aasifmandvi

"The Strife Aquatic": I'm so glad Jon called out the fact that the "liberal dictionary" was just a children's Bible. I kept thinking, "The liberal dictionary has an awful lot of pictures, Jon. Quit perpetuating liberal stereotypes! We read good." Anyway, torture is no good. Usually. Kind of depends one your definition for "torture", apparently. Also, I just realized that I may have been using "waterboarding" instead of "bodyboarding" for most of my childhood. Seeing as how I've lived in beachy Florida for most of my life, "bodyboarding" has come up quite a bit. Oops.

"War Wars": Bush has said many times over that he feels that this war is a different kind of war. We now know that he really meant that the war is just like 'Nam. I also liked Jon's weak spit takes. Senior Political Correspondent Aasif Mandvi elaborated on Bush's notes on Vietnam. Mandvi seems like he's slowly developing a character? I'm sensing a bit of Colbert-esque smarminess.

"Operation Silent Thunder": Senior Baghdad Correspondent Rob Riggle reported live from Baghdad... Seriously. It was cooler than Aasif Mandvi, the other Senior Baghdad Correspondent, and his pretend-adventure while standing in front of the green screen, but I was pretty disappointed that Riggle didn't present anything crazy from his Iraq experiences. I suppose we'll have to keep waiting and see what he comes up with during the week. By the way: Apocalypse Now references will never, ever get old.

"President Bush: In His Own Words": FOX News' Neil Cavuto had a chat with his good buddy President Bush. Of course, much ass-kissing ensued. However, even with all the creepy love from Cavuto (or perhaps because of it), Bush managed to stumble over his words. Naturally, more coverage of Bush's clumsy talk followed, including clips of his failure to get over the joys of "prioritizing", "priorities", and "prioritization". It's been a while since Jon has done a really ridiculous, pointless prop gag. I didn't really care for the split-second gloo jar bit. Jon, baby, when will you understand that your show is better than that?

Iraq owned Saudi Arabia in the AFC Asian Cup, a huge symbolic victory. Senior "Football" Correspondent John Oliver talked about the pointlessness of the win and the greater significance of the celebrations (and the resulting deaths). I'm very proud of the show for being able to do a football/soccer story without resorting to obvious "GOOOAL!" gags and containing the joke to just one little visual.

First of all, a big congratulations to both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report for their multiple Emmy nods! Comedy Central must be very, very proud. I don't know if Jon will bring up the nominations any time in the near future, but I think Stephen will do a bit of boasting soon.

"Harry Potter and the Endless Build Up": Senior Literary Correspondent John Oliver chimed in on the Harry situation (Haha, I just made that up, right now. I'm so good. So very, very good) regarding spoilers. His spoiler joke, "Harry is decapitated by Ron, who is actually Voldemort's robot son", got a good laugh from me, but judging from the mild response from the audience, there weren't too many fans in the crowd. Oh, I just remembered... Back when the sixth book was about to be released, Rob Corddry filed an absolutely hysterical report about spoilers. For once, Comedy Central's website has a clip I want, so check it out.

"C-SPAN After Dark": The Democrats and the Republicans had a lovely little sleepover to discuss Bush's Iraq policy and gossip about boys. I laughed a little too loudly at Jon's remarks about the Democrat's sad-looking "Let Us Vote" signs because, well, I guess I'm a sucker for font jokes. I'm pathetic like that.

John Oliver reviewed the all-night political play and successfully killed me by calling Barack Obama "the Moor" ("Alluring... Dangerously forbidden... And played out"). Oliver looked like he was about to crack as well. The rating system of five "bullets to the back of Lincoln's head" was also funny, in an awful sort of way.

Jon briefly talked about the crazy weather that the East coast has been experiencing. Actually, one of the buildings close to where I live has revolving glass doors and two of them shattered because of the wind was so strong. Craziness. Of course, the weather talk didn't last long because the show can only go on for so long without making fun of the government...

"Loan Wolf": Paul Wolfowitz is in a spot of trouble after some business involving his extra-special lady friend. Sorry, Jon, but I'm not totally sure you'd be able to take Wolfowitz in a fight. He seems to have a certain scrappiness about him.

Chris Dodd blogged about his Daily Show experience. That's so young! That's so hip! Nice job, Mr. Dodd, you tech-savvy cat. I loved his MySpace page, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed by the lack of "angles" pictures.

"Eight Men Out": Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez is doing... stuff... again. Senior Legal Correspondent Aasif Mandvi elaborated on Gonzalez's plea of ignorance and his usage of the race card. I'm hearing from a lot of Mandi fans, but I still don't see what's so amazing about him. He's okay, yeah, but am I missing something greater here?

"Nuke Kid On The Block": Kim Jong-Il, wielding his nuclear playthings, is going to kill us all... and ruin Jon's Korean summer home. And somehow, magically, The Daily Show managed to work Ben Stiller's "do it... do it" character into a joke about Kim's inner-voice. Now, that takes skill.

Aasif Mandvi finally made another appearance, this time as the Senior Asia Correspondent. I'm not sure how I feel about this guy. He doesn't suck, but he doesn't really bring anything special to the table (other than a bit of diversity... speaking of which, where has the token black correspondent gone?).

"Karr Talk": FOX News was bragging a bit about having one of their people on the plane, scoping out John Karr. Ohh, just imagine all the crazy crap that could've gone down! As it turned out, Karr spent most of his ride sipping champagne and eating king prawns. Wow. Senior Media Ethicist Rob Corddry reported live from the plane, his head slowly emerging from a toilet bowl. He wanted to do some real investigative journalism and find out more about ol' Pervert McMurderman (HA!) by hiding in the First Class toilet. He seemed crushed when Jon informed him that Karr wasn't in First Class but in Business Class. Oh, and I loved how the entire audience let out a collective groan when Rob said, "Scoop of a lifetime, Jon, and I let it slip through my fingers." After they cut away, Jon started laughing and explained that, since it's Rob's last week, they've all been think of terrible things for him to do. Man, I'm really going to miss Rob.