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The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore - General Discussion


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This is no one's fault but my own, but when I saw Russell Simmons was going to be the guest, my brain read it as "Richard Simmons" and I was really wondering (1) why? and (2) wtf? It did give me a few anticipatory chuckles, though, imagining him mixing with the sensibilities of Larry, Holly, and the rest of the gang.

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Given the monumental roadblocks thrown at him within the first week of the presidency, not to mention having the worst financial crisis since the depression, it's effectively miraculous what he's got done. 

 

Totally agree. It's amazing. And it's something that a show like this should be pointing out more instead of implicitly siding with those criticizing him for not somehow doing more. I have a feeling they will once we approach the end of his term regardless of how the election turns out, but there's a lot of material out there now that would be a lot more interesting than another Nightly Nightly.

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Ugh. I'm with all of you who found Sarandon unbearably sanctimonious. She can take whatever position she wants to, but don't come on the damn Nightly Show being so utterly, utterly humorless. 

 

Ideological purity is a great thing if you can afford it. Most Americans cannot.

There's always been a smarmy self-righteous aura around her. I can recall it in many interviews.

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I noticed that Larry's script pages were on purple paper (instead of the usual blue) as well. It got an awww! out of me. Kudos also to the tech crew who kept the Princely slideshow going on behind the panel right through to the end of the show.

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While I agree that Bernie may want to do more progressive stuff than Hillary, that still doesn't mean he'll get anything done.  Just as they said, you have to vote in the mid-terms.  But if Obama couldn't get people to vote in the mid-terms, even after he got the ACA passed, and showed how important it was that the Dems had a majority in the House and needed to keep it, if not get even more (because if they had more of a majority, we might have gotten the public option), how do Bernie and his supporters think its going to be any different for him?

 

We need to get some smaller laws past first, and that just requires a short-term majority, plus we need Supreme Court justices on our side to help overturn Citizens United and re-strengthen the voting rights act.  We need laws passed that protect the right to vote, that stop all the poll taxes (voter ID laws), that allow at least some ex-cons to regain their right to vote.  Once that is done, then bigger changes can be made.

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I would like to think that those that support Bernie Sanders are people who know how government works.  This group did not fall under that category. I mean, make single payer available his first day in office? Can fulfill everything he wants to do, all by himself? The fact that they think the Congress, which obstructed President Obama from day one, would be willing to work with Sanders? Not a single person could come up with a reason why they would do so.

 

And Sarandon proved she's just as clueless. Thinking that the President can just overturn Citizen United, when it can only be done through the Supreme Court.

 

I suggest they all watch School House Rock's short on how a bill becomes Law. or any of the other shorts they put out.

 

Holly was just amazing during her "Lady Time" skit. No lie, at one point, I was wondering if she actually was drunk/high! When she started slurring and laughing hysterically. I would rather have Holly on each panel instead of that Moron, Ricky.

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While I agree that Bernie may want to do more progressive stuff than Hillary, that still doesn't mean he'll get anything done.  Just as they said, you have to vote in the mid-terms.  But if Obama couldn't get people to vote in the mid-terms, even after he got the ACA passed, and showed how important it was that the Dems had a majority in the House and needed to keep it, if not get even more (because if they had more of a majority, we might have gotten the public option), how do Bernie and his supporters think its going to be any different for him?

 

Because, REVOLUTION! Because those people want Bernie Sanders to act like a dictator, and not a president, that will do their bidding. But no one, not even Sanders, thinks that's a wise idea.

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Holly was just amazing during her "Lady Time" skit. No lie, at one point, I was wondering if she actually was drunk/high! When she started slurring and laughing hysterically. I would rather have Holly on each panel instead of that Moron, Ricky.

I don't think Ricky is a moron and he's actually greatly improved on the panel. He is young and still learning and a talented standup does not necessarily make a good panelist right off the bat. The biggest issues were that he always was looking for a punchline and he had an attitude that everything was bullshit and he saw how fake it was. And the stupid hat. Basically like a million college students. He's lost the hat, and is willing to take things seriously and let the discussion flow. If there is anyone I would like to see Holly replace on panel it's Mike Yard. I love love love Mike Yard's bits, but he has a complete inability to see beyond his own experiences and he also is always looking for a line.

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Ricky has improved quite a bit for me too. I agree that Yard has been stale as of late. 

 

I think they're all funny, smart people and they all seem likeable to me, but being on the panel requires a different skill set. It was smart for them to reduce the panel to the two + one celeb, but that also means the two have to keep the conversation going more and not derail it.

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I'm confused at why this Piers Morgan has such a fetish for Beyonce. Wasn't he complaining about her superbowl appearance too? I didn't even know what Lemonade was until like Tuesday. Hash It Out was really good.

So was Ricky: If your biggest problem is Beyonce, then kill yourself.

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7 hours ago, ganesh said:

I'm confused at why this Piers Morgan has such a fetish for Beyonce. Wasn't he complaining about her superbowl appearance too? I didn't even know what Lemonade was until like Tuesday. Hash It Out was really good.

So was Ricky: If your biggest problem is Beyonce, then kill yourself.

Agree on both. Hash It Out is a strong addition to the recurring segments. And Ricky was great, but I thought his Eminem response was a better line. I wish he had stuck to his guns more as he actually had a really good point.

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I liked Christopher Jackson very much; he is welcome on the panel anytime. And at my house.

Why is it only the left is ever given a hard time when entertainers go political? Whenever any such creature on the right does so, they make him president! I mean: Reagan, Schwartzenegger, Bono, Grandy, Thompson, all get elected. Eastwood and Willis get primetime at the conventions. And now what'shisorange. On the left, who is there? All I can come up with in history is Al Franken.

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On 4/7/2016 at 0:46 PM, stillshimpy said:

Also, I randomly found myself telling one of my home-projects, "That's right, motherfucker, I haven't forgotten about you!"  so clearly this show has worn a groove in my brain.  

I SO love Larry for this line. It's so satisfying every single time he says it. Go, Larry, go! Keep the heat on this piece of excrement. 

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So the longest serving gop Speaker of the House got a paltry 15 months for abusing boys. And we're all arguing about who is using the bathroom. Ok. 

Rory has a point about the nobel peace prize, but I don't think that was the discussion was about. The bar for Obama was impossibly high, but the peace prize doesn't have anything to do with it. 

The problem is that intellectualism in the debates is irrelevant. The moderators aren't going to be asking substantive policy questions. They're going to turn it into a reality show. It may be entertaining, but I'm highly highly doubtful someone who supports Trump is going to be like, "well, I'm changing my vote." 

Whomever is in the Clinton camp working on the debates needs to insist on the right moderators. No cable news garbage.

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So the longest serving gop Speaker of the House got a paltry 15 months for abusing boys.

Actually, Hastert wasn't prosecuted for child molestation, but for paying off one of his former victims. The statute of limitations for his attacking kids had run out, so he effectively got away with that. I kept waiting for Larry to clarify that point, but he never did. It would have been interesting to hear him take on why sex crimes have such a small window of prosecution.

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If I'm lucky, another person(s) will come forward with crimes Hastert committed more recently. Because did he instantly lose interest in sex with underage men? Unlikely.

I looked up the list of those who wrote letters of support. Most were written in late February and early March, which was before the sex abuse allegations were made public, but I am intending to follow up with letters of my own to a few of the politicians.

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I also think that Ricky has been a work in progress and improving throughout.  Actually, that applies to pretty much the entire show for me.  The even found a way to make that inane "Keep it 100" segment work by limiting it to one question Larry has to answer.  

And Sarandon proved she's just as clueless. Thinking that the President can just overturn Citizen United, when it can only be done through the Supreme Court.

Several of her comments have made me wonder if she actually understands the democratic process, at all. I saw clip of her appearance on Colbert and most of it boiled down to "I am not supporting Hillary because she didn't do what I, Susan Sarandon, had told her to do"  and she seemed to have no understanding that, that's not actually an option in the democratic process.  Following the dictates of any individual or group to the exclusion of the voices of others entirely is not democracy.  It is, in fact. the opposite and pretty much exactly what she is saying she hates about Citizens United.  "Fuck that group, you need to exclusively listen to the group I support!" isn't how it even should work. 

I enjoy Sarandon as an actor, but as a political activist she's incredibly frustrating because she's ill-informed and only a person of extreme privilege could ever advocate for "Revolution!"  (which is seldom bloodless or easy) as a good solution.  

Sarandon has always been very liberal and I dig that about her.  At some point she stopped realizing that even when you entirely disagree with the other side, they still deserve a voice in an actually democratic society.  Freaking Oddball that she is. 

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It's more like people don't understand how politics works. A president has to keep about 5000 balls in the air. They can't do nearly as much as people think, especially if congress isn't giving an inch. You can only get important stuff done if you're willing to give here and there or prioritize things differently. 

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It really isn't just that, ganesh.  People seem to believe that Bernie Sanders could sign executive orders left and right, doing things like breaking up the banks, or implementing a single-payer system for healthcare.  It just doesn't quite work like that on a lot of the issues that Bernie Sanders -- who I really like, but I don't think a lot of his ideas can be practically implemented -- speaks very passionately about.  I don't doubt his sincerity, but Sarandon also seemed to have a belief in a Presidential Magic Wand on a lot of issues.  

She's also a very well-meaning person but it doesn't seem like she has a lot of experience with practical application or presumably, why revolutions are not actually a good answer for bringing about democratic change. 

I enjoyed Bernie's appearance on TNS and really appreciated Larry's enthusiasm and support too, but as much as I wish much of what he talks about could be enacted, Obama's entire presidency stands as proof for just how hard it can be to enact change, even when they are popular changes.  

Also, I jumped a good two inches the first time Bernie Sanders let loose with his laughter-response.  Good man, some great ideas, bad at fake laughing though. 

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Well, yes, you're underscoring my point, politics; i.e., how the government actually is run. I mean, the fact that she said Sanders would "overturn Citizens United."

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Did anyone watch Larry host the White House press thing? Tough decision imo on calling the president "mah n***ah"

I actually came here to see if anyone recommended watching the WH press thing.  I was a little icked out by the "MN" thing, but then I'm an old white person, so there's that.  I guess I just found it overly disrespectful to Obama.

I've also been missing the old Daily Show and Colbert Report during the election season and was hoping this show had improved since I stopped watching because I think Wilmore's POV tends to be interesting and funny.  I saw a short bit the other night and thought it looked a lot tighter and less lame.  Opinions?

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I liked Hash It Out, but for a lot of people, it's not that the movie has an all lady cast, it's that the movie is yet another lame reboot of an 80s property. Those are all good, funny actors, so why not make a brand new movie with them, instead of sticking them into another reboot? 

No excuse for the hateful comments though. It's a really good point when she was talking about how suddenly nerds have become bullies though. 

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23 minutes ago, ganesh said:

I liked Hash It Out, but for a lot of people, it's not that the movie has an all lady cast, it's that the movie is yet another lame reboot of an 80s property. Those are all good, funny actors, so why not make a brand new movie with them, instead of sticking them into another reboot? 

No excuse for the hateful comments though. It's a really good point when she was talking about how suddenly nerds have become bullies though. 

Agree. I'm a female and I don't like the new trailer because it's another reboot of a movie that didn't need rebooting. Nerds have definitely become bullies. I've lurk through comic book forums, read tumblr and twitter posts from comic book readers to the artists and writers. Those people are vicious.

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Mike needs a win. Just fyi, I registered to vote this week. All I needed was a utility bill and had to fill out a form because I was in person. If I mailed it in I would have needed a copy of a photo ID. 

Wow, the Rodman impression is really good when you see Rodman and Jordan back to back.

Obama doesn't get credit for anything because he's handsome and charismatic? Seriously? Give me a break. He hasn't gotten squat from day 1 because the democrats overall let the gop control the national narrative that everything Obama does is unamerican and poison. That's how they lost the senate in 2014.

Obama went on national tv for nearly an hour to explain how they got bin-Laden. I mean, come on.

This discussion was highly misinformed. Clinton isn't saying Obama screwed up and she needs to fix everything. She's essentially been running on a third Obama term.

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21 hours ago, ganesh said:

Did anyone watch Larry host the White House press thing? Tough decision imo on calling the president "mah n***ah". 

 

20 hours ago, Harry24 said:

I actually came here to see if anyone recommended watching the WH press thing.  I was a little icked out by the "MN" thing, but then I'm an old white person, so there's that.  I guess I just found it overly disrespectful to Obama.

 

We've been discussing it a bit in the "Larry Wilmore: A Talented Man" thread, but my (very humble) opinion is that he was the best WHCD host since Colbert.  His jokes died in the room, but I would say that's because the people he was skewering had no sense of humor about themselves (again, just like when Colbert hosted).  He had some really biting jokes that I found hysterical.  For what it's worth, I don't think he said "MN" in a disrespectful manner, and from what he said leading up to it, you could tell it was from a place of respect.    

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Like Colbert did in his time, Larry dared to do HIS show at the stupid self-congratulatory party these assholes throw for themselves every year, rather than pander. 

More in the Larry topic.

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Ricky was funny as the Cruz campaign staffer. Jamming to the Fiorina song.

The whole magic freaking out gag always kills me. 

How do you stop Trump, Fran? Get everyone to vote for the democratic nominee. And republicans are full of it. They're going to hold their nose and vote for Trump. Who are they kidding? They're all like, "oh Trump is so awful". You stand for the *same exact things*. 

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I liked Franchesca's Ramsey's take on Bernie supporters who refuse to vote for Hillary: "If I'm shopping for shoes and they don't have what I like, I don't burn down the store." Great analogy! Or as Bill Maher says, if they're out of the chicken, get the fish. Don't skip dinner just because they're out of chicken. 

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What bothers me is that republicans will be like that, "oh I hate Trump but I hate Clinton more," so they'll all come out to vote for Trump. This whole Sanders or bust mentality is massively short sighted. 

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I'm really not a person overly prone to making fun of someone's appearance, so it really surprised me when I had to pause the recording to laugh long and hard at the picture of Ted Cruz in the corner of the screen when Larry was talking about him.  His face just looked like it was melting off and he was triangular man, possibly comprised of felt, that was sagging into a heap.   That after the same corner-photo of Fiorina looking like she'd been carved out of some strange, shiny wood.   Truly my laughter had a genuinely hysterical tinge to it, because ...Trump....but that is the only time in recent memory, or even distant memory, that I can remember just collapsing into gales of laughter because Ted Cruz's face looks the doll factory equivalent of the Oops! paint at Home Depot.   Somebody hit the wrong button and now there's a gallon of paint that you wouldn't paint in a room you'd have to see, unless you had self-loathing issues.  

Ted Cruz's face is like that.  

I apologize for that, the meanest damned thing I've said about anyone's appearance in ages.  I'd feel so much worse if it wasn't the actual truth of the matter. 

I'm positive that was the intended result of those images though.  I mean, they both looked horribly afflicted and nearly deformed in those shots.  

Can anyone explain that insanely disturbing clip of Fiorina singing?  I will always associate that woman with that moronic "We have to keep it alive until we can harvest its brain!" thing that she swallowed hook, line and "what precisely can be wrong with you that you could believe that?"  sinker. 

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Yard may have been right about Jordan ruining baseball. I certainly don't mind baseball, and I'll go if people are all wanting to make a day of it, but it's slow. It's expensive for kids, like Holly said. Not to mention it ruins your arm. Yeah, people play with milk cartons, but you can just ball up some tape and play soccer. You don't even need much of a playing field. 

I thought Burns was funny though. "My documentaries are 18 hours long and people watch those!"

If you haven't checked out The Daily Show's take on the Fiorina song, please do. I sing to my dog *all* the time, but you're not going to catch me on tv doing it.

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I will always associate that woman with that moronic "We have to keep it alive until we can harvest its brain!" thing that she swallowed hook, line and "what precisely can be wrong with you that you could believe that?"  sinker.  

She didn't swallow that. She knew exactly what she was doing, if you watch her banging her fist on the podium during the debate. It was carefully scripted. She's is literally responsible for murder and the media totally let her off the hook for it. 

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She didn't swallow that. She knew exactly what she was doing, if you watch her banging her fist on the podium during the debate. It was carefully scripted. She's is literally responsible for murder and the media totally let her off the hook for it.

 

I beg your pardon, but the fact that she used it in a scripted speech doesn't actually alter the fact that she believed it, like a complete moron.  Morons are sometimes incredibly dangerous: witness the current GOP.   The last time they had an even vaguely sane option on their ticket -- Huntsman -- he was rejected for believing in evil things like science and having extensive foreign service experience. 

And whereas I agree with you that the insane, inflammatory rhetoric puked out by that posse of misogynists is pretty criminally dangerous, Fiorina is no more or less responsible for the Colorado Planned Parenthood shooter than any of the other people in the GOP banging that anti-choice, birth-control limiting, sinister attempt to condemn women to poverty.  

So far from saying she's innocent, I think the lot of them are guilty as hell. 

 

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Apparently it's just something she does. She makes up songs and sings them to her grand kids and pets. Here she is on Fallon doing the same. The song at the Cruz rally was one she came up with about his daughters.

 

Thank you, ZotFotPik, I didn't know that.  As it happens, I sing songs to m dogs all the time.  I also have enough sense and sanity to not try to subject a national audience to them.  

 

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If Ricky just gets high on election day and doesn't vote he should take his ass off this show. You can't make fun of it or talk about it if you don't contribute to it.

 

I don't think he was being literal there, but that's part of why I continue to find Ricky very hit or miss.  He's on a program that satirizes news and the political process, even feigned apathy isn't the right note to hit.  

I did enjoy that "if they don't have the shoes you want, you don't burn down the store!!" comment.  Admittedly, I wish it wasn't necessary.  Bernie Sanders has some great ideas.  I can really understand his appeal to disillusioned younger people -- hell, he appeals to me on a lot of levels -- but the notion that the answer to not having the candidate of your choice is to refuse to participate in the democratic process is immature.  

Edited by stillshimpy
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3 hours ago, stillshimpy said:

I beg your pardon, but the fact that she used it in a scripted speech doesn't actually alter the fact that she believed it, like a complete moron.

I just don't think she actually believed it. I think she knew it was fake or someone on her staff told her, since it was so easily disproven. She knew the video was fake and scripted her 'moment' in the debate figuring the stupid electorate would buy it. And they did, and people got murdered because of her. I've been saying since it happened that she is directly responsible for the murders and I just haven't seen anything that has changed my mind. The media let her off the hook so hard it's shameful. Sure, the others didn't discount the video out of hand as they should, but she took it as her thing. She even roped in a bunch of kindergarten kids on a field trip for a photo op about it.  

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On 5/6/2016 at 11:55 AM, ganesh said:

Yard may have been right about Jordan ruining baseball. I certainly don't mind baseball, and I'll go if people are all wanting to make a day of it, but it's slow. It's expensive for kids, like Holly said. Not to mention it ruins your arm. Yeah, people play with milk cartons, but you can just ball up some tape and play soccer. You don't even need much of a playing field. 

I thought Burns was funny though. "My documentaries are 18 hours long and people watch those!"

I thought this was the perfect example of Mike Yard's strength and weaknesses. He was hilarious and even convincing until the moment the discussion moved the slightest bit outside his personal experiences. In the United States competitive baseball is quite expensive and money matters a lot more in getting noticed by pro scouts compared to basketball of football. And he was way too dismissive of Holly's point.

And I loved Ken Burns too. It's nice he has a sense of humor about himself and his work or at least the self awareness and savvy to fake it.

4 hours ago, stillshimpy said:

I don't think he was being literal there, but that's part of why I continue to find Ricky very hit or miss.  He's on a program that satirizes news and the political process, even feigned apathy isn't the right note to hit. 

As I said before I think Ricky is still finding his voice and growing up, realizing that feigned apathy and "it's all bullshit" isn't as brave or smart or fresh as he thinks it is. But at least he seems to be willing to learn and change.

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Riding the elevator at work the other day, a couple of women got on at another floor, discussing their upcoming kickball game. There is a league, apparently, where grown men and women play kickball. And it was fierce! They were discussing how glad they were about a particular opponent being injured, since it meant that the loss  of a formidable player would weaken the other team!  Which goes to show how much we make game playing all about organized wins and losses anymore.  Kids don't play dis-organized sports anymore. There are no pickup stickball games, no sandlot games that aren't commodified and sponsored-by-local-businesses with logos and shit. If you're kid who wants to run around and maybe have a catch, there just isn't a place for that anymore. You gotta get suited up, your mom has to bring appropriate snacks for everybody, you gotta stick to the schedule, and you cannot sit out a game because something more interesting is happening, lest you get scolded for lack of commitment. And that's not even talking about travel sports!

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As I said before I think Ricky is still finding his voice and growing up, realizing that feigned apathy and "it's all bullshit" isn't as brave or smart or fresh as he thinks it is. But at least he seems to be willing to learn and change.

 

I've appreciated that about Ricky also, he is continuing to try and find his voice.  Aside from the whole "It's all bullshit" thing he's recently adopted, I hope he decides to lean away from the whole disaffected stoner thing he's also recently added to the catalogue. 

Not that I think there's even a tiny thing wrong with weed and enjoying it, but by the same token that was always sort of an annoying cliche that was trotted out about people who liked The Colbert Report and TDS, usually by places like Fox News saying the Jon Stewart's audience was a bunch of stoned twentysomethings as a way of dismissing the worth of shows like this.  

Lean away from that, Ricky, lean away.  Blaze up as much as you like, but don't have that be your position on panels.  

I do like that he's clearly willing to continue to grow and change as a performer.  I just hope he hits on an approach that works consistently.  Embodying a bunch of stereotypes about people in their mid-twenties isn't likely to win over the audience much.  I get the impression -- and I could just be wrong -- that Ricky is largely present to try and appeal to twentysomethings.  Maybe don't pretend to be the most reductive cliches about that generation though, you know?  

Ricky tends to work best for me outside of the panel.  He's better when he's on a script, instead of trying to hit on the correct tone in that exchange.  

Edited by stillshimpy
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I like Ricky best when he's in skits, too, especially when he's wearing some ridiculous outfit. The outfit and his often-hostile attitude make me chuckle.

Edited by mojito
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