The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

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. Obj...

I've been a long-time viewer of late-night shows on Comedy Central, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report  in particular. When news broke of Stephen Colbert leaving Comedy Central to replace David Letterman on CBS and that The Daily Show contributor Larry Wilmore would be taking over, while I was saddened, I also thought I'd give Wilmore's The Nightly Show a chance. To this point, I've watched each and every episode, and like with The Colbert Report in its early going, The Nightly Show has come across as a show still trying to figure itself out, continually tinkering with its format, hoping to be given enough time to fully adjust and produce a long-term success on Comedy Central, just like its predecessor. While I was a bit critical of the show's early format, where just one of its three portions focused on Wilmore's comedy and two of the three focused on panel discussions, I've liked the changes the show has made since that point - going to a 2 and 1 fo...

Former George W. Bush Press Secretary and current co-host of the Fox News show, The Five , Dana Perino, joined fellow guests Lewis Black and Brad Garrett on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore this past Thursday, where she uttered something I'm still scratching my head about three days later. When the three guests were discussing the Supreme Court's pending gay marriage decision and conservatives' comments to it, Wilmore noted that some conservatives blamed gay marriage for Hurricane Sandy, the mass killing of animals, 9/11, Sodom and Gomorrah, and 900,000 abortions over the next 30 years. He, Lewis Black, and Brad Garrett all laughed at the notion and poked fun of it along the way. Dana Perino then said, "Some people have blamed climate change for the same kinds of stuff." Hmm... Let's look at that comment a bit more closely. When's the last time someone blamed climate change for Sodom and Gomorrah? Never. When's the last time someone blamed cli...

On The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore last night, I was struck by a quote from renowned conservative stand-up comedian Nick DiPaulo in the discussion portion of the show and felt the need to comment on it. The central focus of last night's show was political correctness, the word police, and whether or not certain words should be off limits in most (or all) situations if not outright banned. Overall, the group of guests (as well as the host) seemed to believe that while people should become more culturally aware and sensitive given our ever diversifying country and we should refrain from saying certain words, it'd be a potentially dangerous slippery slope to actually start banning these very words. DiPaulo then went on a mini-rant, saying that political correctness always stems from the left, dealing with racism, sexism, and homophobia. He followed that up with this gem: "Political correctness just stifles white heterosexual Christian males." Now, let's get...

After its first week, I gave The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore a B+ grade. While I didn't think the show appeared to be perfect by any stretch of the imagination, I also liked the Daily Show  meets Politically Incorrect vibe I got from it, and thought, with the proper adjustments, the show would indeed provide a great fill-in for The Colbert Report . In the show's succeeding weeks, however, I've been less impressed by it and think that if it doesn't make certain adjustments, it could be in jeopardy of losing many long-time viewers of the show's time slot. One major issue I think the show's had to this point is a lack of direction. It's been unable to decide whether it wants to be a comedy show with serious conversation sprinkled in or a serious show with comedy sprinkled in. It's almost as if the show's writers want to give The Nightly Show a Real Time with Bill Maher feel. The problem with that idea or format is the fact Real Time is an hour lon...

On The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore last night, he and his guests discussed a rather sensitive issue for a lot of people - obesity. The majority on the show seemed to believe that while obesity is often times disabling, it in and of itself is not technically a "disability." The majority also seemed to believe that what kinds of foods a person consumes is their choice and that it's wrong to discriminate against obese individuals. Writer and "fat-acceptance" defender, Marianne Kirby, appeared to be in the minority on a number of these topics. Ever since accepting herself as an "obese" woman, she's staunchly defended people like herself, in trying to garner more widespread acceptance of obese individuals. She seemed to scoff at the idea that diets or lifestyle changes ever work, seemed to ignore the common health risks associated with obesity, and even when asked by host Wilmore in his segment Keep It 100 if she'd want to switch places with a...

When I heard that former Daily Show correspondent Larry Wilmore would be taking over for Stephen Colbert in the 11:30 (pm EST) slot following Jon Stewart's show on Comedy Central, I honestly didn't know what to think or expect. Wilmore was used rather sparingly on The Daily Show , typecast as the show's "black correspondent." So, how was one to really know what to expect of a Monday through Thursday half-hour show hosted by The Daily Show 's black correspondent? While we're just through the first week of The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore  and I'm sure there will several tweaks made in the near and distant future, I'd have to say I'm rather impressed with the show in its early stages. First off, if you were a die-hard fan of The Colbert Report like I was, try to erase that from memory when viewing this show in order to give it a fair chance. The Nightly Show is drastically different from The Colbert Report . It starts in a similar manner t...