Tag Archives: John Oliver

August 19, 2018

The Break Break Up

In an almost weird bit of prescience, I broke up with Michelle Wolf’s The Break just days before Netflix did. The several articles I read announcing it reported that Netflix hadn’t offered a reason for the cancellation, and speculated on connections with an apparent history of failed talk shows. Netflix just bad at talk shows, was the implication.

Let me offer another reason, perhaps the real reason. The show was awful. It was painfully not funny, nor was it terribly creative. It tried hard to be, but the result was usually more like a bad SNL script. And, regrettably, Ms Wolf may not be a good choice for talk show host.

After hanging in there since the beginning, I just couldn’t any more. I had to bail.

Leave a comment | tags: John Oliver, Jon Stewart, Last Week Tonight, Marlon Bundo, Michelle Wolf, Netflix, Rick and Morty, Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert, The Break, The Daily Show, Trevor Noah | posted in Rant, TV

December 31, 2016

2016: A Year That Really Sucked

By Wyrd Smythe

2016-0 What a god-awful, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year! For, oh, so many, many reasons:

My Minnesota Twins had the worst season in their franchise history (and now they will probably trade my favorite player, Brian Dozier); a whole bunch of people I cared about, or had some sort of ties to, died in 2016 (and many more I never knew and didn’t have ties to); there was that whole 2016 Presidential election thing (which was deeply awful on many counts, and who knows what will happen now); and let us not forget Syria or Flint, Michigan.

In fact, I’m not sure I can name one good thing about 2016. Except that, maybe, it’s finally over.

22 Comments | tags: 2016, Anyone But Trump, election 2016, John Oliver, Twins 2016 | posted in Life

September 10, 2016

BB #58: Foam

By Wyrd Smythe

Foam: Lots of little bubbles. In this case, a dump of various news items that caught my eye but which didn’t — for whatever reason — fit into the previous bubbles. (Or which I just forgot to include.)

Truth be told, I’m actually getting a little bored with these bubble posts of news items. But I’d accumulated so many of them by the time I got the idea that it’s taken some effort to flush the queue. And it has been nice that other writers, and other events, have been making my points for me.

And now I’m down to the foam at the bottom of the glass…

Leave a comment | tags: carbon, Comedy Central, consciousness, Facebook, Gawker, human consciousness, human mind, Immanuel Kant, Joan Didion, John Oliver, Jon Stewart, Nick Ut, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, Samantha Bee, The Daily Show, The Nightly Show, Trevor Noah | posted in Brain Bubble, Society

March 18, 2016

BB #49: Political Bubbles

By Wyrd Smythe

I can’t believe, with so much Trump-water over the damn dam, that people still support this guy. Not since Creationism has there been such a clear and present example of how disconnected from reality is the thinking of many people. Never in my lifetime have I seen such a frightening example of all I disdain in the human race.

This is thoughtlessness and irrationality, bigotry and brutality, nationalism and populism. It’s childish, selfish, ignorant, and stupid! It boggles my mind.

It’s gotten to the point of basically stunning me into insensibility.

13 Comments | tags: Antonin Scalia, Anyone But Trump, Bill Clinton, Comedy Central, democracy, Democratic Party, democratic society, Donald Trump, election 2016, FLOTUS, GOP, groupthink, Hillary Clinton, HRC, John Oliver, Josh Earnest, Nancy Reagan, POTUS, President Obama, Republican Party, Samantha Bee, SCOTUS, South Park, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, The Nightly Show, Trevor Noah, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster | posted in Brain Bubble, Politics