After taking a few weeks to gain some more solid footing, the 1/2 Hour News Hour took a giant leap forward this week with a very, very solid show. The news segments were solid, the skits were better, the commercials were more concise, and most importantly, there was no glaring “weak” moment that brought the rest of the show down.
Looking first at some of the skits, the “Rush as President” bits are solid, mostly because of Rush’s larger than life presence. He carries the scenes even if the material isn’t exactly exciting. The second “skit” was the “Feature Story” that discussed Jimmy Carter’s “Ex-presidential” legacy. Basically, a presidential “historian” came on and explained all the great that happened as a result of Jimmy carter leaving office (Iran freeing the hostages, the US winning the Cold War, etc…) saying it wasn’t Ronald Reagan who accomplished these things, rather they were accomplished as part of the Jimmy Carter “Ex-Presidency.” The money line came when asked “So, if Jimmy Carter’s going to take credit for all the positive things that happened after he left office, shouldn’t he be held responsible for 9-11 too?” The response: “Come on, everyone knows that 9-11 happened during the Clinton Ex-Presidency.” The final skit that deserves mention was an interview with a representative from “Americans against Guns.” This man claimed that he had been the victim of shootings on multiple occasions (A old lady when he tried to take her purse, a home owner when he tried to steal things from the home owner’s home, and a bank guard when he tried to rob a bank.) “People having guns make it unsafe for us common criminals!” I completely agree.
The new segments this week were particularly strong as well with jokes concerning: Miss USA being booed at the Miss Universe pageant in Mexico city (her talent was building a 700 mile fence), the UN responding my Islamo-Fascism by sending a really strong letter, Mitt Romney being willing to donate his presidential salary but John Edwards keeping it and “feeling really guility”, Steve Jobs thinking Al Gore would make a good president since Steve “wrote Al’s Software” (there was an “Al-Pod” reference in the background), and a few jokes about Rosie O’Donnell quitting the view and Paris Hilton heading to prison. Overall, the new segments were very high quality.
The show once again finished up with Dennis Miller’s _The Buck Starts Here_, which was okay with some Gitmo reference and his referring to President Bush as a “waits for the DVD to come out” kind of guy. Though Dennis has yet to really find his stride, it looks the rest of the show might have, or, at the very least, is on the right track to.
