Full Frontal Episode Review: Samantha Bee Puts the Bottom Rail on Top

at
Share This Post

In the March 29th edition of Full Frontal, host Samantha Bee subjected us to what your more erudite philosophers call the old switcheroo. In the typical broadcast of this show, we can expect a first segment that treats us to yet even more wonders of the Trump presidency. Next, we get another monologue from the host, usually on another, but not always entirely unrelated subject. Then, after another commercial break, we get what some cruel, uncaring people, such as your narrator, have labeled the feeb segment. Usually it is an interview. Often it is boring and almost pointless, though sometimes it is at least okay. This time, Ms. Bee and her staff skipped the interview and did another story, narrated by the host, but replete with visual effects. It turned out to be the best part of the show. How often does that happen?

Let me be a bit more specific and chronologically ordered. The show started with Samantha Bee’s take on the failure of the Mainstream (and Trump) Republican-sponsored health care bill that was going to set us all to dancing in the streets, swilling champagne over the long overdue demise of Obamacare. (Ptui! Ptui!). As we already knew, Trump, Paul Ryan and all of their ilk fell flat on their collective faces as too many Republicans refused to support the bill. For the Democrats (at whom Trump leveled all the blame) it was because the bill, by any logical standards, sucked out loud. For the dissenting Republicans, the bill lacked sufficient cruelty to the aged and the poor. FOR SHAME, MR. PRESIDENT! Be that as it may, despite our knowing the entire story, Ms. Bee made the segment quite amusing.

Her second segment focused upon the state of Georgia and a particularly repugnant state congressman named Johnnie Caldwell, of the state’s 131st district. The gist of the presentation was that, after Caldwell had totally disgraced himself as a judge—and you will have to see the segment to get the details—he easily won election to the state legislature, then got himself re-elected two more times.

All that said, Mr. Caldwell was not the only villain of this piece. Further digging revealed that he had been running unopposed. Add to that villains list any Georgia Republican with even a faint spark of decency, who could have opposed the guy in the primary, as well as the entire Democratic Party within the state. Ms. Bee made a similar point a little while ago, to all our liberal, even moderate and certainly decent friends: WAKE UP AND SNORT THE JAVA! This political morass will not go away on its own.

Finally, came the third and best segment. In a commendable instance of fairness, Ms. Bee and her producers stayed in Georgia, but this time to report a positive story. It is the one I am providing as your weekly peek, and peek you should. We learn many useful things from this segment, but perhaps the most important thing is that, while the state may contain people like Johnnie Caldwell, it also contains more than a few decent and even heroic people. I say we let them stay in the Union.

 

Full Frontal, March 29, 2017

 

Read more comedy news.

The following two tabs change content below.

Thomas Cleveland Lane

Thomas Cleveland Lane is a semi-retired freelance writer for pay and a stage actor for nothing more than the opportunity to make a fool of himself. Well, he does get a small stipend from the Washington Area Decency League, after playing the role of Hinezie in The Pajama Game, to never, ever appear on stage in his underpants again. When he has not managed to buffalo some director into casting him, Thomas can often be found at his favorite piano bar, annoying the patrons with his caterwauling. Thomas is the author of an anthology called Shaggy Dogs, a Collection of Not-So-Short Stories (destined to become a cult classic, shortly after he croaks). He is also the alter-ego to a very unbalanced Czech poet named Glub Dzmc. Mr. Lane generally resides in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and was last seen in the mirror, three days ago.
Thomas Cleveland Lane
Thomas Cleveland Lane
Thomas Cleveland Lane is a semi-retired freelance writer for pay and a stage actor for nothing more than the opportunity to make a fool of himself. Well, he does get a small stipend from the Washington Area Decency League, after playing the role of Hinezie in The Pajama Game, to never, ever appear on stage in his underpants again. When he has not managed to buffalo some director into casting him, Thomas can often be found at his favorite piano bar, annoying the patrons with his caterwauling. Thomas is the author of an anthology called Shaggy Dogs, a Collection of Not-So-Short Stories (destined to become a cult classic, shortly after he croaks). He is also the alter-ego to a very unbalanced Czech poet named Glub Dzmc. Mr. Lane generally resides in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and was last seen in the mirror, three days ago.