The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore - General Discussion

[ganesh]

The prom skit he did was really funny.

[wknt3]

2 hours ago, stillshimpy said:

 

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.  

Actually I think "it's all bullshit" has been present from the beginning. It's just that it's gone from implicit in his total disengagement from the actual issues discussed on panel unless he could come up with a dismissive joke to something that he now states outright if it's something that he's not paticularly knowledgable or comfortable with. It's his crutch as well as being something that powerfully appeals to many smart, young, people. I totally agree with you on the stoner thing. It works as an occasional joke. As a main element of your comic persona not so much. Just look at Bill Maher.

[ganesh]

eyeroll. If Romney went to BYU and told them to be proud of their whiteness. That needs to be put to rest. It's a false equivalency. 

If member of overwhelmingly majority group did some action to reinforce overwhelming majority, then minority groups and people who actually care about equality would say something. Yes, they would. That's why you can't say 'your christian/white/heteronormative pov' is under attack. It's not. It never was. 

[wknt3]

I thought last night was a pretty strong episode. The banana bit worked on a couple of levels and was a good break from the heavier bits. Loved Holly Walker as always and thought it was one of their stronger panels, especially Ricky finding a way to get in some good one liners and put forth some ideas. If there was one critique I have it's that they didn't really nail the right wing noise machine as hard as they could have. I'm not sure from the writing that they realized the specific hypocrisy and motivations at play. This is being hyped by people who are upset that members of the military couldn't openly throw racial or political insults at Obama. And that the Confederate flag is seen as racist. This is the thing that Jon Stewart used to nail so well - the Confederate flag has become cultural and is embraced by some southerners unthinkingly so we should be cool with it. Get over the whole slavery thing. Raised fist? It was used by people who killed cops so it's now verbotten and we can never see it as something else.

[attica]

I thought the panel discush was good, but I wish somebody had read this piece in the NYT from Friday. About an Old Corps photo taken by cadets in 1976:

Quote

This is not the first time students have made a political statements in an Old Corps photo. In 1976, the year before women were admitted to the academy, male cadets widely referred to themselves as “the last class with balls,” according to an officer who teaches at West Point. The officer, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak, said that a number of seniors that year posed for a photo holding armloads of basketballs, footballs and baseballs. They were not punished, the officer said.

So, gander/goose, equally good, right? Right?!

And not for nothing, but what do 20 year olds know about the Black Panthers anyway? I realize old grizzled white dudes on Fox are still wetting their pants whenever they see a black beret, but come on.

[LADreamr]

I wish, if they were going to talk about the military, that they would have someone on the panel who has experience there.  It doesn't matter what civilians think makes sense, or is fair, the military is its own world.  Also, DADT didn't come from the Army, or even the DOD, it was an order passed to them.

As it turns out, the women aren't going to be punished for it, thankfully, but you can be sure they'll take some shit for it.

[ganesh]

Grace has the most hilarious facial expressions. The banana piece killed me. 

Ricky's joke about the swords was good, and I liked the other guy. 

Edited May 11, 2016 by ganesh

[Temperance]

My favorite piece of the week was the one on Monday's show with the Antibiotic and Resistant Strain. I was laughing so hard and so were my friends.  I also liked the banana piece. 

[ganesh]

I literally have never noticed what was trending on Facebook. 

[brgjoe]

Same here.  And usually the stories that are "trending" are sometimes like 2-3 days old.  Maybe I should sue that they aren't exactly trending.  ;)

I don't see how this could possibly rise to a congressional investigation.  Even if Facebook were the most liberally slanted website around, censoring anything remotely conservative -- aren't they a private company?  Yes, they are publicly traded.  But isn't Fox News?  Can a senator who had a beef with what they show, ask why their news is slanted one way or the other? 

One of the silliest queries ever by a sitting U.S. Senator.  And that's saying something.

[ganesh]

The thing is, some of my HS friends are wicked righty, so there's plenty of stuff that pops up in my FB feed that's conservative. And I scroll right by it. I'm sure I'm not unique, so there's probably plenty of conservative stuff floating around FB. I would guess one could follow Fox News and have that on your feed. The algorithm then would probably suggest other conservative news outlets.

Right now, my FB has Zimmerman, Trump, Wendy's, and Target trending. So I'm not seeing any slant.

[attica]

I agree with Larry about Audra McDonald and how awesome she is.  She was great on the panel, too.

I suspect that some people who are just curiosity collectors would be interested in bidding on Zimmerman's gun without the racist underpinnings, but I gotta figure mostly not, certainly not this close to the event in time. I suppose the show taped too early to know about the bidding war that drove the "price" up north of $65 million, with bidders like Racist McShootyface (heh).

Damn, Idi Amin! You look hot after all these years in hell!

[ganesh]

Although, it was a good point that someone might by it an melt it down or raise awareness like they were talking about.

What really was galling is that GZ thinks it's this piece of americana like the Oswald's rifle, and things like that. Not only is he a violent racist, but he's so massively arrogant because he got away with murder. 

Robin was *fired up* though. 

[ganesh]

I always like the way "Trump" says "the blacks" and "Obama". But I said this on the TDS too. No one cares what Trump says. He's been doing his deal for months and winning. All of the "can you believe what he said?" hasn't mattered. 

[trow125]

22 hours ago, ganesh said:

I always like the way "Trump" says "the blacks" and "Obama". But I said this on the TDS too. No one cares what Trump says. He's been doing his deal for months and winning. All of the "can you believe what he said?" hasn't mattered. 

Of all the Trump impersonators I've seen on TV (including Colbert's cartoon Trump), I think the one on "The Nightly Show," played by comic Bob DiBuono, is by far the best. His interactions with Larry never fail to crack me up. However, much as I like him, I sincerely hope he's out of a job come November.

[AmandaPanda]

I absolutely loved Monday's panel. I'm always a fan of Paul F Tompkins whenever he's on any sort of panel like this, though. I thought he worked really well with Mike and Robin. 

Just caught up on last night's show as well. I really enjoyed the Super Depressing Deep Dive on lead. I actually teach in Baltimore really close to where all the unrest was last year. Some of my students' lead levels are insane. I have a couple students who are in fourth and fifth grade, but in terms of their intellectual development, they may never progress past second or third grade. I have one student whose teeth literally started to crumble out of her head. Flint has rightfully been in the forefront, but I'm glad people are starting to notice this issue in other parts of the country, too.

[ganesh]

I liked Larry's interpretation on the Trump/Kelly interview a little better than TDS. But they both missed the point: there's no journalism here. Kelly is probably being directed what to do. She might have a say in how that gets done, but the entire network was 'we need to get rid of Trump' and now it's 'unite the party behind Trump.' 

Eh, the guy walked back from it. I don't see this as a thing.

Edited May 20, 2016 by ganesh

[attica]

To my eye, it looked like that basketball player realized in the moment that what he was saying was uncool, but it was already falling out of his mouth, too late to stop. I mean, when European soccer matches are routinely interrupted by "fans" throwing bananas at black players and making monkey noise chants, it isn't a comment that a grown-ass professional international athlete can fail to be aware of. He did walk it back; I can accept that apology.

[gesundheit]

I think maybe I'm just really naive because I've heard "monkeys" a ton of times as an affectionate reference to people who are especially agile, having zilch to do with race. Obviously in the US it's a slur and folks should be aware of that and refrain from it, but I'd actually buy that he didn't intend it that way at all. And that he will NEVER say it again.

[ganesh]

I don't think a panel on weed is that interesting, but at least they were funny. I was hoping they'd talk more about smoking weed versus nfl players taking pills. 

I mean, "it's a gateway to a job at comedy central" was a great joke. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

Last night's episode didn't really keep my attention. But Wednesday? I always knew Anthony Anderson was funny, and I enjoyed in on The Daily Show on Monday, but he was hilarious here. Kept me laughing. Love him. Absolutely love him and Black*ish.

Edited May 21, 2016 by GHScorpiosRule

[ganesh]

The That's What She Said was hilarious. Robin was killing me.

[ganesh]

I'm not sure that some dude dressing up as a gorilla at a Phoenix Suns game is being racist though. 

[Arcadiasw]

3 hours ago, ganesh said:

I'm not sure that some dude dressing up as a gorilla at a Phoenix Suns game is being racist though. 

I agree with Mike Yard, "What does a gorilla have to do the sun?" I'm surprised that's the Sun's mascot.

[AmandaPanda]

Here's the story behind the Suns mascot. Anyone on The Nightly Show team could have found it with a simple Google search, but once again, they don't really do their research. 

Quote

For the first eleven seasons of their existence in the NBA, the Suns had no official mascot, but some years later this mascot was born by accident. A messenger for Eastern Onion, a singing telegram service, came to the Coliseum during a home game dressed as a gorilla. As he left, Coliseum security suggested he do a few dances underneath the basket during a timeout and the fans loved it. So did the messenger, who kept coming to games until he was officially invited to be part of the team. And this is how this mascot was accidentally born. The messenger, a quiet young man named Henry Rojas, was anything but quiet in his costume. An early attempt was made involving a sunflower costume, but it never caught on. Given a Suns warm-up jacket, Rojas shed his shyness, and turned into an entertainment beast, dancing, joking with fans and, in general, enjoying himself to the fullest. Nowadays, the Suns Gorilla is one of the most famous mascots in the NBA.

[ganesh]

I'm all for the show giving me perspectives I'm not normally going to see elsewhere, but this isn't the first time they've been just factually incorrect. The only sports nicknames/mascots that are offensive that I think of are native american. I'm all for getting rid of them. What else is there to discuss on this topic though? 

[AmandaPanda]

They could probably also get into some of the different cheers and fan rituals. The only ones that come to my mind, though, are all Native American. The Kansas City Chiefs do things like "The Tomahawk Chop" and fans will wear Native American headdresses and face paint. There's definitely tons of racism in sports. It would just be nice if they would do their freaking research. I found out about the Suns mascot by googling "Why is the Phoenix Suns mascot a gorilla?" 

[ganesh]

I did the same thing for another topic a while ago because I knew they were wrong, but I wanted to fact check myself before posting. It took 3 seconds to verify. 

[Muffyn]

Okay, here's the thing.  Native Americans/American Indians still exist.  Really.  And they face discrimination.  They are the only group in the US jailed at a higher rate per capita (i.e., as compared to percentage in the population) than African Americans.  They are also more likely to be shot by police, to die in custody or to go missing.  Native rights issues are important.  Acting like the team name issue is unimportant - fine.  Have your own opinion.  Stating that all of the Native Americans are gone/no one is left to protest turns us into historical artifacts rather than living persons.  I expect more from this show. 

I can say I have never been called a redskin.  Why?  Because the racists save a syllable and call us skins.   

Maybe next time they talk about an issue regarding Native Americans they could have one on the panel.  Y'know, since they still exist. 

[possibilities]

It's typical for how this show does things, that they go with a headline on the panels, without anything to back it up. There is, and has been for a long time, significant and organized opposition by Native people to racist mascots. Just because one drive by buzz of the day headline claims otherwise, does not make it true. It's like Trump claiming his bullshit of the week and the show taking it seriously. This kind of fact checking is easy and quick to do, and if you don't want to do it, at least leave the topic alone and talk about something you actually do know about and care about enough to be informed on first. It's a disservice to spread lies, and it's not funny either.

[ganesh]

Who invited Ann Coulter anywhere? Much less a speaking engagement at a graduation.

[Brandi Maxxxx]

Did they invite her just so they could uninvite her?

[attica]

One of the problems (imo) is that the people in charge of making invitations in the first place are tone-deaf to their campus's zeitgeist. And they go ahead and think they're great for locking in Condi Rice without testing the waters -- or really even imagining the waters either need or should be tested. And then they're all surprised when the student body is all, nope! 

I know nothing about whether or how commencement speakers are paid, and now I'm curious. I cannot picture W putting down the paintbrush unless there's a paycheck involved. Coulter's got a book to plug, so she miiiiiight speak for free, but I doubt that too. 

[ganesh]

Coulter isn't speaking for nothing. 

[LADreamr]

On May 26, 2016 at 9:25 AM, possibilities said:

It's typical for how this show does things, that they go with a headline on the panels, without anything to back it up. There is, and has been for a long time, significant and organized opposition by Native people to racist mascots. Just because one drive by buzz of the day headline claims otherwise, does not make it true. It's like Trump claiming his bullshit of the week and the show taking it seriously. This kind of fact checking is easy and quick to do, and if you don't want to do it, at least leave the topic alone and talk about something you actually do know about and care about enough to be informed on first. It's a disservice to spread lies, and it's not funny either.

Same with the Roots discussion.  If Jordan doesn't know or care anything about it, don't have him on the panel.  I'm sure there are contributors on the show who could have actually contributed something.

[AmandaPanda]

I agreed with most of them about the commencement speaker issue. I can understand uninviting a speaker if they have recently done something that is particularly controversial. But everyone knows what they're going to get with a graduation speaker like Ann Coulter or Dubya. If your campus is super liberal, don't invite someone really conservative. That's just stupid. That being said, even though I'm super liberal, I would still be interested in hearing a graduation speech from someone with a different point of view. 

[ganesh]

I'm skeptical Larry was drinking actual vodka.

[kassygreene]

One could perhaps be skeptical that Trump "Vodka" is actually vodka....

[attica]

LeVar Burton was never my particular jam, but now? Come on over here and bring some bread, honey. Damn, LeVar, looking good!

[ganesh]

I thought maybe including Jordan was deliberate because he's of the younger generation and they wanted his pov on Roots. I don't know if they actually considered he hasn't watched it because he came off like an idiot and looked to be only there for the prop gag.

[Skyfall]

Im starting to like this more than TDS.

[Temperance]

Larry's last line last night from his opening speech was powerful, but I don't remember the whole thing. One of my closest friends is LGBT and has been so affected by the fact it was a gay club even though they don't know anyone who died there. I also was glad during the panel they mentioned that almost everyone who died if not everyone was Hispanic. I think that was so important, because there seems to have been a racist mentality against Hispanics. 

Edited June 14, 2016 by Temperance

[AmandaPanda]

I loved last night's episode. I thought the panel was really powerful and raised a lot of issues. I really agreed with the guest (whose name I can't remember at the moment) about the fact that blaming this on radical Islam helps us to separate from the fact that this was done by an American citizen. I also find that I tend to agree with Mike Yard about guns. I just thought it was a really well-done panel.

[Muffyn]

I appreciated Larry calling out that this was violence against the LGBT community.  The news is so focused on ISIS, ISIS, ISIS and the shooter that they are forgetting the victims and why they were targeted.  They only care if they can link it to ISIS rather than addressing their part in promoting hatred and fear of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.  The panelist, Mychal Denzel Smith, was excellent.  Intersectionality was at play - Latin night in an LGBT club with featured transgender performers.  I ordered his book.  I want to hear more from him. 

[wknt3]

On 06/14/2016 at 3:32 PM, AmandaPanda said:

I loved last night's episode. I thought the panel was really powerful and raised a lot of issues. I really agreed with the guest (whose name I can't remember at the moment) about the fact that blaming this on radical Islam helps us to separate from the fact that this was done by an American citizen. I also find that I tend to agree with Mike Yard about guns. I just thought it was a really well-done panel.

Just watched the episode and I 2/3rds loved it. Agree on the panel and thought the intro was very well done. But they couldn't do better than yet another Nightly Nightly after 2 weeks off? Even if you want something light to change the tone give us a Rory bit or something like last night's Girl Scouts piece. Anything else.

[attica]

God, I loved the Girl Scout piece. So much. Mike wore the hell out of that merit-badge sash.  In my area, however, cookie buyers have to pony up cash when ordering (or pay cash if the cookie-hustlers set up a table at my train station, which is both brilliant and evil), so I don't quite get how Cookie Debt accrues.

Edited June 16, 2016 by attica

[ganesh]

I watched Monday's show now, and it was good, but now it's my understanding that the IS thing was a smokescreen and the shooter frequented the club before. Obviously, not the show's fault. 

Yard was on point though. Forget about the religion angle. These people are getting easy access to the guns. I liked the comment about "outsourcing the shooting" by hiding it behind IS.

I think we've said it here before too: If nothing got done after Sandy Hook, then nothing is going to get done. 

[ganesh]

Good piece with Cooper grilling the FL AG. I'm so over the "too soon; anger isn't the time" canard that politicians throw out as an excuse. It's actually too late imo.

As much as Cooper did a great job, how about the media doing their actual jobs all the time, and not only when something happens; holding politicians accountable to their policies maybe?

[wknt3]

Last night's show was great. A perfect example of what it can be at it's best. Solid desk bit, the 2 comedy pieces were both funny and on point (especially Rory's) and the panel was interesting, entertaining, and offered a different perspective than usually offered by mainstream media. It also showed Larry at his best as moderator. He was insightful and empathetic and moved the conversation along without interrupting or going for cheap punchlines. Nice to end the week on a high note.

[AmandaPanda]

I loved the feminism panel. Franchesca is my favorite contributor. I love the work that she does for Buzzfeed and was so glad to see her on this particular panel. Really solid episode.