Sigh. Just an ongoing cluster of omnifucking clusters.
Did not watch the WHCA in full but liked this sequence:
Colin Jost: "Wordle is here! Sorry, I mean the New York Times. I forgot they do stuff in addition to puzzles."
NYT: "On This Saturday Night, Colin Jost's Jokes Fell Flat
The White House Correspondents' Association dinner has occasionally featured some great stand-up comedy. This "S.N.L." veteran's set will not join that list."
That's funny. I love the idea that the NYT feels genuinely degraded by their smash hit games section.
A more annoying part of the NYT article:
People tend to overestimate the power of jokes from comedians and underestimate them from politicians. Both Trump and former President Barack Obama forged bonds with their voters through their senses of humor. Biden is not as funny as his two predecessors, but his joking asides have a loose, towel-snapping warmth that is a key part of his appeal.
It is actually a good overall observation, but I chafe at the "not as funny" bit. Sure if, mocking disabled reporters is funny or commenting on HRC's ass is, or on and on. But he does indeed bond with many of his supporters through a shared sense of "humor."
Biden doing Howard Stern while stiffing the Times is [insert chef's kiss].
... President Barack Obama forged bonds with their voters through their senses of humor
I thought this interview with Jon Lovett about writing jokes for Obama (and the nature of politicians' humor) was quite good. I recommend it.
Giving an award at the WHCD to Barak Ravid when over a hundred Palestinian journalists have been murdered in Gaza is morally depraved. Nuke it from orbit.
Some people really seem to think Trump is funny. I don't see it.
He's only funny when he's needling other deplorables in the Republican primary. (And even then I'm not going to actually watch him call Jeb! low-energy or whatever.)
I I listened to Ezra Klein interview John Ganz, and they agreed that liberals are just being ridiculous when they refuse to admit that Trump is funny. But my coworker was just giving me a hard time because I didn't laugh at a viral Elmo video she sent me, so maybe I just don't have a sense of humor.
I hate the guy more than most will ever know but he is funny af
That you people really love your guns thing, I mean come on that is funny
The ghost colony in my head is exploding in population this year/decade. (Tender-hearted readers can skip this one. That means you, lourdes.)
I haven't watched video of him in ages, so he may not have it anymore, but he had good comic timing. I don't think he ever said anything that would have been witty or clever written down, but his delivery was funny.
15: That is true. And I should qualify my feelings as not finding the content of his humor to be funny, but he does have the show biz mechanisms of delivery and timing down. Similarly Andrew Dice Clay was "funny" for some definitions of that term. With Trump it is like watching the 7th grade bully delivering "funny" insults to any and all non-cool kids. and with laughing acolytes and toadies. What irks me about the Ezra's* and Ganz's banging on about "liberals not getting it" is that we all (or many at least) fucking GET IT. Been dealing with this fucking shit since grade school, just did not appreciate that so many would seek it in a country's leader (or at least ignore it).
*Never really liked the dude, but he has become the parody of an "even the liberal Ezra Klein" centrist pundit in recent years. At least to me. Maybe it's me. My terminal old man bitterness, let me show it to you.
Ezra was always kind of like that, but it shows more now that he's in a role that enables it.
The version of the Biden toast I know is, "May those that love us love us, and those that don't, may God turn their hearts. And if He doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles, so we'll know them by their limping."
Elmo is pretty funny. That bit with Zoe and Rocco just kills me every time.
18: my god, your president appears to be a souvenir dishtowel.
19: Are they singing "Don't Rock the Boat"?
ezra is gonna ezra, think he was born to be a perennially in his own mind 45 yr old centrist liberal pundit, like pretty sure if you met him when he was 8 he would have been essentially already there. ganz's comments if i recall correctly were in the context of his liking of gangster movies and enjoying that kind of macho thrill, jp describes well how that just isn't enjoyable for some people so while you can see the skill the frisson is lacking.
16: I imagine a lot of media figures were uncool nerds in high school and are thrilled that now they can cosplay as cool bullies on X and the like.
*Never really liked the dude, but he has become the parody of an "even the liberal Ezra Klein" centrist pundit in recent years.
I did once really like his work, and thought he was a particularly sharp media critic. I bet somewhere out there is an incisive critique of anodyne pundits offering banal observations about serious issues -- written by Ezra Klein about journalists like Ezra Klein.
Tangentially related to federal policymakers -- here's a gift link to NY Times very short video clips of 12 resigning Congresspeople reflecting on their experiences. (There are subtitles.)
Even correcting for irritating NYT bias, they're still interesting.
I'm still boycotting Wordle.
I've been wondering what had brought the app to its knees!