TVSquad

This particular episode of The Daily Show was super extra Chinese, but you guys get an extra layer of Chinese via this review written by me. That makes you special. The only way to push it even further would be for me to write this completely in Chinese. Consider yourselves lucky that I'm too embarrassed to write like that, as my Chinese vocabulary and syntax reads like that of a five year-old's.

"Special Olympics Update": Jon's attempt at a Power Rangers morph seemed more like something that would have been submitted to Ze Frank's "The Show." Power moves, anyone? And white socks with dress shoes, Jon? Come on! Anyway, China surprised the media when they revealed that the cute little girl in the Opening Ceremonies was actually lip-syncing because the original little girl wasn't cute enough. Sick burn! No mention of the C&C Music Factory, but I suppose that is ridiculously dated.

Spain's Olympic basketball team took this interesting photo to reference their trip to Beijing. Tasteful. Really. What blows my mind is that it looks like every player seems all right with this idea. Out of that entire team, not one person stopped to say, "Hey, guys... Maybe this isn't such a hot idea"? I pray there was at least a split second of hesitation. Give me that, at least. I'm surprised that vintage Jell-O ad didn't turn the label into Jerr-O. Also, they referenced Rob Riggle from a previous report, but didn't mention my favorite take on Asian stereotypes...

I literally spent hours trying to hunt down a clip of Stephen Colbert doing an absolutely hilarious take on offensive Asian impressions, but it has completely disappeared off the face of the Internet. Once again, I was reminded of how desperately we need a reliable home for Colbert Report clips, similar to TheDailyShow.com. Well, just so you have some basic idea of what happened in the clip, Stephen asked for some tea and then proceeded to squint his eyes and talk about how much he "ruv'd tea." Okay, that sounds really horrible, but trust me, it was amazing.

One other piece of controversy coming from China: Many believe that the women from the Chinese gymnastics team aren't actually women, but girls below the competing age. It's been a long, long time since we've seen Jon do a Camera Three talk. That face he pulled right before his asthma comment was priceless.



"Chasing the Dragon": Senior Olympics Correspondent Rob Riggle filed another report from Beijing, this time covering how the Chinese will inevitably take over the world. I was once again filled with cultural shame after realizing that I didn't understand most of what the translator was saying. I really need to brush up my Mandarin. But that's besides the point. This report was pretty good, albeit not quite as good as his previous ones from this series. If you're into "Anus Hospital", I suggest you check out Engrish.com.



The night's guest was Philip Pan, author of Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China. How is it that the very first Google result for "Philip Pan" is this very interview? Anyway, this interview covered the strange relationship between China's government and its people. Really, they only skimmed the surface, but it was still pretty interesting.



Moment of Zen: Everyone freakin' loves the Olympics. Everyone.