Noting Secretary of Transportation Jamie Foxx was this year’s “designated survivor” for the State of the Union address, FNC’s Bret Baier ended his Thursday FNC show with how “it was last year’s cabinet pick who really caught the eye of late night TV.” Viewers then saw clips of ABC’s Jimmy Jimmel, from this year, and NBC’s Jimmy Fallon, from last year, zinging Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.
Humor
By NB Staff | January 21, 2015 | 5:48 PM EST
A time capsule buried by Paul Revere and Samuel Adams 220 years ago has been opened in Boston. It contained silver and copper coins, newspapers, and a pinup photo of Betty White. --Jodi Miller
By NB Staff | January 13, 2015 | 6:44 PM EST
"CNN had its lowest ratings ever last year. To give you an idea how bad it is, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer is now The Isolation Booth with Wolf Blitzer." -- Jodi Miller.
By Brent Baker | January 11, 2015 | 12:17 AM EST
Jimmy Kimmel marveled this past Monday night at how the networks, which covered the New Year’s Eve celebration in New York City’s Times Square, found a new angle to emphasize, “and that new angle was none other than the human bladder.” Viewers of his ABC show were then treated to a compilation of clips dubbed “Pee Watch 2014.” Afterward, Kimmel offered an apt observation about when people don’t “pee on the street in New York.”
By Tom Johnson | January 7, 2015 | 9:44 PM EST
Chait writes that “the Muslim radical argues that the ban on blasphemy is morally right and should be followed; the Western liberal insists it is morally wrong but should be followed. Theoretical distinctions aside, both positions yield an identical outcome.”
By Brent Baker | December 20, 2014 | 11:25 PM EST
David Letterman’s impending May retirement meant two holiday traditions came to an end on Friday’s Late Show: the last time Darlene Love would sing “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)” and the final time actor/radio host Jay Thomas would recite what Letterman calls “the greatest talk show story of all time.” Since the mid-1990s, on Letterman’s last show before Christmas, Thomas has been telling the story of what happened in the early 1970s when he was a local radio DJ in Charlotte and broadcast, with the “Lone Ranger,” from a car dealership.
By Tom Johnson | December 14, 2014 | 7:20 PM EST
Penn State’s Sophia McClennen praises Colbert for “remind[ing] us that you could care about your nation and simultaneously find American exceptionalism disturbing” and comments that conservatives have “controlled the idea of patriotism for so long that it is easy to forget that there is no logical reason to think that Rachel Maddow loves her country any less than Glenn Beck.”
By Brent Baker | December 14, 2014 | 12:09 AM EST
NBC’s Jimmy Fallon looked at “how long it takes for Biden to do something weird and steal the spotlight.” The specific event: When he stood beside Barack Obama on December 5 as the President announced Ashton Carter as his nominee for Secretary of Defense. Bret Baier ended his FNC show this past Tuesday with the clip of what the Tonight Show staff timed to the hundredth of a second.
By Ken Shepherd | December 11, 2014 | 4:27 PM EST
Covering a live congressional staffer walk-out to protest the decisions by grand juries in Missouri and New York to fail to indict police officers in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner fatalities, CNN's Brooke Baldwin mistook Maryland Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings for Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia). The anchor corrected herself moments later, with the aid of guest and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile.
By Mark Finkelstein | December 4, 2014 | 7:10 PM EST
Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations: Alex Wagner has made the case that Barack Obama is no kind of emperor or dictator . . . compared to Kim Jong Un, the brutal ruler of perhaps the world's worst regime, North Korea.
Wagner was riffing off the news that Kim has banned North Korean parents from naming their children Jong Un and ordered those already bearing the name to change it. After describing other elements of Kim's cult of personality, Wagner concluded: "to all the detractors who compare our American president to an emperor and a dictator, this is what a dictatorship actually looks like. And to the 169 babies born between 2007 and 2011 named Barack: you can keep your name."
By Clay Waters | November 27, 2014 | 7:22 PM EST
Is there no beloved American tradition the liberal media won't try to sour? "A Warning on Nutmeg," a silly post from the New York Times' health section, failed to come close to justifying its alarmist headline, and functioned as a near parody of liberal media handwringing. But it's far from the first time the paper has flubbed Thanksgiving, either politically or by just being ridiculous
By Tim Graham | November 26, 2014 | 1:52 PM EST
Comedian Dana Carvey discussed politics and comedy with Carl Koslowski on his podcast Kozversations. “Because of the sensitivity of having an African-American president, which is completely understandable...It took a while to find a way to satirize our president," Carvey told Kozlowski. He admitted it took time to figure out how to satirize Obama. “We were all getting to know him as a country.”
The host asked about his appearance at a Reagan Library event and whether he performs at benefits for both sides. Carvey said actor-activist Gary Sinise asked him to appear, and insisted he didn't change his jokes in any way. Then he turned to how it's "disturbing" that people on the left can't take a joke like conservatives can, and people are afraid to offend "the PC snake."