Skip to main content

Farewell, "The Nightly Show"

Last Thursday night showcased the final episode of Larry Wilmore's The Nightly Show on Comedy Central. While I didn't find The Nightly Show nearly as humorous as its predecessor, The Colbert Report, I still felt it was an incredibly important show - especially at this time in our country's history.

Let's think back to all of the late-night talk show hosts over the past ten years: David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Craig Ferguson, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Bill Maher, John Oliver, Carson Daly, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel. What do they all have in common? They're all white guys. If it weren't for the recent additions of Trevor Noah and Samantha Bee, white guys would have temporarily held a monopoly on late night talk shows. While Ms. Bee is a woman and Mr. Noah is a black man, neither delved into topics pertaining to the African-American community like Mr. Wilmore did. Objective #2 for Larry Wilmore and The Nightly Show was to prompt laughter. Objective #1 was to bring attention to racism in America, and through that increased awareness, decrease racism in this country. Unfortunately, I feel that was both the making and breaking of the show.

It's easy to laugh at slapstick or to even laugh at a politician making a grammatically incorrect statement. However, when it comes to having this country's racism continually displayed before us, it can be a tough pill to swallow, especially when viewing this on a late-night comedy show. With The Nightly Show, that's exactly what happened. Ratings wise, it was a difficult balancing act from the show's inception. Here they were attempting to appeal to a wide audience, yet continually showcasing racist acts committed by whites (65% of the population) against blacks (13% of the population). In the end, denial and the ignorance-is-bliss mentality won out, unfortunately.

The Nightly Show may not have been as humorous as its predecessor, The Colbert Report, but it was still an extremely important late-night show. Only Larry Wilmore continued to shed light on what many black Americans have to go through on a regular basis - from being followed at a grocery store to being assaulted and/or killed by authority while unarmed to being the victims of vandalism and insults all due to the color of their skin and beyond. Larry Wilmore brought to light many issues we've tried hiding under the rug for the past several years and told us loud and clear, "This sh*t is real. This sh*t is happening. We need to deal with it." The Nightly Show and its cancellation I think goes to show where we are as a society with regard to racism: While many of us will admit it still exists, we'd rather pretend it doesn't than deal with it, and instead watch reruns of Full House. Thanks for the all the laughs and bringing attention to some very important issues and causes, Larry. Best of luck with all your future endeavors.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Boycotting jukeboxes because of TouchTunes

I love music and enjoy hitting the bar(s) over the weekend, so naturally, when the mood strikes me, I've never been coy about playing some songs on the jukebox. This past Thursday, a friend of mine turned 50, so several friends of her's, including myself, all met up to celebrate the occasion. At around 9:30, a friend of mine and I both chipped in $5 to play some songs on the jukebox. Four hours and 231 skips later, we gave up on hearing the songs we had selected, and went home knowing we had just wasted $5. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened to me (and many others), and due to that, I'll be boycotting jukeboxes. Why? The scam known as TouchTunes. You see, here's how the plot typically breaks down. A person (or group of people) downloads the TouchTunes app on his/her phone, consumes one too many adult beverages, and due to this, has less care for spending extra money to hear the songs of their choosing right NOW. That's the thing with TouchTun

The difference between "looking" and "checking out"

I may be way off with these numbers, but it's my approximation that at least 75% of individuals whom are involved in a serious relationship feel it's perfectly acceptable to "check out" members of the opposite sex they're not involved with. Meanwhile, approximately 25% either don't feel this is acceptable or aren't sure about the matter. I hadn't thought about this matter for a while, but since I've been dating a woman for about 8 months, the topic has been pondered about some. When reading or hearing others discuss this very issue, I often times hear comments similar to the following: "It's human nature to look." "There's nothing wrong with checking others out. I'm sure he/she does it too!" "It's fine to do it. Just don't tell your boyfriend/girlfriend about it or do it in front of them!" "It's natural to find people attractive." When observing the array of comments, I i

The verdict is in. To no one's surprise, Jonathan Hoenig has been found guilty of being an idiot.

Just recently, when discussing the Michael Brown shooting and whether or not race had anything to do with it, Fox News contributor Jonathan Hoenig said, "You know who talks about race? Racists." One moment while I provide Mr. Hoenig with the well deserved slow-clap. :: slow-claps for two seconds :: So, that was quite the line by Mr. Hoenig, wasn't it? "You know who talks about race? Racists." Well, wasn't he just talking about race? So, by his own words, I guess that makes him a racist. Also, if he wants to be consistent, does this mean that people whom talk about gender are sexists and people whom talk about sexual orientation are homophobes? With that line of thinking, Hoenig would engage in the following back-and-forths: Hoenig: "So, who are you voting for?" A woman: "The Democratic candidate, because he's been adamant about his support for equal rights for women." Hoenig: "You sexist feminist nazi!"