The Opposition With Jordan Klepper - General Discussion

[Lebanna]

I was just starting to really get into this show and look forward to it. I hope he gets to take some of the citizen journalists over to the new show, as I enjoyed their psychotic obliviousness.

 

I'm going to miss this abominable thing. It was sometimes really very good, and always entertaining.

Edited June 15, 2018 by Lebanna

[Skyfall]

7 hours ago, gesundheit said:

Welp, canceled. That's a shame, I thought it had found its groove and I'd started really looking forward to it.

I thinks he’s better suited for the weekly series they are eyeing. In fact just have the 11:30 slot each night be a weekly series as having similar shows back to back isn’t the way to go anymore.

Monday - Back In Black With Lewis Black (if he can handle a weekly show, if not CC should try for Desus & Mero)

Tuesday - The Jim Jeffries Show

Wednesday - The Jordan Kepler Show

Thursday - The President’s Show

[Lantern7]

@Skyfall . . . good idea. Or maybe they could give Chris Hardw- . . . no, that wouldn't work. Larry Wilmore? He's getting ready for prison infiltration, just so he can poke Bill Cosby between cell bars with a stick. I don't think Lewis has the stamina for thirty minutes with commercials, in the sense that his trademarked rage works best in short bursts.

Jordan did a great special on guns, so I think he has more than "smarmy white male" to offer.

As much as Opposition deserved love . . . we only just made a second page on the episode thread.

In case you didn't see last night's episode, here's "The Michael Cohen Story." "Says who?"

[wknt3]

20 hours ago, gesundheit said:

Welp, canceled. That's a shame, I thought it had found its groove and I'd started really looking forward to it.

Apparently that is the new Comedy Central formula.

1.Take somebody from The Daily Show and give them their own show.
2. Expect Colbert Report numbers despite lower lead in ratings and a very different environment. Try to help them along by giving lots of notes and meddling as much as possible.
3. Be disappointed when it's not the phenomenon Colbert was.
4. Stick with it despite it not being an instant hit.
5. Eventually the talented people in front of and behind the camera find what works with them and the quality improves. Word of mouth starts to build encouraging those who dropped the show to check it out again.
6. Start an all out promotional campaign to re-launch the show. Just kidding of course. Cancel the show at it's creative peak and start all over.

[DXD526]

I'd love to see a Lewis Black show. He does stand-up for an hour or more and is able to sustain the rage and hilarity, so I think a weekly 22 minutes has great potential. 

I'm going to miss Jordan's show. It was indeed really starting to find its voice and had turned into nightly viewing for me. Comedy Central did the exact same thing to Larry Wilmore, pulling the plug when his show was really starting to jell. It's making me hesitant to try whatever they put on next. 

[Hanahope]

Agree that it was really coming together .  Just like Wilmore, cancelled too soon.

[iMonrey]

I'd be interested to know what kind of ratings this show was getting versus The Daily Show. Or versus Larry Wilmore's show. I think it would speak to what kind of threshold Comedy Central has for what's acceptable to them. 

I've always enjoyed Jordan Klepper but I could never get into this show. Even a parody of a right-wing pundit makes me stabby. It's the same reason I never watched Colbert's show. But I think the genre was much more enjoyable and palatable in the Obama era than it is in the Trump era. It's just not funny when you know how many people actually believe these things.

[teddysmom]

On 6/20/2018 at 3:24 PM, iMonrey said:

ve always enjoyed Jordan Klepper but I could never get into this show. Even a parody of a right-wing pundit makes me stabby. It's the same reason I never watched Colbert's show. But I think the genre was much more enjoyable and palatable in the Obama era than it is in the Trump era. It's just not funny when you know how many people actually believe these things.

They have a way of skewering the Trump supporters while sounding like they're with them.   I have really enjoyed it the last few months in fact it's gotten to be my favorite late night show. 

Hopefully Comedy Central will at least rerun it til the new show. FFS do not put on reruns of South Park or that idiot Tosh. 

[gesundheit]

I felt a little bad for that Planned Parenthood woman in last night's episode -- I don't think they properly coached her for how to play along with the satire!

[Lantern7]

2 hours ago, gesundheit said:

I felt a little bad for that Planned Parenthood woman in last night's episode -- I don't think they properly coached her for how to play along with the satire!

. . . or a case of, "Hey, they can walk away. I still have to live with this bullshit."

Didn't John Oliver cover "crisis centers" first? Still worth focusing on . . . and sending two faux alt-righters to give viewers a look at the actual struggle is -- dare I say it -- a little more informational. Seriously hoping Jordan gets a bigger audience with his new gig, and that he joins Trevor, Samantha and John in the ranks of the disciples of Jon Stewart making a difference.

Edited June 27, 2018 by Lantern7

[DXD526]

I'm really going to miss this show.

[teddysmom]

Me too. They do have tons of clips on youtube.   He should have been on earlier, and he should have gotten a lot more promotion. 

FFS Comedy Central promo'd Tosh so much I was about to throw something at the tv if I saw one more of those idiot reboot commercials. 

Also, Daily Show and Colbert used to be rerun during the day. Why'd they stop doing that?  Afraid someone won't see South Park?  I'll admit, I enjoy The Office reruns in the evening when I'm doing stuff around the house and just have the tv on, also to avoid cable news. But Comedy Central has no one to blame but themselves for The Opposition not succeeding. And I could also just turn on Netflix if I want to watch The Office. 

Klepper is brilliant at what he does, and the cast is amazing.  I just realized Tim Baltz is the guy with the weird toilet invention from Season 1 of Better Call Saul. 

[Lantern7]

This series will be missed . . . at least until Jordan takes on folks without the smug alt-right persona. I'm happy none of the correspondents got their asses kicked. Hey, if you're having a bad day and you snap, it might take precious seconds to realize your punching bag is probably not an asshole, but merely plays one on TV.

Is there an archive of the signs? I will miss those. Here were the last six, for the sake of posterity:

"OPPOSE" "AT LEAST WE WEREN'T A BOOK"

"DEMOCRACY DIES ON CABLE" "VOTE. REALLY. PLEASE VOTE."

"RUSSIA FUNDED US THIS WHOLE TIME" "LUCKILY THE STABLE CC MEDIA PLAYER WILL KEEP THIS CONTENT ACCESSIBLE FOREVER"

Edited June 30, 2018 by Lantern7

[SomeTameGazelle]

Today I learned that Laura Grey is Jordan's wife, which means that I was able to get some extra enjoyment out of this little exchange:

Quote

 

Laura: Ivanka, it's time for you to put on your big girl pants and start acting like a daughter! And if you can't get on board, I know someone whose closet is nothing but big girl pants (and a few sensible tops). And I can be a Trump daughter who doesn't blink when the going gets tough, because the second I start to feel that little twinge in my brain, telling me that blind allegiance to your dad is shameful and that the things I'm standing up for are hateful and cruel, and that my moral compass has been shattered so badly that I don't even know the right way forward any more, I will crush that feeling, crush it down to a fine powder and snort it to make myself stronger because I know it's my job to make all of this palatable, so step aside, Vanks, and let daddy slap MY name on some sweatshop blouses and make me family!

Jordan: I love you so much.

Laura: What?

Jordan: nothing.

 

 

I had only recently come back to try watching The Opposition and was kind of enjoying it when it got cancelled. I do however tend to agree with this article; the execution of the right-wing blowhard character was the weakest part. The Citizen Journalist bits were mostly good and necessary. I will particularly miss Josh and Aaron. And I had started recording the Daily Show again as part of the same hour but I won't bother any more unless there is a guest I am particularly interested in.

[wknt3]

9 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

I had only recently come back to try watching The Opposition and was kind of enjoying it when it got cancelled. I do however tend to agree with this article; the execution of the right-wing blowhard character was the weakest part. The Citizen Journalist bits were mostly good and necessary. I will particularly miss Josh and Aaron.

I think there were two problems with the character Jordan was playing. To me it felt like it was more of an executive driven attempt to copy Colbert than it was a natural progression from his TDS persona. There were similarities sure, but it just didn't feel like his later field pieces or his special were developing the character that showed up TOwJK. The other is that Alex Jones and the alt-right are harder to parody than Bill O'Reilly and Fox News which were at least willing to acknowledge consensus reality before advancing their agenda. It is easy to skewer someone who is stacking the deck and playing semantic game than it is someone who is just making things up. I think they would have been better off going in a different direction, keeping the frat boy elements from TDS and making him more of a Don Lemon or Chuck Todd type endlessly focused on process, horse race coverage, and the latest tempest in a tea cup coming out of DC and then wondering why things are so terrible and making the Citizen Journalists into cable news talking heads and correspondents. But they had figured out how to make it work, which meant it was time to cancel it of course.

[teddysmom]

On 7/2/2018 at 12:32 AM, SomeTameGazelle said:

Today I learned that Laura Grey is Jordan's wife, which means that I was able to get some extra enjoyment out of this little exchange:

Me too, the other day.  Remember when he had the little ballerinas on last week? Was that his baby he was holding? If not that was a mighty chill baby letting a stranger dance around like that. 

Alex Jones announced the other day (then deleted it) that liberals were going to start a civil war tomorrow. Twitter is having a field day with it, I'd have loved to see The Opposition's take. 

[Hooper]

Quote

I think there were two problems with the character Jordan was playing. To me it felt like it was more of an executive driven attempt to copy Colbert than it was a natural progression from his TDS persona. There were similarities sure, but it just didn't feel like his later field pieces or his special were developing the character that showed up TOwJK. The other is that Alex Jones and the alt-right are harder to parody than Bill O'Reilly and Fox News which were at least willing to acknowledge consensus reality before advancing their agenda....

I agree with what wknt3 says here, except maybe I might quibble a teensy bit about Bill O' and Faux acknowledging reality.   I think another reason that TOwJK didn't take off like TCR did is that while Stephen was a parody of Bill O' he did lots of other things beside O'Reillyesque bloviating.  There were Prescott Pharmaceutical segments, Threatdowns, Who's Honoring Me Now, Formidable Opponent, Yaweh or No Way, The Craziest Fucking Thing I Ever Heard, The Sport Report (as a mycologist, I was always hoping for something else with the Spore Repore) .... I'm not sure that TCR would have been the phenomenon it was if it had just been 20 minutes (including commercials) of Stephen parodying The O'Reilly Factor, followed by an interview.   Jordan was just always a parody of Alex Jones and nothing more, made doubly problematic by the fact that Jones is already a self parody.    TOwJK was a pretty good bit of piano playing, but TCR was a multi-layered symphony.

We need another straight white male centric late night talk-show like we need more mashed potatoes, but I kinda sorta wish CC would give Jim Jeffries a shot at this slot.