Sunday,
March 15 – Because the situation is changing daily, what was supposed to be
John’s first no-audience show turned out to be the last show of any kind of the
foreseeable future. The lack of audience definitely made it feel different, as
did the “blank void where cartoon characters go when they die” white set, but
it also gave the episode a quasi fireside-chat feel as John spoke on the
coronavirus. While I’ve already heard most of this, I still appreciated John’s
take. He covered Trump’s misinformation and excuses (“to quote Harry S. Truman,
‘The buck stops… somewhere over there. Tony, did you stop that buck? Don’t ask
me, I just work here.’”) He also offered safety advice from a TikTok hamster
and stressed the importance of social distancing while recognizing that it can
suck, allowing us all 30 seconds to be selfishly annoyed at the things we were
looking forward to that got cancelled. Excellent episode!
Wednesday, March 18 – The
Daily Show has joined some other late-night shows in producing
stripped-down socially-distanced episodes for YouTube. They previously released
a few shorter segments, but here’s a longer one. Trevor covered a range of
topics, from the announcement that confirmed cases have surpassed 200,000, to
testing issues, to Trump’s press conferences. I loved the line, “Only Trump
could take a press conference about a pandemic and turn it into a fight about
racism,” and I agreed with Trevor’s nostalgia for Obama’s addresses to the
nation. Trevor and Roy commiserated on a video call – I appreciated Trevor
discussing his own fears about the virus, and Roy had some good remarks on
celebrities seeming to get preferential treatment amid limited testing (this is
how to find out once and for all if you’re an A-list celebrity!)
Thursday, March 19 – I loved Trevor’s suggestion that
Trump serve as the “hype man” at his press conferences, letting the
doctors/experts speak while he concurs in the background. Case in point?
Claiming that a treatment would be available “almost immediately,” only to have
the FDA clarify that they’re talking about fast-tracking clinical trials. Sigh. (Side note: I love the recurring gag of
Trevor making up different ‘J’ middle names for Trump. Today, it was “Donald
Jehoshaphat Trump.”) He also looked at mortgage relief and the suspension of
penalty fees for struggling New Yorkers, and we all raged at the footage of
spring breakers in Florida. Trevor had the perfect response to a guy claiming he
wouldn’t “let” coronavirus stop him from partying: “Coronavirus is like Harvey
Weinstein – it doesn’t ask for consent!” Jaboukie called in, concerned about
Trevor because he heard the recommendations to check on “old people.”
Friday, March 20 – We started with good news (2 days in a
row with no new cases in China, studies on a possible treatment in France) and
bad news (Italy’s death toll has surpassed China’s.) Trevor next looked at how
the U.S. ignored warnings months ago – except, of course, for senators who
conveniently sold off stocks following confidential briefings. I’m
paraphrasing, but I loved that line, “I don’t like that they might have gotten
rich off of coronavirus, but I really hate that they were still telling us to
lick doorknobs until like yesterday!” Gross that the stimulus package will give
less to low-income workers (who are the least likely to be able to work from
home,) and our daily dose of Trump being terrible at a press briefing involved
him berating a reporter asking for a message for frightened Americans. Roy
video-interviewed an NYC doctor about the critical lack of masks in hospitals, urging
anyone with a stockpile to donate them.
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