S05.E19: District Attorneys in the United States

[Athena]

Quote

Other segments: Trials of Paul Manafort

 

[Annber03]

And this further explains one of the many, many reasons I am opposed to the death penalty. Holy shit, that tiny electric chair. What the hell? Very interesting history about Harry's father, too. Did not know that. Not a great look on Connick Sr. there. 

As for Trump, ah, it's been fascinating to see how the goalposts and stories keep shifting regarding this whole "collusion" business. Every day there's a new excuse or justification, it seems. 

Everything with Manafort's horrific fashion sense was highly entertaining. This is the sort of crap people like him need to blow their money on? O-kay, then. 

[peeayebee]

A jacket that screams "I framed Roger Rabbit". :D

[ganesh]

10 hours ago, Annber03 said:

This is the sort of crap people like him need to blow their money on?

No, he needed to buy it to launder money.

I got a huge laugh at John excoriating the audience for their reaction to Cuba Gooding's oscar. 

[cpcathy]

I realize John makes fun of himself almost as much as he makes fun of other things, but what the heck has he got against Cheesecake Factory??

[iMonrey]

He used to make fun of some other restaurant all the time . . . what was it, Arby's? Chipotle? I can't remember. Anyway they called a truce and he switched to making fun of the Cheesecake Factory.

[cpcathy]

Jon Stewart made fun of Arby's, which I also like!

[Victor the Crab]

Ollie mocked Chipotle a couple of years ago for the bacteria laced food it was serving up.

[meowmommy]

"If he's not Hitler, you must acquit-ler."  Gold!

14 hours ago, Annber03 said:

Everything with Manafort's horrific fashion sense was highly entertaining. This is the sort of crap people like him need to blow their money on? O-kay, then. 

Who knew you could spend so much to look so bad?

[bilgistic]

A jacket made of "murdered snakes" made me laugh.

[Popples]

6 hours ago, meowmommy said:

"If he's not Hitler, you must acquit-ler."  Gold!

I saw that coming, and it still got a huge laugh out of me.

[ottoDbusdriver]

8 hours ago, iMonrey said:

He used to make fun of some other restaurant all the time . . . what was it, Arby's? Chipotle? I can't remember. Anyway they called a truce and he switched to making fun of the Cheesecake Factory.

Sidebar

Similarly, @midnight had an ongoing Twitter war with the Cheescake factory until a ceasefire was arranged, then @midnight started a Twitter war with Bubba Gump Shrimp.

Arby's was definitely Jon Stewart's target of derision on The Daily Show.

End Sidebar

[iMonrey]

Thanks ottoDbusdriver. I knew it sounded familiar but I totally mixed up my shows.

I realize I'm mostly alone in this, but I get really frustrated when John's main story is something that isn't particularly time-specific or current. After all, the show is called "Last Week Tonight," and yet beyond "just a quick recap" of the week, the bulk of the show is usually devoted to a subject that has nothing particular to do with the previous week. 

Yes, the show covers a lot of subjects that need talking about, but I swear the criminal justice system and all its myriad problems is something he's already covered at least once before, and there's such a trove of current events going on in the world that I'd rather see him talk about. 

[ruby24]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Thanks ottoDbusdriver. I knew it sounded familiar but I totally mixed up my shows.

I realize I'm mostly alone in this, but I get really frustrated when John's main story is something that isn't particularly time-specific or current. After all, the show is called "Last Week Tonight," and yet beyond "just a quick recap" of the week, the bulk of the show is usually devoted to a subject that has nothing particular to do with the previous week. 

Yes, the show covers a lot of subjects that need talking about, but I swear the criminal justice system and all its myriad problems is something he's already covered at least once before, and there's such a trove of current events going on in the world that I'd rather see him talk about. 

I agree with you. Sometimes I am interested, like last week about sexual harassment, or occasionally when he does a deep dive into European politics, because that's the only time I ever hear about what's happening in elections in other countries, but when it's something just random and not particularly relevant to recent news my attention drifts and my phone comes out.

[ganesh]

That's hard to plan though and can be random. Especially if they have to book guests. 

[meowmommy]

13 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Thanks ottoDbusdriver. I knew it sounded familiar but I totally mixed up my shows.

I realize I'm mostly alone in this, but I get really frustrated when John's main story is something that isn't particularly time-specific or current. After all, the show is called "Last Week Tonight," and yet beyond "just a quick recap" of the week, the bulk of the show is usually devoted to a subject that has nothing particular to do with the previous week. 

Yes, the show covers a lot of subjects that need talking about, but I swear the criminal justice system and all its myriad problems is something he's already covered at least once before, and there's such a trove of current events going on in the world that I'd rather see him talk about. 

Not as alone as you might think.  One kind of wonders if some of the topics are leftover from when maybe they got bumped for more urgent stories.

Considering how much time John spent on tepidly supporting Hillary in 2016, all the while pointing out her myriad flaws, I think he should spend a little more time on Stupid Watergate and not just as the side mention of the week.  That topic can go in so many directions and the writing team would never run out of ideas.

[paigow]

On 8/6/2018 at 9:42 PM, ottoDbusdriver said:

Similarly, @midnight had an ongoing Twitter war with the Cheescake factory until a ceasefire was arranged
 

I thought Hardwick went all Bruce Wayne and bought Cheesecake Factory....

[Hooper]

Quote

I realize I'm mostly alone in this, but I get really frustrated when John's main story is something that isn't particularly time-specific or current.

Obviously there is plenty of room here for individual preferences and opinions.  But I cast my vote for John's approach of covering other topics.  Every weekly and daily-ish late night talk show devotes a significant portion of their time to Stupid Watergate.  And for more serious and in-depth coverage there's the newscasts on the major networks, and pretty much 24 hrs on CNN and  MSNBC  (and some other cable channel if you want a George Costanza "opposite day" approach).   One way or another, Stupid Watergate shall pass.   In the meantime, I think it's valuable to know that there are plenty of other things that need fixing.  

[Annber03]

2 minutes ago, Hooper said:

Obviously there is plenty of room here for individual preferences and opinions.  But I cast my vote for John's approach of covering other topics.  Every weekly and daily-ish late night talk show devotes a significant portion of their time to Stupid Watergate.  And for more serious and in-depth coverage there's the newscasts on the major networks, and pretty much 24 hrs on CNN and  MSNBC  (and some other cable channel if you want a George Costanza "opposite day" approach).   One way or another, Stupid Watergate shall pass.   In the meantime, I think it's valuable to know that there are plenty of other things that need fixing.  

Agreed on all of this. I like that he's still bringing attention to some issues that a lot of people may not be aware of. 

[Jersey Guy 87]

8 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

Agreed on all of this. I like that he's still bringing attention to some issues that a lot of people may not be aware of. 

Also, the amount of work that goes into his in-depth segment each week is not something he can do for a currently active topic like Stupid Watergate.  He touches on Stupid Watergate almost every week while doing a deep dive on some other issue that most people aren't paying attention to or aren't really aware of.

[iMonrey]

Quote

Also, the amount of work that goes into his in-depth segment each week is not something he can do for a currently active topic like Stupid Watergate.  He touches on Stupid Watergate almost every week while doing a deep dive on some other issue that most people aren't paying attention to or aren't really aware of.

I'm not saying  "Stupid Watergate" should be the main story every week. Obviously there are a lot of other things going on in the world. My point is that "the criminal justice system" has nothing in particular to do with last week. And the show is called "Last Week Tonight." Maybe they should have given the show a different name if they primarily want to cover issues that aren't actually time-specific. 

And yes . . . John and his staff do a great job researching and reporting on these issues, which is why I'd love for them to devote that same attention and resources to more current events. They do it better than most anyone else. 

When I found out what the main story was about I actually stopped the recording and watched something else. I got around to watching it later the next day, but it just wasn't compelling enough for me to spend a half hour on late Sunday night. It didn't have any urgency to it, it was just another generic expose. A good one to be sure, but not timely in any sense. It could wait. And it did.

[Victor the Crab]

I think Ollie made mention that they can only handle so much news surrounding Drumpf and his band of deplorable fuckfaces before they start getting depressed. I think their main story is welcomed from all the madness as well as important info.

[iMonrey]

Quote

I think Ollie made mention that they can only handle so much news surrounding Drumpf and his band of deplorable fuckfaces before they start getting depressed.

Again . . . there are other things going on in the world. Other countries, other current events, other things going on in this country that have nothing to do with Trump. I would hope to see a story next week about the primaries, for example, or even just one in particular. Or Alex Jones getting dropped from Facebook and Instagram. Anything that actually happened this week.

[paigow]

On 8/8/2018 at 4:52 PM, Victor the Crab said:

I think Ollie made mention that they can only handle so much news surrounding Drumpf and his band of deplorable fuckfaces before they start getting depressed.

It seemed that District Attorney elections are scheduled during the upcoming Congressional / Senate contests and Ollie did not want people to forget about these important albeit lower profile choices....

[SnideAsides]

I think the issue isn't so much the main stories being less timely (that's always been the case), it's that Stupid Watergate is taking up all of the "just time for a quick recap" time. We used to get three or four quick fun stories from around the world there, and now we're down to just one, and it's the same damn story every fucking week. Give us an update on how Brexit is fucked up, or the Zimbabwean elections, or anything to do with the insanity of Australian politics. The news cycle being All Trump All The Time Fuck Yeah America is exactly what Shitler wants.