News Satire Roundup: February 16th

Sunday, February 16 – Last Week Tonight returns! After a quick rundown of what happened between seasons, we looked at Trump’s acquittal, especially the notion from those like Susan Collins that he “learned his lesson” after the experience. But of course, as the recent Roger Stone sentencing demonstrates, that lesson was apparently, “I can get away with anything.” Big points for the jokes about Stone’s dress sense; my favorite was “a man whose day planner just reads ‘FRAME ROGER RABBIT.’” The main story examined Medicare for All and the primary criticisms of it: heavy cost, increased wait times, and reduced choice. The provider who found it was cheaper to offer patients $500 and fly them to Mexico to purchase prescriptions was mind-boggling, and as John pointed out, no one should have to prioritize which organ to treat or come up with a catchy-enough hashtag to solicit healthcare funds from the Internet.

The Daily Show is off this week and Patriot Act still hasn’t come back. One thing I’ve been appreciating about The Daily Show lately is Jordan’s return to do his “Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse” pieces at Trump rallies. I don’t know how he manages to keep doing those field reports time and time again, but more power to him, because wow.

These pieces are that unique mix of ludicrous and horrifying that’s so pervasive these days. The things that come out of people’s mouths in these stories are absolutely absurd, and Jordan is so good at never openly mocking them, just giving them enough rope to hang themselves. There’ve been times where I’ve had to rewind multiple times on these pieces because I’m laughing so hard that I miss the next line. But at the same time, they’re terrible, because they’re a powerful reminder of what a number of people genuinely espouse.

When you spend a lot of time with progressives, get your news from mainstream sources, and watch shows like The Daily Show, it can be easy to think there’s only one way to interpret the things Trump says and does, but that obviously isn’t true. If it was, we wouldn’t be in our present situation and I wouldn’t be worried about 2020. There are some people who hang on his every word and see “deep state” conspiracies everywhere they turn, and this is what they believe. These field pieces are more potent for me than Fox News clips because I know that, regardless of what Fox News anchors personally believe, there’s definite calculation in how they craft their stories, designing them to frighten and enrage. But Jordan’s interviews give you a glimpse at the people who see Fox News as news rather than propaganda.

I remember, back when Jordan was a full-time correspondent on the show, it occurred to me that no one else on the show could really do what he does. As the sole white male correspondent at the time, Jordan was the only one who could get inside a crowd like that and get people to say what they really think without shutting down or being defensive. Behind the guise of the “embodiment of white male privilege” character he often played, Jordan could let the people at the rallies think he was “one of them” and get their honest opinions unfiltered by any concern about “libs” in their presence. (That said, I do vividly remember the time the show sent Hasan to the Republican National Convention, especially the woman who earnestly told Hasan that he was “one of the good ones” (Muslims.))