Lantern7 August 12, 2019 Share August 12, 2019 This week: John goes back to the vortex of weirdness that is the President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow. In other news, I’m a bit surprised a “side-eye” emoticon didn’t pop up on my iPad when I pasted “Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.” Bit of a weak episode in my eyes, with John roasting out own vortex of weirdness, as well as the NRA and their failed TV network. Funny to watch him go on a tangent towards the Guinness Book of World Records, which seems to be mainly devoted to acknowledging feats in authoritarian nations in exchange for money. One things leads to another, and we end on John present a gigantic marble cake with President Berdimuhamedow getting thrown off a horse . . . because if HBO is footing the bill and the majority of said cake is going to the truly hungry, then why the fuck not? Also: making fun of the commentary of a stone-skipping competition as shown on ESPN2, which was rebranded “The Ocho” on Wednesday. 4 Link to comment
Annber03 August 12, 2019 Share August 12, 2019 Try saying that name three times fast... Of course they would make that cake. Of course :p. Just looking at that thing made me both hungry and automatically full all at the same time. I hope the audience enjoyed the cake! (But seriously, Guinness, what the hell with the dictators?) I love hearing all these stories about the NRA struggling as they are. Couldn't happen to a more deserving group of self-serving assholes. And on that topic, I'm not even going to get into the stuff about Trump's visits to El Paso and Dayton. I'm just going to sum up my thoughts with these two words: Holy. Shit. 8 Link to comment
swanpride August 12, 2019 Share August 12, 2019 Honestly, one of his weaker shows. It basically boiled down to a long "haha, look how strange this dictator acts". If not for the jab at the Guinness book of records, I would call it devoid of any truly interesting content. I was actually hoping to learn a little bit about what the situation in Turkmenistan looks like and what the consequences of this guy dying would have been. 6 Link to comment
DoctorAtomic August 12, 2019 Share August 12, 2019 Really, the focus should have been on the Guinness book and how they're in bed with dictators. It's appalling they turned down the show with saying they're 'for families' or whatever. 7 Link to comment
peeayebee August 12, 2019 Share August 12, 2019 3 hours ago, Lantern7 said: In other news, I’m a bit surprised a “side-eye” emoticon didn’t pop up on my iPad when I pasted “Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.” 😄 When I saw his name as the title of this ep, it looked like gobbledygook. BTW, I just went to google -- You only have to type gurb for Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow to pop up, and berd for Berdimuhamedow. Quote One things leads to another, and we end on John present a gigantic marble cake .... That's not what I picture when someone says 'marble cake.' 🙂 Quote Also: making fun of the commentary of a stone-skipping competition as shown on ESPN2, which was rebranded “The Ocho” on Wednesday. ESPN2 is now called The Ocho? 43 minutes ago, Danny Franks said: The president of Turkmenistan was an odd choice for the main focus of an episode. And honestly, Berdimuhamedow is never going to be as weird as his predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov. Must be something in the water. I did get a big chuckle out of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow playing his guitar covered by fog. I had no idea about what the Guiness Book of World Records is doing these days. That's sad. BTW, did anyone else think John's hair looked different? 3 Link to comment
arachne August 12, 2019 Share August 12, 2019 I was kinda bored with most of this show -- kept looking at the clock. But now I think I know where Garry Trudeau got his inspiration for the character of Trff, Bezerkistan's President-for-Life. 2 Link to comment
cpcathy August 12, 2019 Share August 12, 2019 I'm embarrassed, but I thought when John mentioned Turkmenastan, he was going to throw in one of his "I just made that up, there is no such place!" I have literally never heard of that country before! 5 Link to comment
Lantern7 August 12, 2019 Author Share August 12, 2019 1 hour ago, peeayebee said: ESPN2 is now called The Ocho? In brief: usually on August 8 (8/8), ESPN2 becomes ESPN8, aka “The Ocho.” I think it was moved to the 7th because of Little League baseball. Anyway, the rebranding comes from Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, where the climatic tournament was aired on “The Ocho.” All day, they aired oddball sports . . . one of them was the stone-skipping competition that came up in this episode. 3 1 1 Link to comment
swanpride August 12, 2019 Share August 12, 2019 I have heard of it, but that is mostly because there was once this handy game on the net where you have to type in the names of all the countries in the world and they would pop up on a card. It's in the corner with the whole "stan" countries (Usbekistan, Kasachstan, Afghanistan aso), plus, we once hosted a guest student from Kirgisistan in some sort of exchange program (well, not really an exchange, we hosted, I never visited, but something is naturally nice for international interaction). Still have a photo she gave me of herself in traditional garb. Hope she is okay though, because Kirgistan hasn't exactly be a calm region either. Which is the other reason why I would have liked to learn more. It's a region of earth we tend to overlook too much, and the little I know about it points to some really interesting tradition under all the political unrest. 2 Link to comment
DoctorAtomic August 12, 2019 Share August 12, 2019 Do we even know if the guy is still alive? 1 Link to comment
swanpride August 12, 2019 Share August 12, 2019 Well, based on the bowling footage...I wouldn't bet on it. But then, I wasn't sure if Castro was still alive during the last years of his regency either. So he might be. 2 Link to comment
Victor the Crab August 12, 2019 Share August 12, 2019 They should have made that weirdo strongman of Turkmenistan as part of the quick recap of the week and had the issue of guns as the main story. Really, I didn't give a fuck about this guy when Trevor was profiling him on TDS last week, and I thought Ollie giving him the lion's share of last night's show was a waste of time that could have been used on more interesting stories. I'm surprised Ollie made the Jeffrey Epstein suicide story just a passing statement. 2 Link to comment
MrWhyt August 12, 2019 Share August 12, 2019 first the 30 penis scene in Euphoria, then the English Threesome on this show, HBO is really pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable to show on TV. 4 Link to comment
SnideAsides August 13, 2019 Share August 13, 2019 2 hours ago, MrWhyt said: first the 30 penis scene in Euphoria, then the English Threesome on this show, HBO is really pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable to show on TV. In America. Pretty much everywhere else they wouldn't raise many eyebrows. (Actually, US TV censorship would be an AMAZING subject for an episode, now that I think about it.) 6 Link to comment
swanpride August 13, 2019 Share August 13, 2019 Oliver already covered gun control and especially the NRA, including NRA TV beforehand. I doubt that he has much more to say and I prefer him pointing out stuff I didn't know already. Perhaps if the balance of the episode would have been different, with less time spend on the crazy dictator and more on the Guinness book of Records. And yeah, the difference between US censorship (which focusses on nudity and swearword) and European censorship (which focusses on violence and hate speech) could be interesting. Not sure if he would manage to fill a whole segment with this topic, though. 4 Link to comment
RedbirdNelly August 13, 2019 Share August 13, 2019 On 8/12/2019 at 10:18 AM, peeayebee said: I did get a big chuckle out of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow playing his guitar covered by fog. this part made me laugh out loud and nearly loose my footing on my treadmill. It was just so over the top and kept getting worse. 6 Link to comment
swanpride August 13, 2019 Share August 13, 2019 I kind of assumed the purpose of the fog was to hide the lack of actual guitar playing... 4 Link to comment
SnideAsides August 13, 2019 Share August 13, 2019 I'm kind of amazed Ollie didn't do the "a country you think about so little, you didn't realise that's not Turkmenistan, it's a silhouette of a smashed garden gnome" joke. I miss it. 5 Link to comment
biakbiak August 14, 2019 Share August 14, 2019 I love how the NRA is always firearms are perfectly safe with gun owners, etc. and yet on their own tv network they were clearly using fake firearms in that choose your outfit that conceals your gun show! 1 7 Link to comment
swanpride August 14, 2019 Share August 14, 2019 I kind of doubt that they even had the same weight as an actual weapon. 4 Link to comment
peeayebee August 14, 2019 Share August 14, 2019 15 hours ago, swanpride said: I kind of assumed the purpose of the fog was to hide the lack of actual guitar playing... Exactly. So funny that Berdimuhamedow would think no one would notice but rather think it's cool. 4 Link to comment
RedbirdNelly August 14, 2019 Share August 14, 2019 38 minutes ago, peeayebee said: Exactly. So funny that Berdimuhamedow would think no one would notice but rather think it's cool. I mean it was so subtle. . . you would hardly suspect that's why it was there 1 2 Link to comment
Victor the Crab August 14, 2019 Share August 14, 2019 On 8/13/2019 at 1:52 AM, swanpride said: Oliver already covered gun control and especially the NRA, including NRA TV beforehand. I doubt that he has much more to say and I prefer him pointing out stuff I didn't know already. Ollie has revisited subjects for his main story on more than one occasion. Covering guns in America wouldn't have been different from that, especially how people are still talking about it after El Paso and Dayton.. 3 Link to comment
BuyMoreAndSave August 19, 2019 Share August 19, 2019 On 8/12/2019 at 11:18 AM, peeayebee said: I did get a big chuckle out of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow playing his guitar covered by fog. That video and the one where they were singing about sports reminded me so much of Tim and Eric. The random camera angles, weird washed out colors and everything (plus Tim and Eric even had a song about sports too). 2 Link to comment
DoctorAtomic August 19, 2019 Share August 19, 2019 21 minutes ago, BuyMoreAndSave said: That video and the one where they were singing about sports reminded me so much of Tim and Eric. Oh yes. Now I can't unsee that. 2 Link to comment
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