I Love You, America - General Discussion

[Lisin]

Discuss I Love You, America Here!

[formerlyfreedom]

Sarah Silverman Travels Country In Search Of The Un-Like-Minded For Hulu’s ‘I Love You America’
 

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The 10-episode straight-to-series order for the weekly half-hour topical show, from Funny or Die, is Hulu’s first stab at the talk-variety arena.

I Love You, America will include field pieces – Sarah will have dinner with a family that has never met a Jew – and studio segments, and a focus group of a dozen people from all walks of life, who viewers will get to know across the first season.

There will be a monologue, in which Silverman said she might, for instance, explain how politicians in Washington are like Real Housewives of [Fill in the Blank].

[formerlyfreedom]

‘I Love You, America’: A Musical Sneak Peek At Sarah Silverman’s Hulu Series;

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The “sneak peek” at Sarah Silverman’s new Funny or Die series for Hulu is more like a music video, with the star lipping to a track whose lyrics start with: “I love you, America/from sea to shining sea/from the East Coast to the West/and whatever’s in between.”

[formerlyfreedom]

Political commentary from either I Love You, America! or any related PTV editorial piece is fine to be discussed in this forum.

However, posts that contain personal political views are subject to moderation.

This directive is purposely broad because anytime hard lines are drawn in the sand and/or examples are given, some will use it as an opportunity to walk too close to the line, or even put a toe over it.

Please remember, mods are only human, and sometimes stuff will slip through the net. So if you see a post that violates the above, please do not respond - use the report button.

If you have a question on any of this, please PM the forum moderator, @saoirse.

Thanks.

[Shaynaa]

I am so not the target audience for this show since I don't usually go for comedy and am not a Sarah Silverman fan.  I stumbled across it when I loaded Hulu to watch the latest Law and Order: SVU. Ha.  But I gave it a shot. The calling out of white privilege and police brutality in the singing bit was nice to see.  The meeting with the Trump supporting family played out almost exactly how I figured it would.  I guessed from the start some of them would have some form of government insurance because I guess that never gets old.  I didn't really see the point of the naked people but I don't think  there was much of one.  Nice casting job picking a real woman instead of a model.  Overall, I didn't find it especially funny but like I said, I'm not the target audience for this 

[CletusMusashi]

I am apparently also not the target audience for this, because I do usually go for comedy. And this was, as Sara Silverman projects go, pretty light on actual laughs.

The "Oh, look, we still have a fw things in common" schtick with the Trump voters did nothing for me, because I live in Ohio. I suppose if you've only lived in New Hampshire, NYC, and Los Angeles then you might get some novelty value out of that segment, but to me this was not a rare glimpse at some exotic species.  it was more like "Oh, look, she's visiting my neighbors. And getting paid for it. I suppose I might hang out there, too, if I was getting paid for it. Otherwise, please keep that trigger-happy little dimwit away from me. I'm gonna stay home and watch TV."

And while it's nice to know that a few beligerent fundies do in fact change their stripes, I'm far more worried about the ones that haven't. "Person decides acting horrible is horrible," just isn't that riveting a headline.

I chuckled a little at the naked people schtick, but she missed the best opportunity to get a real laugh out of that. They should have climbed into bed at the end with her and...whatsisname... the lucky douch bag who gets paid money to spoon Sara Silverman.

Edited October 13, 2017 by CletusMusashi

[Milburn Stone]

I love Sarah Silverman, so I thought I would love this show.

But you know what? Turns out I'm not interested in "understanding" Trump voters, and I'm not interested in "understanding" white supremacists.

I felt compelled to fast-forward through these sections, so if I misunderstood the premise, sorry.

On another note, the canned laughter during the opening song was a turn-off.

And the whole show had a feeling of deja vu; it was basically an episode of Sam Bee, with a couple of surrealistic elements (the talk show host at the desk, etc.) thrown in.

I'll continue to love you in everything else you do, Sarah.

Edited October 14, 2017 by Milburn Stone

[ganesh]

On 10/12/2017 at 8:51 PM, Shaynaa said:

The meeting with the Trump supporting family played out almost exactly how I figured it would.

 

16 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

But you know what? Turns out I'm not interested in "understanding" Trump voters, and I'm not interested in "understanding" white supremacists.

I love Sarah enough that I'm going to watch some more episodes. I feel like Jordan's pieces on the Daily Show covered what I need to know about Trump voters. I'm not interested in understanding them either. They're the ones screwing themselves over, so they have no one to blame but themselves. To be fair, the one guy said he's not impressed with what Trump's done so far, and there were a couple of people in the family that said Obama was born in Hawaii. 

I felt like Sarah could have pressed more. The college student was massively ignorant. I thought it was slick that Sarah asked if she got health insurance under the "ACA" and not "Obamacare" and she didn't even know. Though I'm not sure she's under ACA being in college. Sarah could have asked how she signed up for insurance. The college students here aren't on the ACA, it's provided by the university plans. 

Same thing about "I voted for Trump to change direction because we've been going down." Ok, how so? 

Dude is shooting at a bike with a girl on it and all he got was his gun taken away? 

I take the point that Sarah wanted to be able to hang out with different people and not yell and scream the whole time, and yeah, you don't want to be in your own bubble, but I think talking to people who didn't vote at all might have been more instructive. The whole problem is that votes from families like these counted for way more than they should have because so many people *didn't* vote. 

I guess my problem with pieces like this, and I don't doubt Sarah's sincerity, is it's like they're trying to make me feel that it's incumbent upon me to learn why these "trump voters" tick. Why? It's not my fault the person you voted for is going to take away your health care. 

Edited October 14, 2017 by ganesh

[Zima]

I love Sarah, and I love comedy. I did laugh frequently during this, but not as much as I usually do when watching any of her other programs.  I'm still in, though. I'm curious to see where it goes, and hope it gets better. 

[MaryHedwig]

I loved the naked people bit. They appeared comfortable in their own skin; did not feel forced to be there. No shame; nakedness with sexuality. (Well, for the record, they were not totally naked, got to love those name tags.) I hope that becomes a ground-breaking moment for television. 

By the way, it looked to me like the naked woman's daughter was sitting right next to her. She was younger but had the naked woman's same distinct (beautiful) eyes. So I also loved thinking that her less-than-model-flat stomach was due to giving birth to the beloved child she brought with her.

Comics are at their best when they are breaking a taboo.

[ganesh]

So, is Sarah going to go into 'trump country' every week? That seems like it could get old fast. I do like that the fire fighters were genuinely cracking up with her, but otherwise there wasn't much to the piece. 

[ganesh]

I really liked the in the field piece with Tig much more than last week. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

win a trip to the set of I Love You, America and meet Sarah Silverman

[ganesh]

I don't know if anyone is watching much anymore, but I think this was the best episode so far. I concede I'm a fan of Sarah singing because I love ludicrous songs, but she actually put together a really good song in the piece, and it's going to a good cause. Even the guy was like, 'that is an awesome title, let's do this.' 

[ganesh]

I'm surprised the survivalist didn't have a radiation detector. 

[ganesh]

Anyone still watching?

[Zima]

Just caught up on all the episodes. For me, the best parts are her monologues, and the interviews she conducts near the end of the show.  A lot of the clips of her or other comedians out in the field are also very funny. 

I HATE the man at the desk. He is probably the worst part of the show.

Edited December 22, 2017 by Zima

[ganesh]

Is anyone watching the new season? The opening monologue was rather fierce. 

[Milburn Stone]

9 minutes ago, ganesh said:

Is anyone watching the new season? The opening monologue was rather fierce. 

Thank you for this prompt. I wasn't crazy about the post-monologue parts of the show last season, but I really ought to check back in this season for the monologues. This one sounds great. If I just tell myself "I'm here for the monologue and then I'm out of here," and then live up to that promise, I might be able to get myself in the habit.

Edited September 9, 2018 by Milburn Stone

[ganesh]

The segment on abortion is good. The anti abortion guy was getting on my nerves because he was argument was factually inaccurate. 

[ganesh]

People are missing out. This season is really strong. It looks like Sarah is doing an opening-before-the-opening monologue as a regular thing. She's much more acerbic in the segment, and I think it's very fitting. 

I liked her nuanced take on outrage and how the right is using it to their own ends. 

Ha. Jon Hamm returns! I love the Hall of Presidents. 

Edited September 14, 2018 by ganesh

[Milburn Stone]

Watched the Hall of Presidents episode. It was OK, but I think the basic problem with the show is that there's no way Sarah can write a whole show by herself, so she needs a staff, which she has, and not one writer on that staff is as funny as she is.

[ganesh]

The Hall of Presidents was supposed to be a goofy bit, and I think it should have ended with them checking out her ass.  I don't necessarily think comedy needs to be funny per se, and I think she's taking the show in a different direction by her opening before opening the show.

Her extended monologue about the racists using the 'fake outrage' strategy wasn't actually funny, but it was intelligent and well thought out.

I really like the direction she's taking the show, and I'm someone who loved her comedy central show (which brought us Jon Hamm) where she was running through the streets singing about pancakes. 

[ganesh]

I hate ties, but some women can pull them off and I'm like swoon. 

That date was super cute. The guy actually seemed kind of nice. 

[ganesh]

The family seemed reasonably nice, though massively misinformed. I wish Sarah pushed a little more on why they didn't care about Russian interference. The wife was totally frosty to Sarah though. I wonder if she made a crack off camera to put her out. 

[littlecatsfeet]

On 19/10/2018 at 1:11 PM, ganesh said:

The family seemed reasonably nice, though massively misinformed. I wish Sarah pushed a little more on why they didn't care about Russian interference. The wife was totally frosty to Sarah though. I wonder if she made a crack off camera to put her out. 

I definitely noticed that too, that the wife was v-e-r-y well, frosty is definitely the word. And it's mind-boggling that they didn't deny any Russian interference, only said they didn't care. I guess it's "my guy won so it doesn't matter". I don't get this mindset but oh well.

[CletusMusashi]

I just saw the conservative barbie pundit sketch on Youtube. So, so much better than the little bit of last season that I saw. OK, I think I'm in. Don't know if I'll bother with Season 1, but I am going to start watching Season 2 from the beginning.

[ganesh]

There's really only a few bits that fell flat for me. I'm biased because I followed her career forever. I thought her comedy central how was criminally underrated, and I love that she takes credit for 'discovering John Hamm'. 

This season, she's really in her wheelhouse. 

Edited October 25, 2018 by ganesh

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Sarah Silverman discusses I Love You, America and Ralph Breaks the Internet