The Cable Gamer TiVo'd "D.L. Hughley Breaks The News" on Saturday night, but didn't get a chance to watch it till tonight.
A couple of TCG commenters got ahead of me, suggesting that Hughley's show was anti-Barack Obama. I didn't see it that way, although, of course, I posted their comments, as I do with all comments that are not abusive or obscene.
And for my part, I thought that the show was clearly pro-Obama. Funny a lot of the time, but still unmistakably anti-John McCain and anti-Republican. It's a free country, but you can bet Hughley, his own personal political preferences notwithstanding, was more free to do a Bush-bashing show on CNN.
A few more points:
First, D.L. gets credit for doing it live, in front of an audience.
Second, he cut a little close to the bone in the bit with reporter Josh Levs, pretending to be a fact-checker, and calling some of D.L.'s assertions into question. "I didn't know CNN checked facts," D.L. shot back. It was funny, but as noted, it cut close to the bone.
Third, the interview with "Freddie Mac"--not the government-sponsored company, but an actual black guy dressed up a "Mac Daddy"-type pimp--was funny, I thought, although I recognize that some Cable Gamers didn't like it.
But all will agree, I suspect, that the scene was then flattened by the intrusion of real-life CNN business reporter Ali Velshi, who just talked fast, which is not the same as being funny. (And there's the question of whether or not Velshi had any business being on a comedy show--more on that later.) But Hughley did insert some comedic common sense when he noted the absurdity of "A guy making $3.35 an hour getting a million dollar house." Yes, that is absurd, and only a slight exaggeration--which is the best kind of humor.
Fourth, it was an inspired idea for D.L. to travel to Elon College in North Carolina to a Palin rally. Yes, he poked fun at the apparently all-white crowd, and yes he made clear his own pro-Obama sentiments. But once again, he saved himself with a degree of self-deprecation. When a Palin fan cracked on Obama's record, D.L. joked, "I have a record." And at the end, he got a lot of Palin fans to hold up signs proclaiming, "Palin-Hughley 2012."
Fifth, speaking of Palin, he also And she interviewed a black woman who defeated Palin for Miss Alaska back in 1984. That was good staff work. And playing on Palin's comment about being able to see Russia from Alaska, he joked that he can see the moon from his house, but that didn't make him an astronaut.
Sixth, he did a quick survey on black presidents in Hollywood history, from Sammy Davis Jr. portraying a boyish "President of Pork Chops" in a 1933 movie to to James Earl Jones playing a more serious President in "The Man" (1972), to Morgan Freeman in "Deep Impact" (1997).
Seventh, any doubt as to where Hughley was coming from was erased when he brought in Scott McClellan, the renegade former Bush White House press secretary who authored a George W. Bush-bashing memoir. "Isn't he pretty much one of the worst presidents ever?" Hughley asked.
McClellan kept his restraint, allowing that Bush was "misguided," and "engaged in self-deception," but then launching into his familiar riff, attacking the "permanent campaign culture in Washington. All of which proves that McClellan is always good at staying on his talking points, whether pro-Bush or anti-Bush is the line of the day. McClellan endorsed Obama on the air--that endorsement had been reported before, but Hughley still had a first for TV.
Still, Hughley never mentioned the obvious moral hazard in the case of McClellan. If the former Bush aide had stayed loyal to W., do you think that anyone at CNN, or elsewhere in the liberal media establishment, would have cared a whit about his opinion on anything? But if Scottie is going to be a Bush-basher, well, then, by all means, bring him on. If Hughley had made fun of, or even wryly noted, McClellan's post-White House conversion--now that would have been interesting, and unpredictable. Instead, Hughley took the predictable route: He just let McClellan diss Bush; indeed, he encouraged him to do more.
And still on the subject of politics, D.L. took a dig at Rush Limbaugh for criticizing Colin Powellfor endorsing Obama: "Colin Powell has voted for more white guys than Rush Limbaugh has voted for black guys."
Finally, he brought in three CNN International reporters, Matthew Chance, from Moscow, Jaime Flor-Cruz, from Beijing, and Mallika Kapur, from Mumbai, for some un-funny questions. As with Velshi, I wonder if these comedy turns, however unfunny, represent an erosion of CNN editorial standards. Oh wait, I think I know the answer to that question.
