TDS 3.0: Season One Talk

[angora]

That was interesting to me, too, lordonia - it was brought up in Trevor's recent NPR interview with Terry Gross, asking him why he didn't talk about it in his standup, but otherwise, I wouldn't have known he had depression.  (His answer to Terry Gross, by the way, was that he didn't talk about it in his US standup because he felt like he and American audiences were still getting to know each other, whereas, in countries where he'd been doing standup a lot longer, he could talk about any and everything.  Maybe he's starting to feel a little more comfortable with the TDS audience then?)  I thought it was a good interview, honest and funny - I liked Trevor's comment about the one treatment sounding like Scientology, and Neal Brennan's "But what about the dimples, Trevor?!?" cracked me up.

 

I loved Trevor's impression of Trump supporters not knowing who to be prejudiced against re:  the Nation of Islam.  "Do we deport ourselves??", lol.

 

The kids with guns story was pretty good, I thought.  All the graphics were perfect - the little kids packing heat, AR Bud, the tantrum video clips demonstrating why you might not want to trust a child with a gun.  I liked Trevor's comparison between the guy calling up lawmakers to say, "My kids need guns!" and the parents calling to say, "My child was hurt by gun violence," as well as his grim realization that Iowa was one of the few states that didn't ALREADY allow children to use handguns.

 

The body acceptance piece with Kristen didn't quite come together for me, though I was glad to see her again.  It had some great parts - Barbie in a jalopy, Dr. Oz wisdom from former models, Kristen showing off how she'd do as a plus-size model - but I felt like it needed something more to make it work.  (I did laugh at Kristen complimenting Trevor's Barbie-playing skills, though.)

[peeayebee]

I noticed that in the side-by-side pics of Trump and Farrakhan, although their ties were different styles, both basically had the same color and pattern. Has Trump responded to Farrakhan's endorsement?

 

 

I liked Trevor's comparison between the guy calling up lawmakers to say, "My kids need guns!" and the parents calling to say, "My child was hurt by gun violence,"

 

It was strange, but so apt, that the audience didn't even have a nervous titter after this. 

 

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that many States don't have laws banning children from having guns. The NRA doesn't want ANY laws restricting guns in any way.  

[topanga]

 

The kids with guns story was pretty good, I thought.  All the graphics were perfect - the little kids packing heat, AR Bud, the tantrum video clips demonstrating why you might not want to trust a child with a gun.

I liked the jingle. Because I hear that "KARS for KIDS" commercial way too much. It was nice to hear it used for comic relief. And I liked the kids being set up like a band, though they were carrying guns. It was actually a little scary watching the video with the tantrum boy with a gun superimposed into his hand.

 

I fell asleep before the interview--will have to watch it tonight. I like Neal Brennan as a comedian, and he's very open about therapy and treating his depression. I never would have guessed that Trevor is battling depression. Just goes to show you that appearances than be deceiving. 

[tenativelyyours]

This is at least the second time that Trevor takes the laughs and then just slams down on them.   Pulling the audience up in such an abrupt way that you can almost feel them being ashamed for laughing so much as it seemed he was going into a joke.  And instead ends with some rather jarring truths.  I have to say that in this case I like that he does this instead of getting all preachy or making the transition smooth.  Going from kids needing guns to kids being killed by guns should be exactly how Trevor delivered that. 

 

I loved the graphics.  The initial picture of the almost cherubic boy with the gun to the girl whose mother was using facetime to follow the law to the family coming back all braided.  The videos of the various kids meltdowns was funny.  The only thing I would have done different is maybe show some of the videos I have seen captured from school buses that show how violent kids can be to each other when they aren't packing.

 

I liked Kristen's piece right to and including her complimenting Trevor getting into the play and that just giving his doll a name had given her a back story.  The rest fizzled a bit and made me wonder if it was figured out at the last minute where to go.  I did love the reaction to when she mentioned Dr. Oz.  Between Cheryl Teigs and Yolanda Hadid Foster the man digs his own holes and then can't understand why so many give him the side eye while he points to his degrees and goes 'but but but".  Stop selling snake oil Doc.  And stop saying what a woman's ideal measurements should be unless you are willing to drop trou on national television and see just how you measure up.  For someone who claims to have all these cures I want to know why he is the same age as my father and looks old enough to be his father.

[Lantern7]

They opened the show with an Inside Out parody, and nobody thought to call Lewis Black? That's understandable . ..  if that went through, the Disney lawyers would have broken Trevor's legs

[shok]

Ok, now I'm getting really pissed off at Trevor (and a lot of the rest of the media too). For crying out loud, Hillary and the rest of the Democrats were pushing for all sorts of improvements to social benefits long before faux-Dem Sanders got up to his pulpit. Hillary's first policy papers, put out up to a year before Bernbot got into the race espoused all sorts of liberal values, many of which it could be said Bernie stole from her!   https://medium.com/@dvieregge/hillary-s-very-consistent-genuine-campaign-to-address-the-concerns-of-our-diverse-nation-d749371bb56d#.uso949mn6

 

What does a woman have to do to have her bona fides respected? Back in the boonies of Vermont while Bernie was a hippie part time free lance writer having children out of wedlock and writing loony articles about childhood cancer being caused by mental disease, Hillary was an acclaimed lawyer and activist and Democratic Party stalwart putting in the time and the effort to work for actual reform and worthy causes.

 

If Trevor and his staff can't be bothered to inform themselves about actual facts I wish they would just not bother to mention Hillary at all because doing segments like they did on tonight's show is downright insulting to her and to other women. I mean, heaven forbid they might note that Hillary's delegate lead over Sanders is bigger than Trump's over his opponents or that she has gotten more votes in total from the Dem primaries than Trump has gotten from the Republican circus. Gah! A pox on all of them.

[Victor the Crab]

Doesn't really matter if Bernie Sanders did push Hillary Clinton to the left this campaign. Too many of Sanders supporters are adamant that Clinton is a Republican light who sold her soul to Wall Street and is a trigger happy warhawk who can't be trusted to run the country in their interest. Many of them are threatening to stay home on election night if Clinton is the Democrats nominee, or write in Sanders or someone else on the ballot, or - shockingly - vote for Donald "Drumph", in order to send the Dems a message that four years of "Drumph" as president will finally get American voters to elect their candidate of choice in 2020. They see Hillary Clinton as their enemy when in reality she has a better chance of serving their needs than anything Sanders can promise them.

 

Liked the Inside Out inspired cold opening. Where was Sadness moping about "Drumph" becoming president? Speaking of Lewis, he's only been on TDS once since Trevor took over hosting duties.

[shok]

But Hillary Clinton isn't Trevor Noah's enemy!!! Why are they treating her as one????

[angora]

I agree that the Hilary story handled her accomplishments/stances somewhat dismissively, but I liked that, re:  the whole "Hilary's stealing Bernie's ideas!" thing, Trevor pointed out how shortsighted it was to get worked up over it.  Regardless of whether she "stole" the ideas or not (which sounds so dumb,) she was always going to stand a much better chance of getting the nomination than Bernie, which the numbers obviously bear out.  And since Bernie is wildly unlikely to beat her in the end, wouldn't his supporters WANT the eventual candidate to share some of his thoughts on issues that are important to them?  I thought that was a great point.  (Also, I laughed so hard at the graphic of Bernie dressed as a hipster grinding his own coffee beans.)

 

I loved the jokes about Carson even dropping out slowly.  Pour out some Nyquil, indeed.

 

The Inside Out opening was fun, and I enjoyed the stuff about both Cruz and Rubio, especially the Jay Z analogy for Cruz's comparisons between himself and Trump and Rubio agreeing to disagree over how numbers work.

 

The fascism piece earlier this week was great, but I thought the Trump = climate change story was really excellent as well.  It's a great metaphor for how the GOP either didn't recognize Trump for the threat he was, denied that he was a problem, or refused to acknowledge their culpability in the whole mess, and how it may soon be too late to stop it.

[zxy556575]

It's a great metaphor for how the GOP either didn't recognize Trump for the threat he was, denied that he was a problem, or refused to acknowledge their culpability in the whole mess, and how it may soon be too late to stop it.

 

A Clinton/Trump race will be eye-opening in many ways -- two of the most hated people in America.

[peeayebee]

I agree that the Hilary story handled her accomplishments/stances somewhat dismissively, but I liked that, re:  the whole "Hilary's stealing Bernie's ideas!" thing, Trevor pointed out how shortsighted it was to get worked up over it.  Regardless of whether she "stole" the ideas or not (which sounds so dumb,) she was always going to stand a much better chance of getting the nomination than Bernie, which the numbers obviously bear out.  And since Bernie is wildly unlikely to beat her in the end, wouldn't his supporters WANT the eventual candidate to share some of his thoughts on issues that are important to them?  I thought that was a great point. 

 

Me too. Of course if Hillary doesn't attempt to carry out those ideas, that's another thing. 

 

I certainly hope Bernie supporters won't throw a fit and refuse to vote for Hillary if/when she becomes the Dem nominee. If Trump is the Rep nominee, there has to be a YUGE Democratic turnout to ensure that he's not elected. 

 

I loved the jokes about Carson even dropping out slowly.  Pour out some Nyquil, indeed.

 

I adore Trevor's Ben Carson impression. It's so much better than Jay Pharoah's. I'm going to miss it.

[ganesh]

I get the climate change comparison, and it's really good. I tend to think that the gop thought in the end, they'd be able to control Trump and realized too late that they can't. 

 

Anyone supporting Bernie who doesn't support the eventual Democratic nominee is flat out stupid and living in a bubble. ESPECIALLY if there's a scotus nominee on the line, and there could be likely another coming up.  

[attica]

there could be likely another coming up.

 

If Obama went and nominated Anita Hill, why, there'd be another vacant chair in, like, five minutes!

[tenativelyyours]

Well, hell, lets winnow out all those old Republicans in the Senate and the House and have him nominate himself.

[zxy556575]

He should nominate Sanders! It would be worth it just for the collective Republican apoplexy during confirmation hearings.

[Victor the Crab]

Anyone supporting Bernie who doesn't support the eventual Democratic nominee is flat out stupid and living in a bubble. ESPECIALLY if there's a scotus nominee on the line, and there could be likely another coming up.

 

You'll find plenty of them over at places like Salon and Daily Kos. And if you tell them that, they'll go into full blown monkey poo flinging mode.

 

I can hardly wait for tonight's episode showing us Mitt Romney going lame attack against Donald Drumph.

[stillshimpy]

But Hillary Clinton isn't Trevor Noah's enemy!!! Why are they treating her as one????

 

I think he just did the piece to try and add balance to the much deserved shredding, basting, chopping and creaming job aimed at Trump.  Please don't mistake me, I fully completely and absolutely support all forms of Trump-bashing-destroying-insulting and just basically exposing him as the grotesque pile of hair and malice that he truly is.  I'll happily mix the mud to sling at him and do so cheerfully, possibly singing a happy tune about how only when I am standing atop the ashes of the Trump campaign and the obliteration of his chances of being president will I stop making mud pies for Trevor Noah to lob directly at the Orange Hateful Misogynistic piece of refuse and shit bound together by bile and phlegm.  

 

But I think they threw in the Hillary piece solely because someone in the writers' room likely said, "Well, we should probably lob a softball or two at the Democratic side of the aisle too....then we can get back to aiming a shit-storm at the drain clog with the curdled soul and morally bankrupt personal life that is Donald Trump."  

 

So they tossed that one out there.   

[MrWhyt]

But Hillary Clinton isn't Trevor Noah's enemy!!! Why are they treating her as one????

Cause they're a comedy show.

[angora]

That old clip of Romney fawning over his endorsement from Trump made me wonder: if every politician had all their video clips of them making completely contradictory stances played one after the other, what would the average length be? I'm sure every one of them has them, but is there a fairly wide range of the hypocrisy and/or flip-flopping, or is there a pretty stable median with a few outliers?

Really appreciated the story on the KKK and the shift in racial views between the Democratic and Republican parties; that's always been interesting to me, and I thought Trevor did a great job with the piece. For me, all it needed to make it perfect was a little more about the Republican side - how did they go from "the party of Lincoln" to taking in the ex-Democrats who left over things like the Voting Rights Act? Side note - I was really surprised that the N-word wasn't bleeped out of that Strom Thurmond speech, especially since it was censored in the subtitles.)

I still think the "Good Guy with a Gun" piece was Jordan's best, but this one was pretty good, too. Obviously, it did a great job of showing how intractable the other side is being re: gun research. What - people still die in car accidents, so we would've been better off with the CDC not studying them at all? Is that the logic? And I lost it when the CDC guy called Jordan "Jason" and then the other guy corrected him, reminding him of the Jordan River in Israel. They really were a great Two Broke Girls/Quantico.

Edited March 4, 2016 by angora

[peeayebee]

Really appreciated the story on the KKK and the shift in racial views between the Democratic and Republican parties; that's always been interesting to me, and I thought Trevor did a great job with the piece. For me, all it needed to make it perfect was a little more about the Republican side - how did they go from "the party of Lincoln" to taking in the ex-Democrats who left over things like the Voting Rights Act? 

This was my favorite part of the show. I loved his analogies. "You don't call it a flying caterpillar." And then the comparison of eating pizza and shitting it out. Just perfect AND funny.

 

Side note - I was really surprised that the N-word wasn't bleeped out of that Strom Thurmond speech, especially since it was censored in the subtitles.)

 

That really surprised me also. I'm glad it wasn't bleeped.

 

That old clip of Romney fawning over his endorsement from Trump made me wonder: if every politician had all their video clips of them making completely contradictory stances played one after the other, what would the average length be? I'm sure every one of them has them, but is there a fairly wide range of the hypocrisy and/or flip-flopping, or is there a pretty stable median with a few outliers?

I was thinking about that, too. I'm sure there are a few outliers, but there are tons of others who make contradictory statements over the years either because it's politically expedient or because they changed their minds, which I don't think is a bad thing. All of us used to believe or like some things but have changed our opinions as we grew, had other experiences, or learned some new information.

[attica]

All of us used to believe or like some things but have changed our opinions as we grew, had other experiences, or learned some new information.

 

So true. For instance, I used to be a Mel Gibson fan.

[Miss Dee]

Sounds like that must have been what happened with Dickie? Unless I misunderstood that segment.

[ganesh]

What - people still die in car accidents, so we would've been better off with the CDC not studying them at all? Is that the logic?

 

That's exactly the logic. "Is the CDC going to stop criminals from breaking the law?" Well, why don't you let them study it and see what they come up with.

 

You all know why: A definitive CDC peer reviewed study on gun violence is going to do to the gun industry what the same did to the cigarette companies when cancer was finally, scientifically linked to smoking. 

 

I died when the guys hugged each other. I wasn't expecting that. Jordan's gun pieces have been some really good work overall. 

 

Politicians are allowed to change their mind if they carefully study an issue and decide that there is better course of action for the public by going in a different direction. The problem is when they're just so transparent and clearly are just riding the political currents and will change as needed. 

 

I'm dumbfounded why Romney or the gop establishment possibly thought this was a good idea. "I'll call Trump a phony and then everyone won't vote for him." For one, since when did Romney carry any political weight anymore? It's not like he was a former president. Then, he's basically talking down to anyone who supports Trump: I know better than you and your vote is stupid. I'm not a political strategist, but you have to be blind not to see how this is going to completely blow up in their faces. 

 

Who is Romney fooling? He's hoping for a locked convention for the possibility that they'll nominate him. 

[angora]

Politicians are allowed to change their mind if they carefully study an issue and decide that there is better course of action for the public by going in a different direction. The problem is when they're just so transparent and clearly are just riding the political currents and will change as needed.

Right. I'll give props to a politician who says, "I know I used to stand on this side of this issue, but I've changed my position and this is why." It's when they seem to change as the wind is blowing and then pretend they've never said anything different, that's when it becomes a problem. (You'd think they'd realize by now that "I never said that!" Is an easily-refuted defense when so much of what they say is recorded and getting caught in those lies just makes them look shady.)

Forgot to mention before: I loved when Jordan described the anti-gun-research guy as a Pixar animation character. Once he said it, I couldn't unsee it!

[annabel]

 

Who is Romney fooling? He's hoping for a locked convention for the possibility that they'll nominate him.

But this is good for him how? Trump would go off on his own so Mittens would get even less votes than he did the last time.

[scarynikki12]

Quick reminder to keep your posts focused on the show.  Politics are going to be relevant but don't let yourselves stray from discussing the individual episodes.

 

Thanks

[angora]

Good show last night.  I liked Trevor's comments about the GOP's plan to oust Trump "banking on chaos" and how every vote counts, unless the party leaders don't like who you're voting for.  My favorite parts were when he said Cruz had already claimed the name "liar" for himself and then lamented that the one time Cruz SHOULD have gone back on his word (not vowing to support Trump,) he didn't.

 

The Carson story was fun.  I loved Carson dropping out of the race with the same enthusiasm that he has deciding on a combo meal, and I enjoyed Roy's uphill battle of trying to salvage Carson's reputation despite the dubious stabbing claims, unconventional pyramid beliefs, and comments about Obama not really being black.  For whatever reason, "Kanye West's barely holding it together!" really cracked me up, and I got a kick out of, "You think white people miss Lance Armstrong?!"

[ganesh]

Trevor really underscored what a bunch of hypocrites these gop candidates are. Trump is a liar, con artist, phony, and not smart, but, yeah, they are still going to vote for him. Their clever little ruse to trap Trump into signing the pledge blew up in their face. I forgot all about it. 

 

And really, that "pledge" is merely ink on a page. If they boot Trump out during the convention, if he goes in with a plurality of delegates, as Trevor explained, he'd go on tv and tear the pledge up in their faces. 

[marceline]

  For whatever reason, "Kanye West's barely holding it together!" really cracked me up, and I got a kick out of, "You think white people miss Lance Armstrong?!"

 

"Hey Macklemore! You're up!" Cracked me up. I thought, "How do you go from Armstrong to Macklemore?!"

[zxy556575]

I'm really enjoying watching Trevor slightly shift the focus of the show to be more in sync with his own background and interests, particularly race relations. I also like the unspoken ease he has with the black correspondents; I think it's allowed them to be more caustic and often, funnier.

Edited March 9, 2016 by lordonia

[jaytee1812]

I love Trevor's style, and I've noticed a few times I've thought 'Jon Stewart just couldn't do that joke.' With a lot of the race relations stuff Jon sort of sat back and provided a platform for the likes of Jessica Williams and Larry Wilmore. Trevor can join it in a way Jon couldn't.

[ganesh]

I will miss his Carson impression. 

[angora]

ITA about the stories on race.  I thought, at first, the show was a little shaky on that front - I remember Roy and Jordan's correspondent piece early on about police and bias training, and it was fairly "meh" - but it's just been on fire lately.  The "slavery-sprinkled" versions of Creed and Straight Outta Compton, Peyton Manning vs. Cam Newton, Beyonce's halftime show, Ben Carson questions Obama's blackness... I've absolutely loved all of these.  Really sharp commentary, great insights, and full-on hilarious.

[possibilities]

Jordan's story about white kids not seeing a white president was stupid. It's not like they don't teach all the white presidents from Washington on up. The kids were great, but I thought the premise was a total waste of time. It's like he was trying to flip the idea that it meant something to see a Black man become president, but to what end? It was just really badly thought out.

 

Dreading Sasha Baron Cohen tomorrow. I can't stand him.

[angora]

I thought that was the idea, a satire of people who think we've gone "too far" with racial equality and like to cry "reverse racism."  I agree that, though, that it wasn't the best segment - between Jordan and the kids, the tone didn't quite gel for me.  (My favorite part was the little girl who exclaimed, "Wait, what?!" when Jordan had them reciting the quote about Mexico paying for the wall.)

 

I enjoyed Back in Black.  Lewis's indignation at the jihadist job application was fun, and I liked how irritated he was by the pundits acting like Obama and Bin Laden were buddies just because both are/were concerned about climate change - also loved Bin Laden's "secret plot" to destroy America with climate change by using reverse psychology.

 

Trevor seems so fascinated by the idea of people actually interacting with Ted Cruz.  First he wanted to know how Cory Booker could get along with him, and now he wants to know what he said to Ellen Page.  I don't know why, but it amuses me.

[ganesh]

I'd like to know too. By any accounts, he's reviled in the Senate. 

[trow125]

I'd like to know too. By any accounts, he's reviled in the Senate. 

The NY Times just ran an interesting article about how much his fellow Senators hate him.

 

Last night's Trump "victory" speech should give the show plenty of fodder for tonight.

[ganesh]

But they'll still vote for whomever is the nominee, as Trevor pointed out on the show. 

Edited March 10, 2016 by ganesh

[formerlyfreedom]

Let's stick to episode discussion please. There are plenty of places to talk politics in general on the internet - Previously.TV is not one of them.

[futurechemist]

I've been watching TDS less as of late, but I found last night's episode to be especially inconsequential.  An opening segment on Snoopy?  Jordan Klepper doing something with white kids and white presidents?    I'm finding Larry Wilmore's humor to have considerably more "bite" than Trevor.

[peeayebee]

I'm glad the show did a segment on bad water being in more cities than just Flint. "H2Oh hell no!" Calling that glass of sediment-full water Trump's bath water was perfect.

 

I'm also glad that they did a segment on all of Trump's ventures that actually failed even though Trump baldly lied, claiming they were successful and ongoing. You know there are people who believe him. If only they'd do a simple google like I did yesterday, they'd find out the truth. It was silly that Jordan said he'd been up all night researching this. It didn't take any time for me to do the fact check.

 

It's simply amazing and dumbfounding how brazenly Trump lies, time and time again. His whole life and career is built on lies, and I don't mean that as a cliche. Lying is one of his deliberate techniques to success. If he says something with bravado and arrogance, it will seem true and that's enough. Truthiness, as coined by Colbert. It's maddening that his supporters don't see this.

[angora]

I'm glad the show did a segment on bad water being in more cities than just Flint. "H2Oh hell no!" Calling that glass of sediment-full water Trump's bath water was perfect.

 

I loved that story, too, especially all the Mark Wahlberg repetitive-naming jokes and the remark about America's water being browner than the Oscars.  It did a nice job both of highlighting how big the problem is and how getting any help can be down to the whims of politicians or celebrities and having the luck to get the right people talking about your situation.  I liked the joke about the guy from Jackson "angling for a free Beyonce concert," as well as Trevor's plan to bring about change by having presidential candidates drink the local water of every town they visit.

 

I'm also glad that they did a segment on all of Trump's ventures that actually failed even though Trump baldly lied, claiming they were successful and ongoing. You know there are people who believe him. If only they'd do a simple google like I did yesterday, they'd find out the truth. It was silly that Jordan said he'd been up all night researching this. It didn't take any time for me to do the fact check.

 

Maybe after Jordan refuted all of Trump's claims, he was up the rest of the night seeing if there was any possible scenario in which any of them could be construed as true, since what kind of idiot would dare journalists to fact-check stuff that was so obviously false?  Good story, although lately, segments on Trump always have so much dread mixed in with the humor.  Whatever happened to Trevor's theory about the Trump campaign being an elaborate Joaquin Phoenix stunt?  Can that be true, please?

[Hooper]

 

.... what kind of idiot would dare journalists to fact-check stuff that was so obviously false?

Throughout Jordan's segmant I kept thinking two words:  Gary Hart (kids, ask your grandparents).   The thing is, back when I was a young'un, when a politician dared journalists to prove he was lying, it wasn't the job of comedians to take him up on the dare.  Journalists did that.  Even though google hadn't been invented yet.  Even though they had to actually follow the dude around for a few days.  And enough people thought lying, being dumb enough to make a dare about it, and being caught was enough of a big deal to lay waste to the career of one of the Democratic party's rising stars, and it may well have given the presidency to George Bush the elder ....

 

.... Drumpf is Gary Hart's fault.   All because of some monkey business, a lie and a dare that journalists, not just a cable tv comedy show, talked about.

[possibilities]

Last night, Jimmy Kimmel talked about the Trump "infomercial" but didn't bother to fact check it. It drives me crazy to think that no one outside Comedy Central might even bother.

[ganesh]

Maybe after Jordan refuted all of Trump's claims, he was up the rest of the night seeing if there was any possible scenario in which any of them could be construed as true, since what kind of idiot would dare journalists to fact-check stuff that was so obviously false?

 

I thought he was hinting he stayed up drinking and eating because it was so easy to look this stuff up.

[trow125]

Throughout Jordan's segmant I kept thinking two words:  Gary Hart (kids, ask your grandparents).   The thing is, back when I was a young'un, when a politician dared journalists to prove he was lying, it wasn't the job of comedians to take him up on the dare.  Journalists did that.  Even though google hadn't been invented yet.  Even though they had to actually follow the dude around for a few days. 

There's a lot more to the Hart story than most people know -- here's an interesting article on the whole "Monkey Business" incident.

 

Not sure why I watched the whole Sacha Baron Cohen interview, but hoo boy, that movie looks awful. I guess I'm glad for Trevor that he got to meet one of his heroes.

[stillshimpy]

There's a lot more to the Hart story than most people know -- here's an interesting article on the whole "Monkey Business" incident.

 

The Story Wonk team in one of their podcasts talked specifically about the ability to plant memories on a mass scale.  If you treat something as having happened enough times, people will actually begin to form a memory of that re-telling, re-shaping version of events.  In that instance they were talking about BtVS and how when Buffy arrives in Sunnydale, there are multiple mentions of her having burned down the gym at her old school.  So much so that the two podcasters actually were astonished when they watched the movie to find out, that didn't happen. 

 

The notion that we have some sort of right to every aspect of a president's personal life and past has been disastrous to the field of candidates for both (arguably all) parties.  

 

 

 

Drumpf is Gary Hart's fault.   All because of some monkey business, a lie and a dare that journalists, not just a cable tv comedy show, talked about.

 

I enjoyed Jordaon's piece although almost anything about Trump/Drumpf is hobbled by the fact that ....oh my gods and acolytes....this shit is so beyond funny at this point thank goodness we have reason to laugh in order to occasionally stem the urge to cry -- at least in this household -- the Malicious Cheeto Stain is truly dangerous.  

 

But it's not Gary Hart's fault.  Even if he had dared reporters to follow him around, and he didn't, it still wouldn't be his fault. 

 

We have a Puritanical streak that took out Gary Hart.  He had no reason to know, even in his rather off-hand remark that was then repeated forever as a "challenge" to ever think that a country would be that obsessed with his extra-marital life.  He's still married to the same woman, who knows what their arrangement ever were, but for some reason we decided that other people's sex-among-consenting-adults was all defining of worth if it was was extra-martial. 

 

None of that explains Trump though.   Donald Trump's entire personal life is a sordid mess.  It would put every plot of Peyton Place, Dynasty, Dallas, Desperate Housewives and House combined to shame.  If anything the rise of the Trump-stain just proves how little politics and the public actually care about people having messy, messy private lives.  If anything it shows how we've gone from having impossible standards for almost any grown to person to meet, to absolutely abandoning that as even a nodding concept.  

 

That sort of seemed to be the spirit of Jordan's piece though.  The junk-food binging, all-nighter of trying to sort through all the incredible amounts of truly distasteful shit Trump has done, and it still doesn't seem to make him off limits for many.   We went from having a complete loss of boundaries when it came to a politician's life, to having none for our own standards, I guess.   

 

I think part of the reason none of the real journalists have fact checked Trump is that everyone knows he's lying.  Everyone.  They just don't seem to care.  

 

I wanted to laugh more than I did at Jordan's piece.  In fact, I'm having a hard time laughing at much about Trump these days.   Maybe that's why I'm struggling with enjoying TDS right now.  Nothing to do with Noah, he's great.  It's just hard to laugh at this stuff when it feels like being  perched on the edge of an abyss staring down and wondering "I wonder how far down it goes? Let's find out!" 

Edited March 10, 2016 by stillshimpy

[Victor the Crab]

Amazing that just after Ollie exposed him for his many failed business enterprises, Donald Drumph is still bragging about how successful he is as an entrepreneur. While the idiot mainstream media doesn't bother checking him out for fear that they'll lose their meal ticket or that his security staff will beat the shit out of them. Full props to TDS for not letting him slide on by while it's still fresh. I'm hoping Ollie will bring this up as well on Sunday's LWT.

 

Sacha Baron Cohen was pleasantly normal in that interview. But I was completely thrown off by the honkey tonk cowboy outfit he was wearing.

[absnow54]

I get that Trump Winery has a disclaimer saying they aren't associated with Donald Trump, but the company is owned by his son, Eric Trump. Donald was the one who initially bought the vineyard and then sold it to his son, and having been to the Winery in Charlottesville (don't judge me!) they very much talk up their affiliation with the Trump brand. So while I agree with the spirit of the segment, the fact checking was somewhat misleading. 

[peeayebee]

How many of his supporters noticed that he mentioned his vodka as one of endeavors Romney said failed, then just brought up the winery? He can't admit the vodka was a failure, so he does a verbal sleight of hand to transform it into a successful wine.