News Satire Roundup: October 1st-October 5th

Sunday, October 1 – This week’s Trump news included the president 1) deriding Puerto Rico for needing aid after a hurricane and later spewing nonsense how “great” they were doing “on the deaths” (what is this even,) 2) defending the healthcare bill’s defeat by repeatedly (falsely) insisting that a Senator was in the hospital, depriving the GOP of a vote it needed, and 3) openly lying about his tax reform plan being “really bad” for the super-rich like himself.  The main story on forensic science, while interesting was a bit of a letdown with everything going on, but it was still good to get the staggering numbers on just how inconclusive forensic evidence in a criminal case can be.  The best part was the CSI:  Crime Scene Idiot trailer we got at the end, starring a clueless, forensics-obsessed, dramatic-sunglasses-removing, tasteless-pun-spouting officer and featuring the likes of Samira Wiley and Josh Lucas – so funny!

Monday, October 2 – Strong words from Trevor on the Las Vegas shooting.  He challenged the idea that “now is not the time” to talk gun control and questioned the sense of people focusing instead on hotel security.  Next was Trump calling out Rex Tillerson on Twitter for bothering to try engaging in diplomacy with Kim Jong-un – I loved the bit about “all Kims” looking alike to Trump.  Good story on the continuing situation in Puerto Rico, especially Trevor asking how Trump can be a billionaire/the U.S. president and still be the most insecure person on earth.  He also covered Tom Price’s forced resignation and the fact that Price was already on Trump’s shit list for not doing more to get rid of Obamacare; the bit envisioning Obamacare as Bruce Lee was great.  I really enjoyed the interview with BET’s Robin Thede, as she discussed her penchant for being the first Black woman to do something and she and Trevor bonded over Beyoncé love.

Tuesday, October 3 – The clips from Trump’s Puerto Rico visit were suitably pathetic and tonedeaf, with Trump cheerfully lobbing paper towels(??) into a crowd of hurricane victims.  More on the Las Vegas shooting, with Fox News grasping for a way to spin it.  I loved Trevor’s contempt for Sean Hannity’s delusional “good guy with a gun” fantasy, and the montage showing Fox News’s hypocrisy in insisting not to “politicize” the shooting was excellent.  The story on OJ Simpson’s release from jail was a little all over the place without much in the way of a real point – mostly just a loose collection of OJ jokes, but there were some good ones in there.  Representative Jim Himes was the guest; he and Trevor lamented how often there are mass shootings for him to speak against, and he hammered home how vital it is for Congress to offer anything but silence in response to this.

Wednesday, October 4 – Let it be noted:  we now live in a world where the Secretary of State is forced to hold a press conference (not precisely) denying that he called the president a moron.  Yeesh.  Next was a good story on meddling from Russian hackers, looking at how they’ve used social media, not just to sway swing states before the election, but to generally foment ideological clashes among Americans – the dueling Twitter accounts sporting #BoycottTheNFL and #TakeAKnee were telling.  Neil Brennan dropped by to talk gun control.  I liked what he said about the difficulty of fighting a symbol, and his plan to trick Congress into gun legislation with another symbol, having the “scary” Black NFL protesters hold AR-15’s instead of kneel on the field, was depressing in how true it was.  Enjoyable interview with John Hodgeman, especially his story about him and his daughter pretending to be ghosts at a local cemetery.

Thursday, October 5 – Boo on Cam Newton thinking the mere idea of a female sports reporter using football terminology is “funny.”  Short bit on new disaster relief funds, with Trevor conceding that Trump (finally) did something good but reaired the tactless tape of his lobbing paper towels into a crowd of Puerto Rican hurricane victims.  Next up was the irony of the outspokenly pro-life Rep. Tim Murphy stepping down after news came out that he urged his mistress to get an abortion.  I especially liked Trevor’s comments on Murphy’s excuse that his public pro-life remarks are written by staff and he “just” reads them.  For Throwback Thursday, the show revisited the release of the Access Hollywood tape; I couldn’t believe that was a year ago.  Black-ish creator Kenya Barris was the guest, talking about pushing boundaries and his continued amazement that his show is on the air.