TDS 3.0: Season One Talk

[Skyfall]

I'm starting to slowly slip away from this show.

[revbfc]

1 hour ago, Skyfall said:

I'm starting to slowly slip away from this show.

I stopped watching for a while, but I decided to give it another try last night.  What I liked is that he did talk about Orlando right away.  He had to, but he did OK.  The gun control angle wasn't off-putting, but he seemed to be a little scattered with his thoughts.  I get it.  Too much to say, not enough time.

I guess I'll check back another day, but I don't see any huge improvement. 

 

Also, what's up with Trevor wearing baggier suits?  Was it a network decision?

[truthaboutluv]

Quote

 The gun control angle wasn't off-putting, but he seemed to be a little scattered with his thoughts. 

YMMV but I actually thought he did an excellent job addressing the tragedy and his comments were smart, sharp and articulate. That clip of the terrorist talking about how easy it is to purchase guns in the US and asking their followers what they were waiting for was one of the most chilling things I've seen all year. And I loved him mentioning all the safety measures that were implemented post-9/11 with regards to flying, which further highlights the bullshit of gun advocates trying to suggest that terrorism and gun control have nothing to do with each other. 

Edited June 14, 2016 by truthaboutluv

[nodorothyparker]

I'm finding that I mostly watch the show online as I remember to or if someone points out a segment I need to see.  But I'm also doing that with John Oliver and Samantha Bee, so I don't consider it exclusively a Trevor Noah issue as much as feeling oversaturated by the sheer number of shows plus this completely exhausting election cycle.  Each of them are doing solid thought-provoking work and I generally like what they're each doing to uphold Stewart's legacy, but I just can't all the time. I can only be so outraged about so much (cough cough, the orange dumpster fire) at any given time before I start to become blissfully envious of the low information voting base.

I liked the nice unspoken parallel Trevor was making in Obama having to do so many post mass shooting speeches with how many times we've had to watch our TV personalities do it now.   The words don't really change much because nothing ever fucking changes.  Moment of silence, "thoughts and prayers,"  a bit of bickering and blaming by talking heads, and then nothing until the next one.  Sadly, judging from the absolute chilling footage of the terrorist leader talking about how wide open we are on this, terrorists seem to have a better handle on this aspect of America than we ourselves do.

Edited June 14, 2016 by nodorothyparker

[angora]

I was also really impressed by Trevor's commentary here.  Even though the general idea of the piece is very similar to points he's made in the past, that's exactly part of it.  He's still in his first year on the show, and he's had to do this so many times now.  Obama has had to do this so many times, and so many families have had to mourn, but it feels like, as he said, we've made our choice that we don't want to change as a country (or rather, a number of our leaders have decided to kowtow to the demands of a small but powerful lobby that doesn't actually represent the wishes of the majority of American gun owners, let alone the majority of the American people.)  The show has already drawn parallels with regulating/improving the safety of cars to reduce accidents, and now they've looked at regulating/improving the safety of air travel to reduce terrorists' ability to use airplanes as weapons against us, not to mention tying one's shoelaces to reduce the chances of falling and getting hurt (I thought that was a great analogy, especially because of the absurdity of kid Trevor trying to argue against a correlation between untied shoes and falling.)

[AmandaPanda]

I thought his opening about the Orlando tragedy was the best segment he's done yet. When he has an issue he gets really fired up about, he does his best work. 

[trow125]

It's not often TDS does a piece about someone I have a tangential personal connection with, but I was pretty excited to see Jordan's field piece from the Virgin Islands! John Yob, one of the people interviewed, is the son of Chuck Yob, a big wheel in Michigan Republican politics. My family was pretty involved in the local GOP (don't judge -- I eventually moved far away and became a Democrat) and I've been to many functions with the Yobs. I found this article from Mother Jones, which includes a fuller account of what went down and what Yob was hoping to accomplish; he seems to believe that he can parlay being a VI delegate into a kingmaker role at the GOP convention.

[Victor the Crab]

Trevor's piece on the Orlando mass shooting was brilliant, using many evidences and examples of why some form of gun control - like the ban on AK-15s to the public - is needed. Him not tying his shoelaces as a kid was funny. His example of tighter airline security as a result of 9/11 was a good one. And the terrorist leader telling his minions about how easy it is to purchase guns to carry out their plans was chilling. Trevor wasn't full on rage, the way Samantha was on FF earlier, but he didn't need to be. Using decisive examples in a cool, calm manner works just as effective.

[peeayebee]

4 hours ago, truthaboutluv said:

And I loved him mentioning all the safety measures that were implemented post-9/11 with regards to flying, which further highlights the bullshit of gun advocates trying to suggest that terrorism and gun control have nothing to do with each other. 

That was such an excellent point he made that I was wondering why I hadn't heard it before. Or maybe I had but have forgotten. Also, why do people who push the 2nd Amendment in our faces avoid talking about "well-regulated"? Anyway, it was an excellent opening segment. 

"Why are you bringing shoelaces into this conversation?" made me laugh.

BTW, my recording started just a bit late. Of course I don't know what I missed, but I'm thinking it was just a few seconds. I'll have to check online.

[zxy556575]

Is James Carville still a thing? I'm a Democrat and am sick of him. As a show of bipartisanship, I feel the same about Mary Matalin.

[trow125]

1 hour ago, peeayebee said:

BTW, my recording started just a bit late. Of course I don't know what I missed, but I'm thinking it was just a few seconds. I'll have to check online.

Mine too! I wonder if it started early for some reason, because I usually get the credits for whatever was on at 10:30 PM.

Re: James Carville, I'm sorry, but it's impossible for me to see him now without thinking of Bill Hader's "SNL" impression.

[attica]

1 hour ago, trow125 said:

I usually get the credits for whatever was on at 10:30 PM.

Which is when I marvel that Daniel Tosh is, apparently, still a thing that happens.

[peeayebee]

This is the first time I've seen Eddie Huang interviewed. I didn't think much of it. 

I couldn't understand something Trevor said. It was in the "bigly" part. He said something like don't put the word at the end of the sentence, but slip it in  the middle in a "jim-a-naff" way? 

I'm still aghast that some people listen to Trump and think he's making sense. This evening my BIL was flipping thru the channels and stopped to hear Obama say something about not isolating Muslims or something -- It was completely reasonable, sensible, and intelligent, but all my BIL could do was mock him.

[truthaboutluv]

Quote

I'm still aghast that some people listen to Trump and think he's making sense.

Fear can be a really powerful thing. The fact is the world is a scary place right now and there are many people who are deeply and truly terrified of what could happen to them and Trump, being the opportunist that he is plays into that with bullshit promises of protecting them and keeping all the bad guys out. 

[attica]

9 hours ago, peeayebee said:

I couldn't understand something Trevor said. It was in the "bigly" part. He said something like don't put the word at the end of the sentence, but slip it in  the middle in a "jim-a-naff" way? 

 

As to the second point, it was a made-up word to make his point about hiding made up words within a sentence. But I can't be the only one who understood Trump as saying 'big league', not 'bigly, right?

[angora]

I love Fresh Off the Boat, but the Orlando connection didn't occur to me until Eddie Huang started talking about it.

Trump's whole, "Now, I'm not saying anything - don't look at me! - but there's definitely something going on here," tactic is so gross.  It's insane to me that people listen to Trump at all, but I do get it; people who are afraid and angry and feel they've not gotten what they deserve are easy targets for fearmongering and shit-stirring.  But it really boggles my mind that anyone listens when he pulls stunts like this:  Ted Cruz's place of birth/eligibility to be president, his dad killing JFK, and now, Obama being in league with ISIS(?!)  It's just so slimy to me, made even more so by his knowledge that there are apparently people who buy this shit.

I loved the joke about how, if Hillary was against jaywalking, Trump would accuse her of wanting to cut off everyone's legs.  He's far from the only one, though - the rhetoric around guns is so hyperbolic.

[zxy556575]

6 hours ago, attica said:

But I can't be the only one who understood Trump as saying 'big league', not 'bigly, right?

Oh! That would make some sense, but I heard it as "bigly," too.

[Hanahope]

48 minutes ago, lordonia said:

But I can't be the only one who understood Trump as saying 'big league', not 'bigly, right?

But how does "big league" make sense either?  

"I will tell you who the better friend is, and someday I believe that will be proven out big league"?  What the fuck does that even mean?

And I love Trevor for pointing out that when the shooter's parents immigrated to the US, it was from Afghanistan in the 80s, when it was fighting communist USSR.  So yeah, the US did not consider Afghanistan to be a 'terrorist' country back then (or at least not against the US), and there was no reason to have forbidden them into the US. 

[peeayebee]

I saw Trump's quote in an online article, and "bigly" was there. I never thought of "big league." That makes more sense than a made-up word. (I'm trying to remember another quote of Trumps from months back with a nonexistent word. Seems that also was supposed to mean huge.)

Quote

But how does "big league" make sense either?

It makes sense in Trump's mind, kind of like saying "big time," i.e., "That's going to be proven out big time."

[catrox14]

If he's saying Big League he really needs to enunciate more clearly because from the first time he said it at one of the debates, I've taken it be 'bigly" as has most of social media and TV correspondents. I'm not being snarky here.

[Victor the Crab]

I heard him say the word "bigly". But that makes sense because, according to Drumph, he knows words because "he has the best words!"

[catrox14]

7 minutes ago, Victor the Crab said:

I heard him say the word "bigly". But that makes sense because, according to Drumph, he knows words because "he has the best words!"

"I'm going to make the dictionary the biggest, most wordiest with my own best words in the world" - Drumpf...probably

[ganesh]

On 6/14/2016 at 10:58 AM, truthaboutluv said:

That clip of the terrorist talking about how easy it is to purchase guns in the US and asking their followers what they were waiting for was one of the most chilling things I've seen all year.

I hope this goes super viral. 

[nichelle]

16 hours ago, peeayebee said:

I saw Trump's quote in an online article, and "bigly" was there. I never thought of "big league." That makes more sense than a made-up word. (I'm trying to remember another quote of Trumps from months back with a nonexistent word. Seems that also was supposed to mean huge.)

It makes sense in Trump's mind, kind of like saying "big time," i.e., "That's going to be proven out big time."

Schlonged. Okay, maybe that wasn't the word but I just had to type it to remind myself that he actually said it. Because, you know, Hillary got schlonged.

I still watch the Daily Show every night (or DVR it). Last night's episode on Alabama was good. I'd been following it on Maddow who has featured it on multiple nights. And I loved the country song.

[attica]

17 hours ago, Hanahope said:

But how does "big league" make sense either?

As peeayebee says, it makes sense as an intensifier. "Proven out. Big League." means there will be no doubt, that professionals will yield to his wisdom, that umpires everywhere will agree. No bush league proving need apply!

[ganesh]

Not the half that shows up on time is an awesome joke. 

[trow125]

I was really wondering what the heck was going on when I saw Jordan & Desi at the desk. I thought maybe Trevor was out sick or something.

[zxy556575]

45 minutes ago, trow125 said:

I was really wondering what the heck was going on when I saw Jordan & Desi at the desk. I thought maybe Trevor was out sick or something.

I was waiting for some kind of announcement, too. In the end, I thought the bit worked well and was pretty funny.

Seth Meyers has a recurring bit where a couple of his minority writers come sit with him and tell jokes he can't, and those make me laugh as well. It really does make a difference whose mouths they're coming out of!

[Victor the Crab]

Seeing Jordan and Desi at the desk to kick start the show was a bit surprising, at first. But if there had been something about an immediate change in plans with the hosts, we would have heard it before hand. But it was purposeful and worked out well in the end. BTW, Erik Erikson's claim that whites will turn out in huge waves of support in November is total bullshit because 1) Its coming from Erikson's mouth, so it's automatic bullshit. And 2) The last presidential election in 2012 saw Mitt Romney gain close to 61 million votes, the fourth highest in presidential election history. Romney had the white male voter cornered, yet he still lost to Obama by over five million votes. Drumph has much fewer support among key minority demographics than Romney did, and that support keeps dropping everytime Drumph makes a fool out of himself. But that's okay. I'm looking forward to seeing Erikson's head explode in November when he's proven wrong, yet again!

[angora]

I liked the bit too, especially Trevor coming in and catching them at the end.  In a piece like this, it's inevitable that Jordan will say something insanely douchey and privileged, and he definitely brought it by making segregation about white people.  Also loved them changing white people from Trump's "whole enchilada" to his whole "meatloaf."

For whatever reason, I love the running gag of correspondents flippantly bringing up Trevor's nationality.  Roy calling him "Mini-Mandela" cracked me up.

[ganesh]

Not that it was much of a joke, but Desi's "I don't give a fuuuuuuuuuuck" was hilarious.

[attica]

3 hours ago, Victor the Crab said:

I'm looking forward to seeing Erikson's head explode in November when he's proven wrong, yet again!

Ah, but conservative politics can never fail; they can only be failed by unworthy advocates. EE will find a reason to explain what kept him from being right!

I'm a little ashamed that I did not expect Roland Emmerich to have an accent. His son doesn't! [/lame excuse]

[trow125]

Did anyone else wonder if Trevor was going to ask Miss USA about Donald Trump? I thought he owned that pageant, but according to Wikipedia, no longer:

"The pageant was owned by Donald Trump from 1996 to 2015, and was previously broadcast on NBC. In September 2015, WME/IMG purchased the pageant from Trump."

(That's William Morris Endeavor/International Management Group.)

Also, I laughed way too hard at the Australian carp story. Thanks, show, for providing something so silly after the Senate gun piece.

[fastiller]

9 hours ago, attica said:

Ah, but conservative politics can never fail; they can only be failed by unworthy advocates. EE will find a reason to explain what kept him from being right!

I'm a little ashamed that I did not expect Roland Emmerich to have an accent. His son doesn't! [/lame excuse]

Who's RE's son?

[attica]

Oh, crap! I thought RE was Noah Emmerich's dad, and he's not. Argh. Never mind! [/Emily Litella}

[LJonEarth]

On 6/14/2016 at 8:36 AM, Skyfall said:

I'm starting to slowly slip away from this show.

I really like the show, but that big break really did me in. That, and how awful everything is in the media right now, I just couldn't be bothered to keep watching last week.

[Skyfall]

5 hours ago, LJonEarth said:

I really like the show, but that big break really did me in. That, and how awful everything is in the media right now, I just couldn't be bothered to keep watching last week.

Yeah I realized I didn't miss Trevor but I missed Larry.

[peeayebee]

I was pretty underwhelmed by this ep. I had read today about Trump's expenditures, including to "Draper Sterling" ad agency, so TDS didn't offer anything new there.

Same with the gun control vote. I just kept thinking, What would a Republican say when posed with the question, "What's wrong with universal background checks?"

The Tavis Smiley interview was empty.

[trow125]

It seemed to me that the Let's Do Anything sketch was blaming both sides for not passing gun control legislation, which seems like a case of false equivalence; obviously the GOP has been much more instrumental in thwarting any sensible gun regulations. Was hoping there would be some coverage of it this morning, but I couldn't find anything about it online.

[angora]

While it definitely suggested that both sides are playing a role in this, I thought Jordan was clearly portrayed as the worse of the two, first spouting the reductive "taking a shit on the Constitution rhetoric" and then being bought by the NRA to oppose a bill he actually believed in, not to mention wanting to be seen asking for a moment of silence but not bothering to really take it.  The first of Roy's blocks was because he said 72 hours wasn't enough time for the FBI to find probable cause to halt the purchase, which is at least a reason.  And although his stuff at the end was really shitty - acknowledging that the last bill would at least be better than nothing but not wanting to give the Republicans a "win," then using the whole thing to make attack ads on Jordan - I can understand the feeling of frustration on the show's part that made them put it in.  After all, despite the 15-hour filibuster about the vital importance of banding together to do SOMETHING, all four votes ran almost completely along party lines; no more than two Republicans supported any one Democrat-sponsored bill, but no more than two Democrats supported any one Republican-sponsored bill, either.  Yes, the content of each bill is different and that needs to be taken into consideration as well, but there was practically no nuance in the voting at all, and in light of that, I understand feeling let down by both sides (even if the GOP is being way more obstructive on this issue overall.)

I agree that the show could have done more to show the disproportionate levels of blame between the two sides, but I also get not wanting to say the Democrats played NO part in what happened.  Ultimately, as Trevor said, the American people are the ones losing here.

ETA - I get that you can't support both the Feinstein bill and the Cornyn bill (since you can't ban someone from buying a gun AND let them buy it unless the FBI finds probable cause why they can't,) but is there a solid reason why Democrats couldn't have supported both the Murphy bill and the Grassley bill?  The Grassley bill doesn't in any way negate the possibility of expanding background checks through additional legislation, does it?  Even fn increasing funding for background checks and providing incentives to share mental health records is only a tiny step, is it actively harmful?  Why couldn't they have supported it and continued working to pass further legislation that does more?  (If I'm talking out of my ass on this and someone else has a better understanding of the reasoning here, I'm all for it.)

Edited June 22, 2016 by angora
Additional comment

[LJonEarth]

22 hours ago, peeayebee said:

The Tavis Smiley interview was empty.

I was bothered by Tavis's Sum/Some thing. When it comes to things like legacy and bad/criminal behavior, I'd rather take the "And" approach to it instead of "But."

John Jones made art that changed the world AND John Jones was a murderer. Period. As opposed to:

• John made amazing art, but I can't acknowledge that because...
• John was a murderer but, come on he made some amazing art!

The sum total argument almost makes it seem like as long as you do something fantastic, you should be able to get away with terrible things. It'll balance out.

[attica]

21 hours ago, trow125 said:

It seemed to me that the Let's Do Anything sketch was blaming both sides for not passing gun control legislation, which seems like a case of false equivalence

On the other hand, there has never yet been any political price to pay for doing nothing--for anybody. Let's see if that changes.

[ganesh]

What % of voters actually voted in the Bexit referendum?

[Shermie]

72 per cent.

[angora]

I thought last night's show was great; really enjoyed it.

I loved the "Sorry we oppressed you for centuries" card, along with the Pope being the only person who gets MORE enlightened on an airplane.

Even though Last Week Tonight set the gold standard for Brexit pieces, I thought TDS did a nice job, too.  I laughed at Trevor's riff on the word "Brexit," and I liked his comments about how nativists regret it when pushing the foreigners out drives their money away, too - "I didn't know your money spoke Portuguese!" was a great line.  It's a little thing, but I also cracked up at the bit about your Facebook friends suddenly being experts on British politics.  And just overall, I loved the point that people thought they were making a "protest vote" to voice their displeasure, but that enough people would vote "remain" that they wouldn't actually pull out of the EU; really, really hope the US sees the warning here.

I thought the Jesse Williams-Justin Timberlake story was a little choppy, just because the issues involved are so complicated.  While I agree that Timberlake should have thought through his words more (it's all well and good to say, "We're all one," but when a subset of the people clearly aren't being treated equally, statements like that can come across as dismissive of people's genuine experiences,) it raises interesting questions of where/how white people fit into conversations about race.  Where's the line between supporting people of other races and getting involved in a discussion that one can never have a full understanding of?  (Not to mention, it's further complicated by the specific conversation here about the appropriation of Black culture and Timberlake's relationship to that.)  In light of all that, I think the stuff about Timberlake felt a little surface-y, although I did love that line about him watching the BET Awards instead of Game of Thrones.  Where the story took off for me, though, was when they brought up colorism.  Again, it's a big issue (acknowledging that colorism is a problem that affects people's lives in adverse ways but not negating the experiences of light-skinned people,) but I think they did a better job of tackling it.  They took it to some intentionally-uncomfortable places, like Roy calling Trevor "Light-Skin" as a pejorative, and I liked how they looked at colorism as something that divides the Black community and pits people against each other in a "hierarchy" of blackness.  When Roy was rattling off his "Black-ass credentials," the punchline of Trevor being from South Africa was obvious but still great.

Cynthia Erivo for The Color Purple hat trick!  I really liked what she had to say about Brexit and the people whose stories will change because of it.

[maraleia]

Jordan Klepper's piece on IL politics was so spot on and Rep. Ron Sandack is an asshole. I live in Chicago and Rauner is the worst thing to happen to the Governor's office in a decade and that's saying something. He is only emboldening the GOP members of the state house to be even more horrible than they already are.

Edited June 29, 2016 by maraleia

[peeayebee]

I think Calvin Trillin's comment that white men of the right-wing lack empathy is right on target. I've heard a few stories about right-wingers who are against something until they have a family member or friend who's affected by the issue, like, say, gay marriage. Suddenly the guy is for something because he now sees it up close. They can't seem to put themselves in someone else's shoes unless they know the person wearing those shoes.

[marceline]

11 hours ago, maraleia said:

Jordan Klepper's piece on IL politics was so spot on and Rep. Ron Sandack is an asshole. I live in Chicago and Rauner is the worst thing to happen to the Governor's office in a decade and that's saying something. He is only emboldening the GOP members of the state house to be even more horrible than they already are.

 

We've seen this kind of thing happen in state after state when Republicans take over. Kansas, Wisconsin, Indiana, now Illinois. I don't know what it's going to take for people to call out these failed policies.

[Victor the Crab]

Calvin Trillin has always been a welcome presence on TDS. His book on covering the Civil Rights protests in the sixties seems fascinating.

[angora]

Laverne Cox is such a rock star - I love her.  Whenever I see her in a relatively short interview like this, it's like she's timing herself down to the second because she just has SO MUCH she wants to say about trans advocacy and trying to pack it all in.

I loved Trevor mocking all the "news" reporting on Clinton and Warren's clothes, especially the shot of the GOP candidates all standing in a row wearing the same thing.  Also, I got a kick out of the term "anti-Taylor Swifting."

Glad to see What the Actual Fact again; I've always liked that segment.  Trump's pre-Brexit remarks were just, wow.  He was basically a fourth grader trying to BS his way through a book report on a book he didn't read.