Sunday, July 28 – We looked first at
Puerto Rico’s governor stepping down, examining the scandal that proved his
final undoing and the efforts of the protesters. Understandably, the main story
was on Boris Johnson, the U.K.’s new prime minister. I really liked how John
challenged the claim that Johnson is “the British Trump,” instead demonstrating
ways that his “clumsy dumb Brit” routine is a calculated move to make him
appear nonthreatening and approachable. The show also looked at how he laid
seeds for the distrust/dissatisfaction that would become Brexit for decades
through the (actual) fake news he published while working as a journalist and
the unlikely odds of him achieving any sort of non-disastrous Brexit, given
that he’s alienated most of the EU. Using “full romcom-mode Hugh Grant in United 93” as an analogy for how
Johnson’s comic persona stops being funny in light of the stakes of Brexit was
perfect.
Monday, July 29 – After a quick look
at a teenage Fortnite champion, we
caught up on Trump’s latest “beefs.” As expected, Trevor mocked Trump’s
insistence that, despite not drinking, he prefers American wine to French
because it “looks nicer,” and the whole “Obama ruined the White House AC” thing
was ridiculous. More serious was him calling Baltimore a “rodent-infested” city
that “no human being” would want to live in. Trevor echoed others who’ve noted
his racist pattern with the word “infested” (although I loved Trevor’s tangent
that all the best cities with the best
food have rats) and generally gave the comments the contempt they deserve.
Dulcé reported on some recent relationship studies, including the rise in
“foodie calls” (going on a date solely for the free meal.) Guest Angela Bassett
humbly accepted Trevor calling her a legend and discussed her recent comedic
work and the change it makes from intense drama.
Tuesday, July 30 – More live post-debate
shows! Night one touched on OJ Simpson’s Twitter commentary(?) and covered some
pregame stuff, like CNN’s weird Reaping Day method of picking the lineup and
the interminable opening handshake between the candidates (I loved the joke
about Marianne Williamson giving everyone a palm-reading.) There were some good
points on how CNN ran the debate, with absurdly-short response times allotted
for some questions and a number of questions that seemed to be angling for
conflict (featuring the line, “CNN, you catty bitch!”) Roy didn’t want to talk
about the debates when there’s still so many candidates. His argument that we
should be honest and admit that all we really care about is who can win in the
swing states had a point, a sad commentary on U.S. politics. The guest was
journalist Olivia Nuzzi, who had a measured take and maintained that the
nomination is still very up for grabs.
Wednesday, July 31 – Night two. The big
theme of tonight’s coverage was the confrontations, featuring the expected
“rematch” between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and beyond, as well as Michael
Bennet and Cory Booker tag-teaming against Biden (loved Booker’s Kool-aid
saying and Trevor’s story about the white people he watched with looking to him
for confirmation that Black people really say that) and Tulsi Gabbard coming
for Harris. Some real body-slam moments, and Trevor didn’t ignore how CNN
catered to that (even in small ways, like how the “random line-up selection”
sandwiched Biden between his most outspoken critics.) Michael took a turn
inside the post-debate “spin room,” trying to answer the big questions like,
“Why is John Delaney still running?” Pollster Cornell Belcher was the guest. He
also noted CNN’s hankering for conflict, which he pointed out was better suited
for ratings than learning candidates’ views.
Thursday, August 1 – First up was a non-debate catch-up. We had
a baby born in a cab, Jeffrey Epstein’s creepy past plans to “seed the earth”
with his DNA (shudder,) and an asteroid narrowly missing the earth/a plague of
locusts in Las Vegas (renewing Trevor’s suspicions that God is mad at us – “I
mean, it’s call Sin City!”) There was
also the recently-released audio of Ronald Reagan’s despicably-racist remarks
to Richard Nixon. I loved Trevor’s response to the pundit who argued that, were
Reagan still alive, he’d be the first to apologize for his words: “Yeah, he
should be the only one to apologize!”
The latest CP Time from Roy looked at moments in hip-hop history, from the
origins of the record scratch to the proliferation of the turntable. Orange is the New Black’s Diane Guerrero
was the guest, talking about the new season and coming into her own as an
activist by speaking about her family’s experiences with deportation.
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