"Indecision 2008": The Daily Show hasn't really mocked Barack Obama quite as heavily as the likes of John McCain or Hillary Clinton. In fact, they have made fun of the media's wild, paranoid speculation about Obama more than Obama himself. It was good to see them pick on him a bit for his rather presumptuous faux-Presidential seal, which was quickly pulled and called a "one-time" thing. I loved how most of the audience was too nervous to mock their man. "You know... You're allowed to laugh at him." Also, Barack Obama seems to have made a bit of a flip-flop recently, turning his back on public finance and calling it corrupt, despite showing his support earlier in the race. I hope he flip-flops more if it means seeing John Oliver as Matthew Lesko again.Senior Electoral Regulations Correspondent Wyatt Cenac stopped by to talk about Obama's turn on public finance. Bottom line: Obama's principles are allowed to change because he's crazy rich. Wyatt Cenac has some incredibly funny material, assuming he's the mainly responsible for his segments, but his delivery is so jaunty and awkward. TDS should pull a Starbucks and spend a few hours just to workshop with the correspondents and contributors on how do do a convincing "reporter voice" while maintaining their own personality. It makes me long for the days of Ed Helms, Rob Corddry, Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert.
"Candidate's Wives": The candidates aren't the only ones under scrutiny, for the potential First Ladies cannot shy away from the limelight. Apparently the partners play a major part in the public's votes. Too bad we don't have much to go on, apart from some View appearances and a cookie scandal. I should also note that I would totally see Commander in Briefs, especially if it stars Jackée.
The night's guest was James McAvoy, promoting Wanted. Don't wear pants while watching this interview because they will get charmed off anyway. I've sat through many McAvoy film appearances, from Chronicles of Narnia to Atonement, scoffing at the swooning fangirls, fainting left and right. After this interview, I can kind of get what they were going on about. McAvoy was incredibly funny and, again: Pants. Charmed. Off. He had me at "Are you saying that no women with balls fancy me?" The discussion ranged from crazy directors to soccer hooligans to crack pipes. Also, I understood what Jon meant about the open-mouthed gape response to the film. During Comic-Con, I watched a few clips from the film, including the part where Angelina Jolie scoops up McAvoy in her spinning car. One of the guys behind the comic book version of film walked past me right when it happened, just in time to see me make the most ridiculous, twisted face of surprise. It was pretty embarrassing.
Jon/Stephen: Stephen Colbert did some Cookie Monster clean-up. I thought there was something a little "off" about Mr. Colbert, but it wasn't until The Colbert Report that we were given a close up look. Looks like he busted part of his nose, requiring stitches, and got a little bruising under his eyes. Bar fight or the most ineffective nose job ever? Well, there was absolutely no explanation and the curiosity is killing me. Someone needs to ask him at a pre-show Q&A. Or maybe it was something so embarrassing that he can't talk about it. Considering how he doesn't seem to have any problem showing footage of himself slipping, falling, and breaking his wrist in front of a hundred-some people, that's kind of crazy.
Speaking of which, it's been almost exactly one year, to the day, since his wrist accident. I don't want to think about what he's going to break next year. Poor fella. Oh, oh! The accident must have happened between Thursday's show and Monday... And he hosted that Get Smart event at the Apple store... Steve Carell must have punched him in the face! It's the only logical explanation! Perhaps I should stop wildly speculating, but I'm keeping my eye on YouTube for grainy cell phone video of this, just in case.
Moment of Zen: All for George Carlin, of course.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on 'Faces of America' and the Beer Summit
Six Reasons Why '24' Has Jumped the You-Know-What
The Super Bowl Commercials: The Best
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-24-2008 @ 12:32PM
Oreo said...
Wow I like the fact that NO ONE seems to know what Obama really said. He didn't take anything back, he never promised he would take the money.
John McCain on the other hand said he would take it, than he didn't once he started winning, then he did starting 5 minutes after Obama said he wouldn't. The only reason why McCain gets away with that is because he was a Vet 167 years ago, and that he wrote the law, and the loopholes in the law.
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6-25-2008 @ 11:18AM
Susan said...
Thanks for saying that. Annie Wu's been watching too much Fox News.
Don't forget that, not only did McCain 'flip flop' on taking public money, but, he also outspent his allowed amount during the primary season. He cheated and will get away with it, because no one can believe that their kindly old grandpa would commit a FEDERAL CRIME as Mr. McCain has.
6-24-2008 @ 2:42PM
No1Dad said...
"Thanks for saying that. Annie Wu's been watching too much Fox News."
Right. Because anyone who even mildly criticizes Obama must be a Fox News addict and, you know, racist.
6-24-2008 @ 5:13PM
Andrew said...
I agree. The media have been going on and on about his checking "Yes" on a questionnaire and completely ignoring the paragraph he wrote clarifying the conditions of his answer. I expected better from The Daily Show.
If TDS really felt the need to criticize Obama on something I would have preferred they went after him on his rolling over on the FISA bill.
6-24-2008 @ 8:05PM
StillBash said...
Wow... you people don't get that you are actually still in the argument while TDS was MAKING FUN of the fact that, in the end, when you end the argument about "did he or didn't he" that is not really the issue. I mean if you make it about flipflopping it would be, but it isn't. In the end it is about who gets more donations and would it be wise to NOW be so "intelligent" not to take the money that most likely would be coming in from the (and THAT is the main point) really wide donation base.
And the angle they chose is that actually the black guy is the one who's filthy rich. Not the white dude who got the money from his father and his oil-company friends.
I mean the basic problem is this: the system is flawed. If it were to be a GOOD and airtight system, then Obama wouldn't even be ABLE to chose whether to pick up public financing. He would be FORCED TO. By law. No exceptions.
So what should be asked of him is to now promise (and that's all we can ask of him, because, you know, the current electoral system is this "i promise you now and go back on everything later on anyway" kind of BS) that he changes the funding in the future so everybody HAS to be funded by the state in the final run for office once the candidate for each party has been set.
I mean it's great we are talking about flip-flopping when McCain is promising complete and utter BS - what are we supposed to hope there? That he actually flips into a non-insane position?
6-24-2008 @ 9:10PM
Caleb said...
"I expected better from The Daily Show."
Why? It's a show on Comedy Central. That's kind of like me saying I'm disappointed by Reno 911 depicting police brutality as humorous.
You just expected The Daily Show would not poke fun at Obama. (Who, by the way, DID say he would accept public financing if his opponent did.)
Truth is the show was far better with Kilborn.
6-24-2008 @ 9:18PM
StillBash said...
Caleb, your comment was ok until the last sentence.
Anyone who thinks Craig Kilborn is good at anything is a complete turd.
6-24-2008 @ 9:23PM
Andrew said...
"You just expected The Daily Show would not poke fun at Obama. "
No, I fully expected them to poke fun at him, just like they do with everybody. But there's usually a ring of truth behind it.
As I said before, if they really wanted to stick it to Obama they should have talked about him joining the other spineless Democrats in capitulating on the FISA "compromise".
6-26-2008 @ 1:48PM
Oneiroi said...
@Andrew
I agree, I wish they would have criticized his agreement with FISA instead of this. I didn't think anyone cared about opting out of public finacing. I mean everyone sorta knew he would do that 3 months ago, and campaign financing isn't a "top priority" election issue. I think he should get serious outrage over the FISA thing. Not allowing George Bush to do that sort of thing was a top priority for Obama.
6-24-2008 @ 12:54PM
Zachary said...
Poor Stephen. I won't be able to sleep until I find out what happened and know that he is all right.
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6-24-2008 @ 7:57PM
StillBash said...
I don't know Annie, the most obvious reason would be that the bears finally managed to get to Colbert, don't you think?
^^;
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6-24-2008 @ 8:25PM
Karen said...
All this conversation about Obama and McCain--what a waste of time! Can't we spend some time talking about how frightfully attractive and charming James McAvoy was? How pleasantly he got along with Jon? How lilting and lovely his Scots accent is?
Sheesh.
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6-24-2008 @ 9:57PM
Jo said...
Agreed. I've been waiting the whole day for someone to comment on the wonderful James McAvoy. I've watched that interview 3 times over the course of today. "Pants. Charmed. Off." - you put it perfectly, Annie.
I've started thinking in his Scottish accent now, which actually isn't so bad of a thing...