The Nightly Show: Season One Talk

[EyewatchTV211]

What are people's thoughts from the discussion Monday night regarding how quickly we'll have a president who is homosexual, considering there still hasn't been a female president?

[The Luvly Junkie]

What are people's thoughts from the discussion Monday night regarding how quickly we'll have a president who is homosexual, considering there still hasn't been a female president?

 

        Personally, I'm impartial to the possibilities, but considering the divisive outlooks from both parties, it feels like it'll take a while for homosexuals to be accepted into both parties, not to gain votes but to participate in politics at a high position, unless there is a homosexual working in either party. It's been 100+  years since the Women's Suffrage gave gender equality, but it seems like we've barely progressed with more female candidates. I'm just glad Hillary is representing no matter how much the media drags her down. And that other Republican woman running, I forgot her name. -_-

 

         I'm a little disappointed no one has mentioned Bree Newsome's interview. And to be fair, she's more impactful than any of the whiny Republicans. Queen Bree sounds like a good title to her next to her real name.

[attica]

I was glad to get another gander at that too-fab-for-words necklace she was wearing, which she sported on Chris Hayes's show earlier in the evening.

 

I wish Larry had had more time with her, because the planning for the pole-climb is an interesting story. For instance, they debated about who would be the best person (demographically speaking) to climb the pole, and settled on a Black woman, and then Bree volunteered. Further, once they decided it should be her, they felt it was important that her Ground Crew person should be a white dude, for balance and symbolism.  Me, I would've worried once I got above 15 feet that since they couldn't pull me down, they might start shooting. Very glad it was all good.

[stillshimpy]

I wish Larry had had more time with her, because the planning for the pole-climb is an interesting story. For instance, they debated about who would be the best person (demographically speaking) to climb the pole, and settled on a Black woman, and then Bree volunteered. Further, once they decided it should be her, they felt it was important that her Ground Crew person should be a white dude, for balance and symbolism.  Me, I would've worried once I got above 15 feet that since they couldn't pull me down, they might start shooting. Very glad it was all good.

 

I found it particularly frustrating that his interview just skimmed the entire process -- for instance, no word of what will happen now, if she faces charges, etc.  , what the officers were like when arresting her, frankly it would have been nice to hear about the whole enterprise from soup to nuts, as far as I'm concerned --  and they spent time doing goofy things with trophies.  She's a freaking hero to a lot of people, including me, I wish it had been less surface and more depth.  

 

Then his panel was made up of his staff, answering only mildly interesting questions.  I don't know if the younger guy is meant to appeal to a younger demographic or what, but he's a nitwit.  "If people can afford it, why shouldn't they have the water?"  because it's a vital resource and rationing may be necessary.  Also, I have enough money to buy freaking cocaine if I felt like it, but it's actually illegal for me to do so because of issues that pertain to the greater good.  These are not sophisticated concepts and that opinion was not even well considered -- or funny.  Jeez, given the format you need to be one or the other, quickly insightful, or funny.  

 

I just wanted someone to kill his microphone the entire time he was speaking.  There are plenty of insightful people in his age group, but he was a poor representation of that.  

 

The show has been improving, I thought and then that panel was just a face-plant on an otherwise good week.   Sorry to sound grumpy about it, but he also made it sound like that was going to be a regular feature...which is absolutely fine for three of the staffers, but that younger guy needs to be replaced with someone who isn't just shouting the first thing that comes into his or her mind.  

 

Yup.  That show made me grumpy, but I think it's because that was one of the few times I was really excited by the prospect of Larry's guest...and he kind of biffed it. 

[ganesh]

They really should have featured Bree more than a few minutes spot. Why not just put her on the panel after the interview?

[trow125]

They really should have featured Bree more than a few minutes spot. Why not just put her on the panel after the interview?

I was wondering if her segment was taped at a different time or something -- she was on several New York-based TV shows that day. Maybe she just had to rush off. I agree it wasn't a great interview.

 

RIcky Velez is super annoying. I LOVE Mike Yard, though. It occurred to me that I hadn't seen Shenaz Treasury in a while, and it seems like she's no longer affiliated with the show... her name has disappeared from the closing credits and she's no longer listed on the show's web site.

[formerlyfreedom]

I LOVE Mike Yard,

 

I will endorse this statement. The guy is gold.

[ganesh]

It just seemed after having Bree on, then going to the grab bag panel with just the staff, was anti climatic. Granted, Bree may have had a lot of commitments, so why not book her for the show then?

[attica]

Holy cats, that Holly Walker rap was a thing of beauty. So much win.

 

Listening to the details of that deposition was interesting. There's been some good research that learned that if you just don't call it 'rape', rapists are really eager to tell you about their exploits. They'll brag! I think that's what Cosby was doing here. 'Look how clever I am!' He really is a monster. 

[Wax Lion]

While TNS has been less of a hatewatch lately it still drives me crazy. However, I think last night was the first time I really enjoyed it since the premiere... or maybe the first Cosby episode. I hope it's because they're getting a handle on the tone instead of just that Cosby is the topic they handle best.

 

Holly Walker's rap was amazing and it was pretty great to see Cosby's old rapey jokes covered. Honestly, I haven't paid that much attention to the Cosby story because it's so sad but have those jokes been highlighted elsewhere or did Larry find them?

[attica]

I've seen them elsewhere on the interwebs, for what it's worth, Wax.

[imjagain]

No matter what you think of Larry, you have to love his never backing down mantra "that mother fucker did it" regarding Cosby.

[GHScorpiosRule]

I'm surprised that no one brought up Whoopi Goldberg as a staunch Cosby defender, until she got reined in by the network.  They were all saying that his only supporters were other rapists. Which, maybe, but they weren't the ones being vocal about continuing to defend him.

 

Now that is a discussion I would have liked to have seen--others talking about Whoopi doubling, tripling, quadrupling down and her victim blaming nonsense.

Edited July 22, 2015 by GHScorpiosRule

[lovinbob]

I found 50 Cent to be utterly worthless on last night's show. What was he saying? Particularly his Chris Brown reference -- I have no idea what he said, but I'm not inclined to be psyched when someone seems to invoke Chris Brown's "wisdom." Even tongue in cheek.

Edited July 22, 2015 by lovinbob

[ganesh]

I thought he was actually kind of funny.

[possibilities]

I would have liked to see this show talk about the OJ Simpson situation if they'd been around back when the various OJ-related news stories were making the rounds. Even now, he's coming up on possible parole soon, so it's not completely out of the question they might bring it up.

[LADreamr]

Fucking Texas. I lived there a long time and never had a traffic stop that wasn't aggressive and misogynistic in tone from the cop, no matter how I behaved, which was always polite and compliant.

Larry is at his best covering these situations, so I'm glad he's doing it. I just wish there wasn't so damn much of it to cover.

Also, please never have that ex-cop "comedian" back on the show. His boneheaded tone-deafness added no insight, and was actually making everyone's point.

[Wax Lion]

Mark De Mayo was a classic problem of The Nightly Show, when Kristina Greer was making an interesting point he was interrupting her to crack jokes... and when Jordan makes a similar point De Mayo let him finish, even though Jordan's point wasn't as strong.

 

This was a great week for TNS.

[ganesh]

The professor was really good in explaining this issue. "Black folks are being held to a higher level of respectability." For me, I would have put out the cigarette and just shut up. But it seems like the professor was saying that it probably wouldn't have mattered regardless. The cop was out for it and he was going to do what he wanted.

 

So, too bad if the woman was being mean to you. Boo hoo. Write the ticket and leave. 

 

I read an article yesterday where the author's mother was a nurse and was recounting how patients called her the n-word. She said, "It's not my job to be upset. It's my job to do your job." 

 

I'm surprised cops don't have some kind of "people are jerks and you just have to deal" training.

[attica]

I'm surprised cops don't have some kind of "people are jerks and you just have to deal" training.

 

You'd think they would, right? But in this case, the cop was the one being a jerk from the jump. "You seem irritated." So what if she is; how's that relevant to the traffic stop? Who isn't irritated when pulled over by the cops? You may not be irritated at the cop, but you might be late, you might be worried about the cost of the ticket or the points on your license, whatever. Run her paperwork and write the fucking ticket.  Wrap it up politely and professionally and look! Everybody lives. If you see the dashcam footage from before he pulls Bland over, his prior encounter (with a white girl) is all sweetness: "so, where d'you go to school?" and lets her off with a warning. It's Bland that gets threatened with a Taser.

 

Flames on the sides of my face.

[possibilities]

I thought TNS handled this week's news much better than TDS. Jon's been focused on mocking Trump, but Larry actually used Trump to show just how crazy THE WORLD is. Good for him.

 

 

On one level, the police brutality stories are easy money-- they're so outrageous even FOXNews gets it (and I remember Bush commenting after the Eric Garner murder that he didn't get why the cops behaved so badly). But that doesn't mean they shouldn't be covered, and covered with sufficient outrage, on all sides. I'm glad to see TNS do it.

 

 

The cop on the panel who basically said that cops have the right to be brutal, so just placate them, was frightening. Where did they get this monster and why was he on the panel? First of all: No. Cops are supposed to protect and serve, not attack and degrade. In theory. And secondly: Does he really believe that people of color are being MURDERED by cops because they are not sufficiently good at shucking and jiving? And that white people are not being murdered, because we are just better at being submissive? Seriously?

[ganesh]

Oh that's even worse. I'm surprised the news hasn't covered that. For me, I'm good at crying. No one knows what to do when a grown man cries. It's really awkward.

I also want to say that they need to do more of in public segments.

[ThomasAAnderson]

 

Does he really believe that people of color are being MURDERED by cops because they are not sufficiently good at shucking and jiving? And that white people are not being murdered, because we are just better at being submissive? Seriously?

Yes he does. Did you see how dismissive he was of the professor? Its that attitude towards black women that got poor Sandra Bland killed.

[possibilities]

Did anyone catch the names of all the panelists on tonight's show, where they were talking about "people being afraid to speak honestly"? Gina Yasere was one, and there was another woman who I also liked, but I didn't catch her name.

 

RE the discussion itself: Frankly, I think certain people should be silenced. They need to learn to listen for a change. The world has already heard what they have to say, and being challenged on it is good for their souls, not a reason to pity them.

[Wax Lion]

While I like the sentiment of Larry's "non-consensual sex has never been a widely accepted practice" joke, it's entirely not true. Happily our trend has long been to learn more about the definition of consent. Cosby's defense is correct when he says back then that kind of shit was considered okay. It was accepted enough that Cosby could make jokes about it and have a reputation of being a "clean" comedian.

 

Oh, goody, Larry starts a discussion of Cosby's rape allegations by letting Colin Quinn go off on how political correctness is destroying comedy. That's the Nightly Show I used to hate watch. This is a great way to return to that territory. I get the feeling that Larry empathizes more with Quinn than anyone who objects to Amy Schumer's joke about Hispanic men being rapists. (I'll add that it sounds like Schumer listened to critics and learned those jokes aren't really funny.)

 

Good to see Gina Yashere on US TV again. I loved her on Last Comic Standing several seasons ago, I think her name was pronounced differently there. Good too see Sally Kohn here, too. She's great. Too bad about Quinn. He made that segment feel like ti ran for a half-hour by itself.

Edited July 28, 2015 by Wax Lion

[ganesh]

I think Quinn had a good point which the lady with the hat followed up on. He was talking about context. She had said, "if you weren't there to hear the joke, too bad, I don't care if you complain." Quinn was right that it takes one person tweeting something out about being offended and it snowballs out of control. 

 

Shumer's joke is a good example. Most of her act is her ripping on her boozy/slutty persona that she's built. So she gives it to herself as much as she makes bad jokes. She could have inserted any ethnicity into the joke and it would have been funny. And, alone, yes, the joke seems bad on paper. But it could have been part of a bit she was doing, so again, context. 

[Wax Lion]

Wasn't that Schumer joke in one of her specials, before she got her show? She's another comedian I've followed since her Last Comic Standing days and her specials had jokes that I found racist among some good stuff. I've long wished she'd learn to avoid that kind of joke and they haven't been a part of Inside Amy Schumer. She's tackled race since then but the sketches I recall were funny (even if The Guardian misinterpreted them).

 

I just don't think that joke works as part of a "slutty boozy persona" because it's not structured in a way that the joke is how ignorant she is. It's something an ignorant person would say but it's a joke where we'd laugh at her ignorance but in shock that she'd say that.

[attica]

While I like the sentiment of Larry's "non-consensual sex has never been a widely accepted practice" joke, it's entirely not true.

 

Yeah, that prompted me to snort out my Chobani this morning. 1993 is when laws changed in the US recognizing marital rape as rape. And many states' laws still treat marital rape quite differently from the non-marital kind. But yeah, I too appreciate the solidarity expressed.

 

Erin's line 'you can joke about rape but you can't make rape a joke' was my favorite.

 

Quinn is flat out wrong about political correctness ruining comedy. Comedy is more inclusive than it's ever been. And Colin Quinn still gets bookings and jobs in movies. In other words, STFU, Colin.

[ChelseaNH]

I am not seeing how "political correctness" is ruining comedy.  So, Amy Schumer got some criticism.  Is Amy no longer funny?  Did her movie tank?  What's the impact?  If the only problem is that people are criticizing comedians for some of their material, when did that not ever happen?

 

I am inclined to give comedians a certain amount of leeway, since some of their material is work-in-progress.  Also, humor is not strictly semantic -- i.e. it's not just the words, but that's what you see in a tweet or an article, which can be misleading.  So yeah, getting outraged over a joke in a performance is probably overkill.  But if a joke makes people angry, what's the harm in listening to why they're angry? 

[ThomasAAnderson]

Colin Quinn wants to make fag/nigger jokes and he's mad he'll get dragged on Twitter if he does. He's never been funny to me. Those jokes Amy Schumer made about Mexican men were offensive. Colin Quinn has made jokes about women and black people and they were offensive so fuck him. Jon Stewart is funny on a pretty consistent basis and he's not offensive. Try harder Colin Quinn.

Edited July 28, 2015 by ThomasAAnderson

[LADreamr]

Colin was all over the map in his argument. I couldn't tell exactly what point he was trying to make. It sounded like the overall gist was that any criticism of any joke is wrong and makes the criticizer seem stupid and overly sensitive. No, Colin, some jokes are offensive to be offensive, not to make a point, and people are allowed to not like it. It doesn't take away the comic's right to speak and work. Interesting that the only person called out was Amy Schumer. Trevor Noah has gotten a pretty big pass.

[possibilities]

Maybe we should go back to the good old days when Lenny Bruce was arrested and only white guys could get on stage. Then we wouldn't have so many problems.

[ganesh]

He's saying people are more inclined to be offended by something nowadays, which is true. He's also saying that is unfair to start a whole thing about being offended by a joke when you just read it on twitter or wherever weren't actually present at the show to take in the context. If the joke is still bad, so be it. I tend to think it's their job to push buttons.

He brought up a good point that all the "out rage" can cost a comic gigs, so now there's a tendency for them to hold back. I think he's also just ďefending Schumer because they're friends.

I only read her joke and never saw it as part of aset, but it just strikes me as so obviously bad and ignorant that you have to laugh.

Edited July 28, 2015 by ganesh

[futurechemist]

I liked Colin Quinn when he was on SNL.  Not my favorite Weekend Update host, but better than the current pair.  But I just can't agree with his argument.  "Free speech" doesn't play into it, since no comedians are getting arrested for their stand-up.  And while there is no "right to not be offended", social media makes it very easy for things to spread, even if it's out of context.  Society is more inclusive now, with a stronger idea of how privilege works.  Jokes that were mainstream 20 years ago would be viewed as offensive now.  I think it's related to the idea that comedy should punch up, not punch down.  And as a straight, white guy, Quinn is near the top of the pile

 

All that being said, I do think that pretty much no topics should be off-limits for comedy.  But it's also very important to approach sensitive topics from the right angle.  It's hard to make a good joke about the Holocaust, but Mel Brooks makes it work.  Mike Huckabee on the other hand was somewhere between tone-deaf and offensive with his latest comments.

[ganesh]

Yes, "free speech" wasn't the right argument. I don't have a problem with Quinn and I think he's funny. I think his point with free speech was that some comics might lose gigs if a tasteless joke wildfires out of control. Which he did say. In that sense, they can't say what they want to say.

[ThomasAAnderson]

 

He brought up a good point that all the "out rage" can cost a comic gigs, so now there's a tendency for them to hold back. I think he's also just ďefending Schumer because they're friends.

Name a comic that lost a gig that shouldn't have..Michael Richards, Bill Cosby? The video of the Schumer joke and other offensive "jokes" were tweeted so people got the context. If the punchline to a joke is someone's identity then it's a problem FULL STOP. 

 

As someone else said Schumer's movie and show have catapulted her to stardom so Quinn's point didn't even make sense. Just the last gasp of a dying breed of unfunny comedians. There's a reason SNL hasn't been good since Eddie Murphy left. 

Edited July 29, 2015 by ThomasAAnderson

[ganesh]

It's not my job to name a comic. Maybe Quinn knows some. It's not an unreasonable conjecture, was my point. The initial comments were about figuring out what he actually meant.

 

I have no idea what that joke is about dad bods, so I have no idea if white people would be offended. 

 

I'm highly highly doubtful one can get the larger bit a comic is doing by reading a joke on twitter. As I said before, she could have put several ethnicities in there as the set up to the joke anyway. That's what I meant by context. 

 

Well, Eddie Murphy wasn't one to tell off color jokes either, so that kind of undermines the point that telling such jokes is out of bounds. One could reasonably conjecture just as much if those big comics like Murphy would be having similar problems. Similarly, I would guess that people think there have been some funny people on SNL since Eddie Murphy, so your argument rather lacks a holistic pov. 

 

The woman with the hat made a good point too: would you tell a joke with people of that ethnicity in the audience? Since I didn't see Schumer's bit, I'd ask if there were hispanic people in the audience and whether they laughed. 

 

The bottom line is, one can not think a joke is funny. Lots of jokes aren't funny. But the "I'm offended, how dare you say that," is kind of a thing now, and they were trying to figure out how to address that as comics. 

[Unusual Suspect]

I know this was supposed to be about guns, but watching Penn mansplain and run roughshod over that panel was frustrating. "You know more than I do, but I'm just gonna keep talking." 

 

The Jon Steward appearance was pretty good. I like that they ribbed him over not caring anymore.

[ebk57]

I was truly puzzled at Colin Quinn last night...especially after reading this about what he had to say about Jerry Seinfeld

 

http://www.salon.com/2015/06/10/colin_quinn_wont_concede_to_fox_friends_repeated_demands_he_say_political_correctness_has_ruined_society/

 

Especially this part

 

“Look,” Quinn said, “people still have a sense of humor, but it depends on where you’re coming from. You can’t just [throw your hands in the air] and say, ‘it’s just jokes,’ because it’s not a free pass.”

 

And yet it sounded like he was saying "it's just jokes" and throwing his hands up in the air.

 

He was really, as LADreamr said, all over the map.

[possibilities]

SHUT UP, PENN!

Edited July 29, 2015 by possibilities

[jaytee1812]

I have to say Mike Yard and Holly Walker are two of the best things about this show.

[marceline]

I have to say Mike Yard and Holly Walker are two of the best things about this show.

 

Agreed but what happened to Shanaz Treasury? Did Holly replace her or have I just missed her since I tend to blow past the panels?

[walnutqueen]

If I had $50k of money to burn, I'd happily spend it on a certain dentist hunt.  I'd wing him with an arrow, and auction off the rights to delivering the kill shot; then donate THAT money to a wildlife fund.  Post the whole thing on YouTube, too.

 

I am too much of an animal lover to do anything but hunt all 16 Republican candidates; the thought of eating or keeping any one of them as pets is grotesque.  :-D

[possibilities]

He's saying people are more inclined to be offended by something nowadays

I know this is from a few shows ago, but I keep thinking about it, and I'm not sure it's really true. I think that nowadays people are offended by different things, or maybe different people are able to get their offendedness heard, but that the outcry against "how offended people are these days" is mostly just delusional nostalgia with a helping of "can dish it out but not take it" style defensiveness.

For instance, you get way more profanity or overt sexual comedy now than in, say, the 1950s.

And there was a lot of stuff that was offensive to lots of people, like blackface, but the people who were offended weren't getting to speak up and be heard about it.

While it's never been and I think never will be true that everyone will agree about what is or isn't funny or offensive, I think the trend to complain about people being offended is a direct reaction to people being held accountable for things they are used to not having challenged.

In the past, it was accepted that certain people got to decide what was or wasn't offensive, and those people enforced those standards on everyone. Most of the people working today would not have gotten their acts on stage at all "back in the day" because of "profanity" yet they long for the good old days when no one could go blue, but it was OK to go racist, mock your wife, and the only voices heard were white males, with only a very few exceptions.

Yes, it's hard to be in the public eye and face criticism. But it's part of the territory, unless we want to go back to the days of official censorship, where you won't even get a chance to try your act at all without passing through an even narrower set of rules made by a much smaller number of people.

[ganesh]

I'm not getting the weddings at plantation issue. I think it's a little too much. Larry did say it's not the house's fault.

[attica]

I might be on a limb here, but for my money, the Hunt, Eat, Pet panel (Wednesday's show) was the best one done on this show since it started. Everybody got to make jokes, but they still all had a cohesion to each other and a good camaraderie. I laughed out loud more than once.

[nicepebbles]

Did they do away with the Keepin' It 100 part? I liked that part when done well. I haven't had a chance to watch too many shows lately. I really do think this show could benefit from switching it up as hte situation requires. Like Bree Newsome should've been the while 1/2 hour if she was available. Some shows could be his monologues or whatever it's called, then a panel.

 

When Larry does the flashbacks to when he had a show in the 70s, those parts always crack me up more than necessary because I can believe was like that to an extent. And he looks so pale.

 

Mark De Mayo. He needed to shut it. I'd like to think that his point at the end about having to tell his son to be polite to cops, keeps your hands where they can see, etc. was him trying to say, "If I as a white guy who knows what cops are like have to tell my son to be above reproach, then yeah shit is crazy and non-white people have a right to be up in arms about how they are treated no matter their behavior." I suspect his point was, "Every parent has to tell their kids to be above reproach so black people who ain't special. Get over yourselves."

[ganesh]

The 100 segments have been rare. I don'tmiss them just because I don't think most of the people have been genuine.

[ChelseaNH]

the people who were offended weren't getting to speak up and be heard about it

 

I think that's the big change.  People don't need to go through gatekeepers in order to publish their opinions, so now we're hearing from more marginalized groups.  Ten years ago, if you never encountered, say, transgender people, then their issues weren't really on your radar.  But now they are.

 

Which is like the plantation weddings.  If you don't need to spend much time thinking about race, you just see an attractive building and not the history of it.  Which is still mostly how I see it, but now I know there's another way of seeing it, and where that comes from.

[possibilities]

Who owns the plantations and gets the money from renting them out to wedding parties? Even if I could get past the bad taste and bad memories type reactions, I'd for sure want to know that.