"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Saturday, August 10, 2019

News Satire Roundup: August 4th-August 8th

Sunday, August 4 – New Patriot Act! The new block kicked off with an episode on video games and labor. I was already pretty well aware of the rampant sexism in the industry (as Hasan said, “It’s like finding out that Mike Pence pulls his underwear down to his ankles to pee: it’s new information, but it’s not surprising,”) although the specific stories shared here were terrible. What I didn’t know was how big gaming companies work their developers to the breaking point in the lead-up to a new game (months of mandatory 16-hours days without overtime, called “crunch,”) then unceremoniously lay most of them off after the game comes out. I liked the running gag of Hasan’s GFX team sending us messages on the graphics behind him, and the ending, with him trying to live-stream facts about labor abuses, was entertaining. I’m glad to hear that industry workers are starting to unionize.



Sunday, August 4 – This episode was put together before the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, so the show opened with an added plea from John not to become numb to this type of senseless violence, “because unless something hurts as much as it’s supposed to, nothing gets done about it.” The episode proper started with Boris Johnson’s less-than-illustrious visit to Scotland and the latest Trump nominee to be cycled out (John Ratcliffe, for being absurdly unqualified for the position he was nominated for.) The main story was on prison labor. Orange is the New Black introduced me to this topic and 13th taught me a lot more, but John’s take on it was good. I loved his remark that an amendment abolishing slavery shouldn’t include the word “except,” and the warden arguing against the release of “good” parolees because of their value to him as essentially-free labor was horrible.


Monday, August 5 – After quick blurbs on a French hoverboard and a woman who scared off a cougar with Metallica, the show turned to Saturday’s shootings. Trevor looked at the fingers pointed at various causes: the Internet (for radicalization,) violent video games, mental illness (although the majority of mass shooters haven’t been diagnosed with one.) I loved his point that Congress tries to find a singular cause for all mass shootings and, and in the absence of one, instead does nothing. He later addressed Neil deGrasse Tyson’s rather tactless tweet about things that cause more deaths than mass shootings, arguing that that America tries to lessen deaths from medical errors, car accidents, and beyond, but very little action is really being taken on mass shootings. Guest Eva Longoria also discussed the shootings (from her vantage point as a Texan,) which Trevor noted shouldn’t have to be part of a Dora the Explorer press tour.

Tuesday, August 6 – We opened on the escalating trade war with China, followed by “off the grid” luxury vacations (why not just go somewhere ordinary and lock your devices in the safe if you don’t trust yourself not to use them?) and a new app for assigning chores (featuring a great tangent on Trevor’s hatred for chores.) More on the weekend’s mass shootings, looking at Fox News’s plans to solve the crisis without blaming guns. The news that the Dayton shooter killed 9 people (and hit 14 more) in just 30 seconds shook me, and I loved Trevor’s response to the idea that we need armed guards “on every floor of every school and every hall of every mall,” saying that this would make America a prison in which only the guns are free. The guest, getting two segments, was presidential candidate Marianne Williamson. She reiterated a lot of her points from the last debate and posited why she, a non-politician, can connect with voters.

Wednesday, August 7 – First was a viral math problem along the lines of “the dress,” followed by increased traffic due to ride shares (loved Trevor’s bit about “Uber Stride,” ha!) and footage of cops on horseback leading an arrested Black man on a rope (good point that there’s no non-racist visual of arresting a Black man while on a horse.) The latest on the mass shooting aftermath included, as Trevor put it, Trump going out of his way to avoid singling out white supremacy (“or any other kind of supremacy,” seriously?!) and Joe Biden managing to botch the names of both places hit by mass shootings this weekend. Two guests, the first being presidential candidate Michael Bennet. I appreciated Trevor talking about his work in the Senate, since I really didn’t know anything about Bennet before the first debates. The second guest was Natasha Lyonne, talking Russian Doll and her opportunities to be involved in engrossing projects.

Thursday, August 8 – Opening blurbs on new climate-change warnings, emojis as gang codes (Abraham Lincoln was a Blood, who knew?), and Trump floating a pardon for Rod Blagojevich, followed by a video game the show designed to convince lawmakers to legislate gun control (since video games are “so influential.”) Interesting story on progressives threatening to cancel their Equinox membership because its owner fundraises for Trump. I loved Trevor’s rift about how anyone hosting a Trump fundraiser can’t also call themselves “a champion of diversity,” and Jaboukie had a fun bit doing resistance-based “wokeouts.” Next was Turkmenistan’s president possibly being dead and the bizarre propaganda footage that doesn’t actually prove otherwise (I’m with Trevor – why is he bowling and driving racecars in the video?!) Meek Mill was the guest, talking about his new documentary and the effects of the probation system.

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