact that he can boldly claim he will with no thought to the millions of people that live there (not to mention the surrounding region) is chilling.  Desi had a good field piece on a Trump-supporting golf course owner who realized the wall would cut across his course.  His dedication to working against his own self-interest was mind-boggling.  The guest, Olivia Munn, talked martial arts and LEGO representation in the media.

Wednesday, September 20 – I liked the opening blurb on the offers not pouring in for Sean Spicer, complete with a montage of him failing to speak words.  The big focus of the night, though, was on the new healthcare bill.  Trevor’s impression of Lindsey Graham pumping himself up was hilarious, and he did a great job driving home the damning point of the bill:  that the GOP is trying to rush it through, not because they believe in it, but because they’re hard-pressed to pass something and don’t want to need any Democratic votes to do it (which they would if it doesn’t pass by month’s end.)  Lewis also did a piece on it – after demonstrating that the GOP leadership don’t understand how health insurance works, he tore into millennials for thinking they’re “invincible” and not buying insurance, driving premiums up.  Guest Ellen Pao discussed her experiences with sexism in the tech industry and what’s needed for real change.

Thursday, September 21 – Funny opening with the Melania Trump billboard about learning English – I especially liked the crack that it would be even more apt with a picture of Trump.  The latest on the Russia investigation, with the FBI raiding Paul Manafort’s house in the middle of the night.  Trevor had some good jokes on the raid, and he segued into a great bit about people on the Trump team being awful liars – he made good use of a clip of Manafort terribly denying any Russia connection, and he did an awesome impression of Sean Spicer having “all the tells.”  Roy talked about Toys R Us filing for bankruptcy, mostly riffing silly ideas on how the store could win back his business as a parent over online retailers.  Bill Gates was the guest; he had great things to say about his charity and, despite everything, the positive progress of the world.  He also gave Trevor some tips about how to convince a billionaire to give him all their money.