News Satire Roundup: September 24th-September 26th

Tuesday, September 24 – Hard-hitting opening with Greta Thunberg’s UN General Assembly speech, followed by a couple lighter bits (a Philadelphia man saving kids from a burning building and Lenny Kravitz setting up an email for news on his missing sunglasses.) But of course, the major story was the whistleblower complaint and the House opening an impeachment inquiry. Once again, we got commentary on Trump’s habit of a) claiming zero wrongdoing while b) shadily withholding evidence and c) simultaneous admitting out loud to doing exactly what he was accused of. Ronny was super relatable, admitting that he doesn’t have it in him to hope that “this will finally be the one” to topple Trump. He recapped a few greatest hits from this merry-go-round. The guest, California governor Gavin Newsome, talked California’s position as living proof that climate consciousness and economic growth can go hand in hand.

Wednesday, September 25 – We started with Boris Johnson’s warnings of a robot revolution, juxtaposed with a Boston Dynamics robot doing gymnastics. I loved Trevor’s point that we worry robots will hurt us in ways that humans already hurt each other, as well as his optimism that, rather than destroy us all, some robots may just want to dance. After a bit on exploding dry shampoo, it was back to the impeachment inquiry. Great observation that Trump’s confident transparency about his wrongdoings makes people question their own reality, and I loved the comparison with The Sopranos, which showed that extortionists don’t need to actually say, “This is a quid pro quo.” Roy covered the lackluster Republican debate from Trump’s primary challengers, featuring a lot of nothing until one of them warned Roy how easily he could slit Roy’s throat (what even…?) Nick Cannon was the guest, promoting his new talk show.

Thursday, September 26 – Great jokes about a smuggled coffin at the Met being returned to Egypt, with Trevor wondering how you “forge” ownership documents of a 2,000-year-old gold coffin. Next was an iPhone that survived a drop from a plane (and yet Trevor’s can’t survive falling to the bathroom floor!) and Japan Airlines indicating babies’ locations on their seat maps. The latest on the impeachment inquiry was the release of the full whistleblower complaint. Sad but true point about how it stands to be more damning than the Mueller report because, being only 9 pages long, people will actually read it. I could’ve done without Desi’s desk piece on how Trump was “wasting” his impeachment by getting taken down over such a seemingly-unimpressive offense – it didn’t go much of anywhere for me. The guest was The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil, teasing the final season and talking about her crusade against the diet industry.