S04.E21: North Korea–United States Relations

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Other segments: Charlottesville attack
Guests: "Weird Al" Yankovic

 

[Lantern7]

As far as covers of "Take On Me" go, I think the Jeffster version works best. And I hated Jeff and Lester on Chuck.

I don't know if there is a God or anything like that running the universe, but I hope John Oliver is blessed somehow. So good. So, so good. I mean . . . yeah, bringing "Weird Al" Yankovic after talking accordions was expected, but it worked. Also: cute robots trying to play soccer! I know, according to John, a British person dies when you use that word in place of "football." As long as it isn't him, I'll be happy.

[Delwyn]

John's segment on Trump and Nazis actually broke my heart. Because I have family members whose lives were ended or ruined by their ideology and I don't even know where to start with that "presidential" non-answer. I half-hoped John would give me a dark thing to laugh about, but...the stark reality is not funny at all. So good on him for not trying to make light. It's what we needed to hear. 

[Annber03]

30 minutes ago, Delwyn said:

John's segment on Trump and Nazis actually broke my heart. Because I have family members whose lives were ended or ruined by their ideology and I don't even know where to start with that "presidential" non-answer. I half-hoped John would give me a dark thing to laugh about, but...the stark reality is not funny at all. So good on him for not trying to make light. It's what we needed to hear. 

Amen. His genuine anger and despair came through loud and clear. I appreciate him not holding back. 

I also liked hearing a segment on North Korea that didn't rely on the usual sort of hyperbolic scaremongering so much of the other media discussion has featured lately. He addressed the legitimate concerns and threats, yes, but in a practical, thoughtful manner, and I especially like that he also touched on the horrific struggles the people of that country have to deal with as well. It's clear we can't count on Trump to handle this well, but I hope that somebody, be it the leaders of our military, or U.S. diplomats, or other people along those lines, can help get things back under control and try and get some sort of positive change happening on that front, whatever it may be. Maybe we should work and talk more with the people who've defected from North Korea-they might have some suggestions about how to deal with this situation that we haven't even considered yet or something. 

Bless Weird Al for showing up, too. After such a serious episode, something like that was sorely needed and welcome. It's clearly a long shot, but it would be kind of neat, and surreal, if the TV programs* being smuggled to the citizens of that country proved instrumental in helping lead the people to oust Kim Jong-un somehow. 

*Kind of a strange mix of things to try and show the positive aspects of the U.S., though. I liked "Desperate Housewives", but given the dark stuff that happened on that show, I wouldn't exactly be looking to it as an example of the good side of people in this country :p. 

[meowmommy]

I was stationed in Korea in the early 1980s and got a chance to go to Camp Red Cloud and a tour of the DMZ.  Went into one of the underground tunnels and was able to look across to North Korea, including the sham apartment complexes where no one lived.  It was a very serious business and tensions were high then, even though we were at peace and had been at peace for 30 years.  I can only imagine how it must feel now.

Damn DVR cut off just as Weird Al came on.  Will have to look for it on demand.

[TVcritic]

So, where does all of NK's money  come from? China? If so, a report on that would have been nice. Other than that, Weird Al is a better ambassador for the US than Dennis Rodman who is a different kind of weird. 

Edited August 14, 2017 by TVcritic

[purist]

7 hours ago, Annber03 said:

Amen. His genuine anger and despair came through loud and clear. I appreciate him not holding back. 

I was delighted to see Righteously Angry John again in that segment. RAJ doesn't come out often, but he was perfect here. He struck exactly the right tone.

[ganesh]

I'm glad John pointed out that it's in China's best interest to maintain the status quo. I'm hoping that the two adults in the administration are working on come back channel communication with China to get North Korea to just shut up long enough for the president to forget about this. 

[cpcathy]

Yes, John was pissed, as he should be. It was nice to see someone on TV with the same feelings as the rest of us.

[iMonrey]

Quote

 I'm hoping that the two adults in the administration are working

Who are they?

[stillshimpy]

I also appreciated John's relative sanity when talking about the crazy-making-place: North Korea.  I'm also really grateful that he took the time to point out something that keeps being kind of treated as something that need not be acknowledged:  the people of North Korea are victims of a heartless, repressive, desperate regime.  They are not our enemies.  They are brainwashed and threatened for any deviation from that every single moment of their lives.   It needs to be remembered.  If the Pudgy Madman with the Bad Hair is horrifying to behold from a distance, I can't even imagine what it would be like to be in North Korea right now.  Well, truthfully, I probably have an inkling thanks to recent history. 

Once again, I'm so impressed that John and his writers' room manages to come up with something that doesn't solely feature a nattily dressed, rather slight Englishman running back and forth on the set, screaming "We're so Fucked" to the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus,  week after week.   

That's usually good for a little bit of a laugh, for me, at least.  Just imagine the terror that is that writers' room every week.  Wide-eyed writers strung out on caffeine.   Random facial muscles twitching as they mutter "I could have taken a sitcom gig, but nooooooo, I wanted to do topical comedy.  Holy fuckballs, where'd all the comedic potential go from the current events?  This is unfunny shit.  This is really unfunny shit.  Smoking craters where hilarity once stood is all that is left in the funny of this situation.   All right then, everyone settled in?  Let's make this...funny.  Godspeed everyone!  Don't worry, we have more tequila. In an IV."  

Clearly, I'm being really flippant but I am sincerely astounded that they were able to extract anything amusing from this last week.   I wouldn't have been surprised if the entire show had been a chyron stating:   Comedy Canceled Due to Traumatic News Cycle. Again.  Yet Again.  Yes, that's right, defying all reason, again.  

Edited August 14, 2017 by stillshimpy

[ganesh]

McMasters and Maddis seem to be the only adults. 

[trow125]

1 hour ago, ganesh said:

McMasters and Maddis seem to be the only adults. 

And I think Tillerson isn't completely a waste of space by Trump administration standards.

If you want to learn more about North Korea, I read a wonderful nonfiction book last year called “My Holiday in North Korea” by Wendy E. Simmons. It's about an American who visits NK and the interactions she has with the tour guides who are assigned to her are really poignant and illuminating. Americans are pretty much barred from visiting now, which is totally understandable after the whole Otto Warmbier incident, but I do feel that perhaps a little light got in when Wendy was able to talk about America with the people she met in NK. Now I guess NCIS will have to do the job for us.

[ganesh]

No, he's not, but he doesn't really have government or security experience like the other two. He may have Russian contacts, but I don't know if that's helpful here. Being that they've seen combat, the other two should be motivated to tone down all this inflated rhetoric. 

[Victor the Crab]

Funny how Ollie brought up the term "Reverse Godwin's Law" last night, in regards to Drumph talking about everything but Nazis. Because Mike Godwin, the creator of Godwin's Law, tweeted this out last night:

Quote

"By all means, compare these shitheads to Nazis. Again and again. I'm with you."

[attica]

I'm with Godwin. In fact, I'll go a step further. We should call all these shitheads Nazis. Any other name is a distinction without a difference. Fig leaves to get them admitted to polite company. 

Like many of y'all, the minute John name-checked Weird Al, I knew he'd close the show. I wasn't anticipating the hard-core lederhosen, I'll admit. (which, given the coverage of Nazis in the show, clanged a bit for me). And whatever mutes those horn players were using, they were buckets of fun.

[Annber03]

7 hours ago, purist said:

I was delighted to see Righteously Angry John again in that segment. RAJ doesn't come out often, but he was perfect here. He struck exactly the right tone.

Agreed. I felt/feel the same way whenever Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert would let their honest emotion come through on a story that had particularly upset them. 

Kudos to Godwin for supporting Oliver's "reverse Godwin's Law" thing as well. Very cool. 

2 hours ago, trow125 said:

If you want to learn more about North Korea, I read a wonderful nonfiction book last year called “My Holiday in North Korea” by Wendy E. Simmons. It's about an American who visits NK and the interactions she has with the tour guides who are assigned to her are really poignant and illuminating. Americans are pretty much barred from visiting now, which is totally understandable after the whole Otto Warmbier incident, but I do feel that perhaps a little light got in when Wendy was able to talk about America with the people she met in NK. Now I guess NCIS will have to do the job for us.

Ooh, that does sound like an intriguing read. I'll keep an eye out for that book. Thanks for the mention!

[mojoween]

I don't know anything about John's family history, but I think righteous anger comes naturally to an Englishman when talking about Nazis.  I've been waiting for this all day and it did not disappoint.

Watching this on Mondays sometimes has its drawbacks, because I would have loved to see John react to the Monster-in-Chief reading from a TelePrompTer today and not making anything fucking better.  By next Sunday I'm sure something else dire will happen.  OR, I've heard rumors Bannon might be out the door and I will wait breathlessly for John's take on that.

I wondered in November how Drumpf would do as the Consoler-in-Chief and my fears have been realized, to this poor country's consternation.

[Annber03]

17 minutes ago, mojoween said:

OR, I've heard rumors Bannon might be out the door and I will wait breathlessly for John's take on that.

That'd be wonderful if that happens. Seems so far that's how things are going with this administration in general...just a slow drip of them eventually leaving the White House for one reason or another. 

[peeayebee]

2 hours ago, mojoween said:

I wondered in November how Drumpf would do as the Consoler-in-Chief and my fears have been realized, to this poor country's consternation.

"Best regards... So sad!" Is he human?

One little part of the show I loved was when John did a bit as Trump, ending with, "Sez you. Fake news! Goodbye." I need to rewatch to get the whole thing.

And my DVR cut off during Weird Al's performance. I'll have to see it online.

[purist]

11 hours ago, stillshimpy said:

Once again, I'm so impressed that John and his writers' room manages to come up with something that doesn't solely feature a nattily dressed, rather slight Englishman running back and forth on the set, screaming "We're so Fucked" to the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus,  week after week.

I would marry this sentence if I could. Bravo.

[Hanahope]

That was such a great observation about NK, how it could turn into the next Iraq or Afghanistan if the wrong action is done.  Which of course scares me greatly, because if anyone can do the wrong thing, it'll be trump.

[ganesh]

Kim said today that he's going to "wait and see" before committing to any military action, so hopefully the adults will distract the president long enough now so he forgets about this and moves on to ruining something else. 

John said it himself on the show, DPRK needs the USA to be its bogeyman, and China wants to maintain the status quo. I can just imagine Li sitting there saying, "will you two just shut up!"

[stillshimpy]

So hey, remember how John was saying that "We're taping this on Sunday, so by the time this airs..." etc. etc.  Every now and then a disclaimer is needed, particularly when talking about how the sitting president's tepid response to denouncing racism, so I understood why he said there was a chance that by now...

 

Somewhere, right now, John Oliver is having a wonderfully accented fit that features more F Bombs than all of The Wire.   Failed to mention, "Or might somehow have made it worse..." because it didn't seem possible.  At the time.   

For once the writer's room is likely, "Oh yes, pretty much no matter what, we know what next week's topic will be.  Every Magic 8 Ball everywhere just rotated to 'signs point to yes' and fought down the urge to figure out how to throw themselves into a corner pocket, anywhere, anywhere at all.  

Edited August 16, 2017 by stillshimpy

[Annber03]

Ha, yeah, I keep thinking about how Oliver (and Colbert and Meyers and so on, for that matter) were reacting to Trump's comments today, too. It's truly amazing, isn't it? Like the old meme goes, "You had ONE job!" 

Just...the mind absolutely boggles. 

(Also, I really love the vivid way you describe things. Just want to say that :D.)

Edited August 16, 2017 by Annber03

[trow125]

On 8/14/2017 at 7:46 PM, peeayebee said:

And my DVR cut off during Weird Al's performance. I'll have to see it online.

The LWT Twitter feed announced on Sunday that the show would be running a few minutes long.

After having it cut off a bunch of times, I finally gave up and set my DVR to automatically pad it by 10 minutes.

It's weird, it's only Wednesday and all the North Korea stuff seems SO long ago.

[Jersey Guy 87]

11 minutes ago, trow125 said:

The LWT Twitter feed announced on Sunday that the show would be running a few minutes long.

After having it cut off a bunch of times, I finally gave up and set my DVR to automatically pad it by 10 minutes.

It's weird, it's only Wednesday and all the North Korea stuff seems SO long ago.

I changed my DVR settings to add an extra 30 minutes long ago.  Sometimes LWT starts late, sometimes it runs long, I can delete it after I watch it.

I thought John's take on North Korea was very insightful.  It's good to explain that given his position as dictator Kim Jong-un isn't acting irrational in his behavior towards the US.  He needs to create a bogeyman to maintain his hold on power (much like Saddam Hussein did when he was in power).  I also liked that JO exposed that some of the stories we hear about North Korea (everyone has to get a Kim Jong-un haircut) are actually bullshit.

[Annber03]

1 hour ago, trow125 said:

It's weird, it's only Wednesday and all the North Korea stuff seems SO long ago.

Proof of just how fast the news moves nowadays with this administration. 

[Victor the Crab]

2 hours ago, trow125 said:

It's weird, it's only Wednesday and all the North Korea stuff seems SO long ago.

With nuclear weapons on the table, we should all feel so lucky, events in Charlotteville notwithstanding.

[peeayebee]

2 hours ago, trow125 said:

The LWT Twitter feed announced on Sunday that the show would be running a few minutes long.

My DVR had always extended the record time when the show ran over. However, I did have a get a new DVR recently, so maybe it's not as smart as the old one was. :)

[SnideAsides]

On 16/8/2017 at 0:29 PM, stillshimpy said:

So hey, remember how John was saying that "We're taping this on Sunday, so by the time this airs..." etc. etc.  Every now and then a disclaimer is needed, particularly when talking about how the sitting president's tepid response to denouncing racism, so I understood why he said there was a chance that by now...

Somewhere, right now, John Oliver is having a wonderfully accented fit that features more F Bombs than all of The Wire.   Failed to mention, "Or might somehow have made it worse..." because it didn't seem possible.  At the time.

"Let me just remind you that, last Sunday, I told you if you looked above the clouds, you would see rock bottom. But if you look up there now, just way, way up there, all the way up high, you will see, right up in the distance, where we were this time last week. Because since then, we have sunk so low we are breaking through the Earth's crust, where drowning in boiling magma will come as sweet, sweet relief." - John Oliver, October 9, 2016.

Mostly, I'm so so angry that after everything else he's going to have to talk about on Sunday, Ollie's probably not going to have time to comment on this major news story combining one of his favourite punching bags (New Zealand) with one of his favourite international politicians (the Australian Agriculture Minister who wanted to kill Johnny Depp's dogs).

[dusang]

But seriously, why do so many Australian politicians not know their own citizenship?

(I'm going to focus on this now. The rest of reality is ... not working for me.)

[Robert Lynch]

To return on topic about Trump, he doesn't care about anybody . He is in it for adulation and that's the problem. He wants to be loved. He wants to do things he use to do in the past and got away with it. The problem comes with age and weight gain. He is no longer untouchable. He does things that are so stupid it's baffling. 

[Tosia]

I had nightmares about that North Korea atrocities. 

John helped with Weird Al. Both my sisters played accordion as children.  Those accordions are heavy AF.

[trow125]

On 8/17/2017 at 9:20 AM, dusang said:

But seriously, why do so many Australian politicians not know their own citizenship?

(I'm going to focus on this now. The rest of reality is ... not working for me.)

I hope John does do something on this issue, because it's truly nuts. (Apparently just being ELIGIBLE for dual citizenship is a deal breaker; one of the senators caught up in this was born in Australia but because his dad immigrated from Cyprus, he may be kicked out of parliament.)

[paigow]

On 8/16/2017 at 5:22 PM, Victor the Crab said:

With nuclear weapons on the table, we should all feel so lucky, events in Charlotteville notwithstanding.

Unfortunately, Charlottesville is a propaganda bonanza for North Korea. What better way to demonize America? Orange Is The New Hitler. No kidnapping of South Korean moviemakers required.

[SuburbanHangSuite]

Which one of the writers has something against Richard Gere??  Why the insistence on referencing gerbil rumors periodically?

"Now we know who's watching NCIS."  I must admit, I've always wondered.

Take On Me.  Cool.

[stillshimpy]

23 hours ago, SuburbanHangSuite said:

Which one of the writers has something against Richard Gere??  Why the insistence on referencing gerbil rumors periodically?

For damned real, someone needs to let go of thinking that one of their formative experiences -- because that's clearly the damned deal, someone bringing up this incredibly ancient urban legend -- is just peculiar, not funny and makes John seem just disturbingly fixated on the workings of Richard Gere's butt. 

 

It's clearly someone on the writing staff but heads up there, there are maybe a dozen people who are thigh-slapping over any of that and they are all people who heard that rumor as children.   It's a really tiny demographic to try to appeal to repeatedly.  Maybe stop?  Please?  

Edited August 21, 2017 by stillshimpy