News Satire Roundup: February 25th-March 1st

Sunday, February 25 – John continued with the Parkland shooting, particularly Trump’s “arm the teachers” idea.  I appreciated his point about how many teachers there are in the U.S. and that arming even Trump’s proposed 20% would mean 700,000 guns, explaining why the NRA loves it so much.  He also covered recent trips to India by Justin Trudeau (and his Bollywood wardrobe) and Donald Trump Jr. (complimenting India for its “smiling” poor people.)  The main story looked at Italy’s upcoming election, which doesn’t seem to have much in the way of good options.  With anti-immigration sentiment on multiple sides, a rise in fascism, and a skeevy, corrupt ex-Prime Minister looking to make a comeback, John doesn’t envy Italians heading to the polls.  So, he used an Air Bud-style loophole to announce his own candidacy, marked by the appearance of cute animals, a fake game-show appearance, and a remote control volcano.

Monday, February 26 – We opened on China clearing the way for President Xi to run again when his term is up – I liked Trevor’s joke about trading the one-child rule for a one-president rule.  Next was more on the Parkland conversation, with businesses being pressured to drop their NRA discounts (“Why did they have discounts??” – thanks for that, Trevor) and Trump claiming he would’ve run into the shooting unarmed.  Trevor gave that latter piece all the incredulous derision it deserved, taking pot shots about Trump “running” anywhere and speculating on how his mere presence might have bewildered the shooter into submission.  Roy and Michael did a sports piece on the Olympics; I laughed so hard at the line about how “we did not invade Iraq to come in 4^th at the Olympics!”  The guest, Wayne Brady, talked about returning to Broadway in Kinky Boots and the importance of characters that defy your assumptions about them.

Tuesday, February 27 – Trevor tied the “arm the teachers” idea to the West Virginia teacher strike – I liked his line about a teacher being given a gun and then holding up their students.  We touched on Jared Kushner’s lowered security clearance (I loved the joke about John Kelly having to “spell” classified info in front of him and Trump not understanding) before moving onto the midterm elections.  Trevor revisited Mitt Romney trying to connect with Black voters, confirmed that Levi Sanders is definitely Bernie’s son, and warned Stacey Dash against running for office for sheer publicity, given how it turned out when Trump tried it.  Next was a good piece on a town in Germany trying to decide what to do with its bell emblazoned with a swastika – Trevor challenging the idea that “the bell did nothing wrong” (“It knew!!”) was hilarious.  Journalist Nima Elbagir was the guest; she shared about her experiences investigating Libya’s slave trade.

Wednesday, February 28 – Good opener on Trump’s meeting with Congress members on gun legislation – I liked comparing Trump with a drunk uncle at a wedding who occasionally stumbles into a nugget of truth.  The story on Ben Carson’s penny-pinching in HUD against people who need it contrasted with his lavish overspending in his own office was insane.  I loved Trevor’s reaction to Carson saying you “couldn’t get a decent chair” for $5,000 as much as I enjoyed his derision at Carson not wanting poor people to be “too comfortable” in subsidized housing.  Dulcé joined Roy for the final Black History Month piece, this time on important Black women – the “I’ve been here the whole time, Roy, you just haven’t noticed” gag was good.  The guest was journalist Jorge Ramos, who talked Trump’s treatment of immigrants, as well as Trump’s disdain of him as a Mexican-American journalist (seriously, “Go back to Univision”?)

Thursday, March 1 – After a quick freakout about Putin’s nuclear weapon claims, it was back to guns, with Trevor still reeling from Trump’s apparent support for stronger background checks, raising age limits, and banning assault weapons.  Lots of good stuff here – I loved Trevor noting that the connection between mass shootings and guns is so simple that even Trump figured it out, but I’m also glad he made the point about Trump seeming to support DACA right before he started talking about “shithole countries,” as I was thinking the same thing.  Ronny looked for an answer to Democrats’ branding problem by turning to a liberal wrestler for punchy slogans that won’t bore and/or confuse the masses.  I of course loved Chadwick Boseman as the guest – if the show wants to have Black Panther Thursdays from here on out, I’m cool with that.  I especially liked what he said about the film bridging the gap between Africans and African-Americans.