Looking forward to being considered a spoilsport by everyone I know for pointing out the flaws in the Biden-Harris ticket. Yes, I know they are better than Trump. No, I don't believe that they will enact any real progressive change. Yes, I think they will continue to push American towards austerity and (eventual) fascism. People think things will go back to normal, and they may be quieter for a few years, but we are on the same path of decline we have been since the 80s.
Another poster here mentioned the brunching crowd. There is going to be a lot of pressure from and among that crowd to pretend everything is fine. Sometimes deliberately burying my head in the sand with the rest of them seems like the obvious choice, but the goals and dreams of that crowd, which always to me seem shallow and alienating, now see fundamentally pointless and self destructive as well.
Yup. I'm already seeing Facebook fill up with dems handwringing and telling leftists to fall in line and to stop complaining. God this feels like 2016 all over again.
They don't need our vote. They're gonna rack up the mainline philly suburb voters, just like 2016.
And since for all her faults Hillary wasn't into fullbore sundowning dementia, she didn't explicitly tell leftists not to vote for her. It takes some balls to grief people for not voting for a candiate who has openly said he has no sympathy for you and has explicitly said not to vote for him if you don't like his policies or believe the woman who very credibly claims he raped her. She has at least as much evidence as those libs needed to have a months-long freakout about Kavanaugh.
I've had too many well-meaning people in my life express such genuine enthusiasm for Harris as a VP pick and I just....why? What would excite someone about Sen. Harris this way? I get wanting to beat Trump but that's just so cringe.
I still can't believe they picked the cop. Usually the DNC is a little more discreet in telling the plebs to go fuck themselves. They learned something from Trump.
Appreciate the Michelle Wolf reference. As uncomfortable as I was watching it, I think it stands exactly as you've displayed it: an indictment of the establishment trying to maintain establishment-approved jokes that protect the halls, like joking about how the wallpaper is a funky choice instead of pointing out that the labor was done by historically exploited and disenfranchised citizens.
Biden-Harris is such an overt fuck you to every leftist movement out there for so many reasons it actually boggles the mind to think about. I've been legitimately furious about what a shitty pick Harris is for days now, and the less said about Biden who I'm pretty sure isn't going to even understand that he's won (if he wins, and I don't care what the polls say I'm not so sure he'll win) or indeed that he was involved in an election at all by the time November rolls around. I'll hold my nose and vote for it, but I won't like it and I sure as shit won't be quiet about the fact that I don't like it.
Anyway more to the point Saturday Night Live has been so reliably toothless in its criticism that it's just one more of these old dinosaur legacy shows that people respect for some reason and I will never understand why (and I'm saying that as someone who watched (and enjoyed!) Mad TV so my own taste in sketch comedy is SUSPECT (but come on the Spy vs Spy shorts ruled)). It is in fact comedy meant to make you think that everything is okay, even though it very much isn't and you very much could actually use comedy to criticize! That is, in fact, one of the strengths of comedy! Michelle Wolf understood that, which is why she actually got up there and talked mad shit (and it was fucking hilarious!) and as a result she fucking killed the press dinner which honestly should've been done years ago.
One of the little mercies of living abroad is that NBC blocks access to SNL clips on youtube so I don't ever have to watch 'em or indeed even have them show up as recommended videos. It's made my life better.
Ugh the last thing I want to see is SNL political satire...or even SNL at all at this point, they should just call a quits for a few years maybe and try to pick it back up again later because what they have been doing these past few years has been anything but funny
Adam McKay is on a free Chapo Trap House this week. Talks about the reaction to his mediaopoly short. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh6Hf5_ZYPI. It was as furious as you'd expect but they also hated his sketches like Turkey and HiC and Orange Julius. And apparently him choosing 'Coordinator of Falconry' as his credit was a big controversy.
Generally the people with actual points of view and senses of humor get chased out of there.
That definitely seems to be the case! It’s bizarre how people continue to watch...I guess because it’s somewhat of a cultural institution, but even my friends that do watch it agree it’s not funny
Nah, it's total shit. I know that the saying is that everyone likes the version that was on when they were 13 the best, cause that's where the humor is pitched, but nah. I came up watching the Ferrel/Mckay stuff and loving it, and the only older ones I recall thinking were funny were the early 90s ones where Conan and Jack Handey were writing, like Tales of Malfeasance in Railroad Hiring Practices.
It's almost like it's funniest when funny people are writing and those people get sick of having their best stuff shunted aside so Andy Samberg can scream lines at top volume looking straight down the camera. Not to say the guy isn't funny, but the way they used him, jesus christ.
Supposedly I Think You Should Leave is almost entirely sketches Tim Robinson pitched that SNL rejected.
When it comes to SNL, you've got to read Seth Simons too: https://sethsimons.substack.com/. He just did a deep dive on Jost's new memoir that is worth the subscription alone.
I grew up in the GWB administration (so like most sensible people this whole portrayal of Trump as an aberration is jarring if you remember like the top five worst parts of those eight years), and it was always weird watching SNL compared to the Colbert Report or the Daily Show. SNL just didn't have a point to it, it was just on and they had to fill 90 minutes with whatever was in the news and commercial parodies and game shows. The Crossfire interview with Jon Stewart indicated very clearly that the Comedy Central shows actually had an opinion about both political institutions and the kind of media people that get mad at Michelle Wolf.
Looking forward to being considered a spoilsport by everyone I know for pointing out the flaws in the Biden-Harris ticket. Yes, I know they are better than Trump. No, I don't believe that they will enact any real progressive change. Yes, I think they will continue to push American towards austerity and (eventual) fascism. People think things will go back to normal, and they may be quieter for a few years, but we are on the same path of decline we have been since the 80s.
Another poster here mentioned the brunching crowd. There is going to be a lot of pressure from and among that crowd to pretend everything is fine. Sometimes deliberately burying my head in the sand with the rest of them seems like the obvious choice, but the goals and dreams of that crowd, which always to me seem shallow and alienating, now see fundamentally pointless and self destructive as well.
Yup. I'm already seeing Facebook fill up with dems handwringing and telling leftists to fall in line and to stop complaining. God this feels like 2016 all over again.
They don't need our vote. They're gonna rack up the mainline philly suburb voters, just like 2016.
And since for all her faults Hillary wasn't into fullbore sundowning dementia, she didn't explicitly tell leftists not to vote for her. It takes some balls to grief people for not voting for a candiate who has openly said he has no sympathy for you and has explicitly said not to vote for him if you don't like his policies or believe the woman who very credibly claims he raped her. She has at least as much evidence as those libs needed to have a months-long freakout about Kavanaugh.
I've had too many well-meaning people in my life express such genuine enthusiasm for Harris as a VP pick and I just....why? What would excite someone about Sen. Harris this way? I get wanting to beat Trump but that's just so cringe.
I still can't believe they picked the cop. Usually the DNC is a little more discreet in telling the plebs to go fuck themselves. They learned something from Trump.
Well blogged, Jack.
Appreciate the Michelle Wolf reference. As uncomfortable as I was watching it, I think it stands exactly as you've displayed it: an indictment of the establishment trying to maintain establishment-approved jokes that protect the halls, like joking about how the wallpaper is a funky choice instead of pointing out that the labor was done by historically exploited and disenfranchised citizens.
Biden-Harris is such an overt fuck you to every leftist movement out there for so many reasons it actually boggles the mind to think about. I've been legitimately furious about what a shitty pick Harris is for days now, and the less said about Biden who I'm pretty sure isn't going to even understand that he's won (if he wins, and I don't care what the polls say I'm not so sure he'll win) or indeed that he was involved in an election at all by the time November rolls around. I'll hold my nose and vote for it, but I won't like it and I sure as shit won't be quiet about the fact that I don't like it.
Anyway more to the point Saturday Night Live has been so reliably toothless in its criticism that it's just one more of these old dinosaur legacy shows that people respect for some reason and I will never understand why (and I'm saying that as someone who watched (and enjoyed!) Mad TV so my own taste in sketch comedy is SUSPECT (but come on the Spy vs Spy shorts ruled)). It is in fact comedy meant to make you think that everything is okay, even though it very much isn't and you very much could actually use comedy to criticize! That is, in fact, one of the strengths of comedy! Michelle Wolf understood that, which is why she actually got up there and talked mad shit (and it was fucking hilarious!) and as a result she fucking killed the press dinner which honestly should've been done years ago.
One of the little mercies of living abroad is that NBC blocks access to SNL clips on youtube so I don't ever have to watch 'em or indeed even have them show up as recommended videos. It's made my life better.
Ugh the last thing I want to see is SNL political satire...or even SNL at all at this point, they should just call a quits for a few years maybe and try to pick it back up again later because what they have been doing these past few years has been anything but funny
Adam McKay is on a free Chapo Trap House this week. Talks about the reaction to his mediaopoly short. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh6Hf5_ZYPI. It was as furious as you'd expect but they also hated his sketches like Turkey and HiC and Orange Julius. And apparently him choosing 'Coordinator of Falconry' as his credit was a big controversy.
Generally the people with actual points of view and senses of humor get chased out of there.
That definitely seems to be the case! It’s bizarre how people continue to watch...I guess because it’s somewhat of a cultural institution, but even my friends that do watch it agree it’s not funny
Nah, it's total shit. I know that the saying is that everyone likes the version that was on when they were 13 the best, cause that's where the humor is pitched, but nah. I came up watching the Ferrel/Mckay stuff and loving it, and the only older ones I recall thinking were funny were the early 90s ones where Conan and Jack Handey were writing, like Tales of Malfeasance in Railroad Hiring Practices.
It's almost like it's funniest when funny people are writing and those people get sick of having their best stuff shunted aside so Andy Samberg can scream lines at top volume looking straight down the camera. Not to say the guy isn't funny, but the way they used him, jesus christ.
Supposedly I Think You Should Leave is almost entirely sketches Tim Robinson pitched that SNL rejected.
Wow. Not sure if I share the take on Pete Davidson. Uhhhfff.
Pete is perfect and I love him
When it comes to SNL, you've got to read Seth Simons too: https://sethsimons.substack.com/. He just did a deep dive on Jost's new memoir that is worth the subscription alone.
I'm angry at how right every word is
I grew up in the GWB administration (so like most sensible people this whole portrayal of Trump as an aberration is jarring if you remember like the top five worst parts of those eight years), and it was always weird watching SNL compared to the Colbert Report or the Daily Show. SNL just didn't have a point to it, it was just on and they had to fill 90 minutes with whatever was in the news and commercial parodies and game shows. The Crossfire interview with Jon Stewart indicated very clearly that the Comedy Central shows actually had an opinion about both political institutions and the kind of media people that get mad at Michelle Wolf.