I am here for any and all "Sam Bee" takes. What a ridiculous show, almost unwatchable for a blue dog Dem observing their party while its people slipped into madness.
I would love to read more about Full Frontal! My wife and I used to watch the show. It seemed perfect for us, two lesbians who enjoyed the Daily Show.
Eventually we said to each other, “She’s just screaming at us….?” and stopped watching.
It made me feel like a bad feminist, I admit. “Oh, you don’t like when women are ‘shrill’ and scream at you? You probably love when men yell about their opinions.”
But no, it applied to men too. We stopped watching all late night around 2020.
Worth noting: Full Frontal did not start out bad. I remember watching the early episodes and thinking "This is fine, it's a Daily Show spin-off, like us." It devolved over time.
It was a fun show for the first couple of years. I think Trump's election broke a lot of things. You can only stew in muck for so long before you get sick.
That's my feeling any time I dip a toe into the late-night TV waters these days. I think, "This is not healthy for anyone," and that includes the people making the show.
I would have thought Andrew Yang used the 50K in his New York City mayoral run the following year, another exercise in tech-bro cringe.
Otherwise, thanks for this, one of the many pieces to the puzzle of how we got from Obama twice winning more than 50% of the popular vote to wherever we are right now.
It's kind of a bummer that we look back on the things we thought were momentous at the time and think "yeah, that wasn't as significant as we thought, and we should have been focusing on other things that turned out to be really important". And I don't know how to correct for that, because as soon as I think something really is important, I start to doubt it.
If you knew the answer to what will become important in the future, you could probably make a lot of money in the stock market. Or at least write a pretty good blog.
It had jumped the shark by the time Bee did it, but the original Colbert Super PAC thing was awesome and won a Peabody award. Colbert’s character originally tried to create a PAC, but Viacom’s lawyers nixed it … but in light of the then recent Citizens United decision they had to allow the Super PAC. Then Colbert had the former FEC chair Trevor Potter, who he hired as his personal lawyer, come on repeatedly to demonstrate how absurd the situation was. Plus there was the recurring bit about Ham Rove and the tie in to the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear and the Colbert characters’s presidential run. This was a great bit originally that later got watered down by others.
>Full Fronts helped snap my vision into focus because it made it clear that these shows could and perhaps inevitably would become the left-wing version of Fox News.
It's hilariously true. Some of my friends are very progressive. Think "still have anti-racist baby on their 1 year old's gift registry in 2025" progressive. I got grandfathered in despite being impure. They thought Sam Bee was *hilarious* and still believe any talking point John Oliver states. They're not quite to the level of my Boomer dad, but they're not far behind. I love them dearly, but I worry about them.
I was a member of the Yang Gang! I still have my MATH hat lol
I would love a deeper dive into the 2010s progressive comedy media scene; honestly, I think this could make a really interesting book. I remember seeing one episode of Michelle Wolf's Netflix show (which I guess was in 2018) and realizing how much the range of acceptable discourse had contracted on the left. I think it was a pretty alienating experience for a lot of people even/especially if it didn't cause them to shift their political affiliations. I'm sure some people on the right feel the same way about their ideologues. Anyway, interesting stuff
Jeff, your perfectly overlapped Venn diagram of Warren supporters and Full Frontal watchers with green dot you on periphery reminded me of a sperm cell and ovum...
The venn diagram shows that the Warren supporter and bee fan sets are equal (as the coterminous circles show that the two sets are the same) but the Maurer set is only overlapping. That means that there is at least one element of the Maurer set contained in the Bee fan set and at least 1 element that is not in the bee fan set. The diagram only makes sense if there are two or more Jeff Maurers ( with different opinions on Bee).
It's too bad that Samantha Bee spiraled off into oblivion, because she had some of the best bits on the old-school Daily Show. I'll never forget when she visited the offices of Al Jazeera English and rebranded lead anchor Ghida Fakhry as "Peppermint Gomez".
Please put whatever you learned in the "oral tradition" to paper (or Substack). This was a great piece! A nice story of the interaction between traditional media (Sam Bee's show and what it thought its place was in the political landscape) and online communities (the Redditers who hijacked the game for Andrew Yang).
I'm only seeing this now, but I'd *love* to read more about the Full Fronts. It was a show I couldn't quite believe existed. I admit my motives are a bit mean-spirited; I used to check in on sites that published the weekly TV ratings and marvel at how very few people were watching. And one of my favorite possessions is a DVD of Colbert's 2016 election night special -- as you'd imagine (or recall if you watched it), the mood got pretty dang dark.
Fairly new reader to your stuff, and now getting serious about politics at the age of 33 lol. If you don't mind me asking what was the moment you felt you were the bad guys during your John Oliver days? I remember people thinking that show was changing the world. Like posts online every Sunday saying they were going to class or church to hear John preach haha
The church comparison rings true for me because I have relatives who used to go to church multiple times a week and now I believe they have replaced that with progressive talk shows. I didn't think church was great for them, but at least that religion gave them hope where the new one seems to just give them rage.
Church has gotten great now that the "Church Ladies" have joined the "New Religion" of the Left (which they're stubbornly claiming isn't a religion, to get around the first amendment).
Did you know some people actually like hymns? Church is very different now that the mean old biddies are gone.
That’s a really good point. I’m starting to notice that too. I used to think they were right and more compelling with their anger but now I don’t know what to think. I’m starting at phase one again. There are progressives out there and I just think “ Do you have any ideas or in-depth opinions?” Because a lot of them seem reactionary. Right wing reactionary annoys me more personally. But the other side doesn’t help.
I like backstage, behind the show stories. I liked Samantha Bee's show at first as refreshing, unabashedly female and funny. That the show didn't last should have been a bellwether, not only for liberals, but women. And, sadly, I think you, Jeff, liked the story a bit too macho, er, much.
I am here for any and all "Sam Bee" takes. What a ridiculous show, almost unwatchable for a blue dog Dem observing their party while its people slipped into madness.
I would love to read more about Full Frontal! My wife and I used to watch the show. It seemed perfect for us, two lesbians who enjoyed the Daily Show.
Eventually we said to each other, “She’s just screaming at us….?” and stopped watching.
It made me feel like a bad feminist, I admit. “Oh, you don’t like when women are ‘shrill’ and scream at you? You probably love when men yell about their opinions.”
But no, it applied to men too. We stopped watching all late night around 2020.
^^This was the trajectory for so many people!
Worth noting: Full Frontal did not start out bad. I remember watching the early episodes and thinking "This is fine, it's a Daily Show spin-off, like us." It devolved over time.
It was a fun show for the first couple of years. I think Trump's election broke a lot of things. You can only stew in muck for so long before you get sick.
That's my feeling any time I dip a toe into the late-night TV waters these days. I think, "This is not healthy for anyone," and that includes the people making the show.
Late night “comedy” shows started going off the rails circa 2018-2019, they are a barren wasteland now.
I would have thought Andrew Yang used the 50K in his New York City mayoral run the following year, another exercise in tech-bro cringe.
Otherwise, thanks for this, one of the many pieces to the puzzle of how we got from Obama twice winning more than 50% of the popular vote to wherever we are right now.
It's kind of a bummer that we look back on the things we thought were momentous at the time and think "yeah, that wasn't as significant as we thought, and we should have been focusing on other things that turned out to be really important". And I don't know how to correct for that, because as soon as I think something really is important, I start to doubt it.
I think it helps us keep perspective.
People experiencing history almost never have any idea what will happen next.
I just watched Casablanca. It didn't take an Einstein to flee Germany before Hitler started opening concentration camps.
If you knew the answer to what will become important in the future, you could probably make a lot of money in the stock market. Or at least write a pretty good blog.
How to invest in Greenland...?
It had jumped the shark by the time Bee did it, but the original Colbert Super PAC thing was awesome and won a Peabody award. Colbert’s character originally tried to create a PAC, but Viacom’s lawyers nixed it … but in light of the then recent Citizens United decision they had to allow the Super PAC. Then Colbert had the former FEC chair Trevor Potter, who he hired as his personal lawyer, come on repeatedly to demonstrate how absurd the situation was. Plus there was the recurring bit about Ham Rove and the tie in to the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear and the Colbert characters’s presidential run. This was a great bit originally that later got watered down by others.
Yeah, it was good! And that's why everyone tried to repeat it.
>Full Fronts helped snap my vision into focus because it made it clear that these shows could and perhaps inevitably would become the left-wing version of Fox News.
It's hilariously true. Some of my friends are very progressive. Think "still have anti-racist baby on their 1 year old's gift registry in 2025" progressive. I got grandfathered in despite being impure. They thought Sam Bee was *hilarious* and still believe any talking point John Oliver states. They're not quite to the level of my Boomer dad, but they're not far behind. I love them dearly, but I worry about them.
I was a member of the Yang Gang! I still have my MATH hat lol
I would love a deeper dive into the 2010s progressive comedy media scene; honestly, I think this could make a really interesting book. I remember seeing one episode of Michelle Wolf's Netflix show (which I guess was in 2018) and realizing how much the range of acceptable discourse had contracted on the left. I think it was a pretty alienating experience for a lot of people even/especially if it didn't cause them to shift their political affiliations. I'm sure some people on the right feel the same way about their ideologues. Anyway, interesting stuff
I cackled a bit when I saw you asking Yang about "Sam Bee", and he assumed you were talking about Sam Bankman-Fried.
Late to the game here as I'm behind on my podcasts, but yes, absolutely. I have no idea how Jeff didn't completely crack up.
Jeff, your perfectly overlapped Venn diagram of Warren supporters and Full Frontal watchers with green dot you on periphery reminded me of a sperm cell and ovum...
The venn diagram shows that the Warren supporter and bee fan sets are equal (as the coterminous circles show that the two sets are the same) but the Maurer set is only overlapping. That means that there is at least one element of the Maurer set contained in the Bee fan set and at least 1 element that is not in the bee fan set. The diagram only makes sense if there are two or more Jeff Maurers ( with different opinions on Bee).
#math #yanggang #yang2028
It's too bad that Samantha Bee spiraled off into oblivion, because she had some of the best bits on the old-school Daily Show. I'll never forget when she visited the offices of Al Jazeera English and rebranded lead anchor Ghida Fakhry as "Peppermint Gomez".
For some reason the funniest part of this whole essay was when you kept calling it "Full Fronts," lol.
Please put whatever you learned in the "oral tradition" to paper (or Substack). This was a great piece! A nice story of the interaction between traditional media (Sam Bee's show and what it thought its place was in the political landscape) and online communities (the Redditers who hijacked the game for Andrew Yang).
I'm only seeing this now, but I'd *love* to read more about the Full Fronts. It was a show I couldn't quite believe existed. I admit my motives are a bit mean-spirited; I used to check in on sites that published the weekly TV ratings and marvel at how very few people were watching. And one of my favorite possessions is a DVD of Colbert's 2016 election night special -- as you'd imagine (or recall if you watched it), the mood got pretty dang dark.
Fairly new reader to your stuff, and now getting serious about politics at the age of 33 lol. If you don't mind me asking what was the moment you felt you were the bad guys during your John Oliver days? I remember people thinking that show was changing the world. Like posts online every Sunday saying they were going to class or church to hear John preach haha
The church comparison rings true for me because I have relatives who used to go to church multiple times a week and now I believe they have replaced that with progressive talk shows. I didn't think church was great for them, but at least that religion gave them hope where the new one seems to just give them rage.
Church has gotten great now that the "Church Ladies" have joined the "New Religion" of the Left (which they're stubbornly claiming isn't a religion, to get around the first amendment).
Did you know some people actually like hymns? Church is very different now that the mean old biddies are gone.
Are you able to have discussions with them on politics?
No. A discussion in such people's mind is them ranting and everyone else agreeing. Generally, I greyrock them until I can leave the situation.
That’s a really good point. I’m starting to notice that too. I used to think they were right and more compelling with their anger but now I don’t know what to think. I’m starting at phase one again. There are progressives out there and I just think “ Do you have any ideas or in-depth opinions?” Because a lot of them seem reactionary. Right wing reactionary annoys me more personally. But the other side doesn’t help.
Tell me more about what you think about the American System...or is that too reactionary for you?
I like backstage, behind the show stories. I liked Samantha Bee's show at first as refreshing, unabashedly female and funny. That the show didn't last should have been a bellwether, not only for liberals, but women. And, sadly, I think you, Jeff, liked the story a bit too macho, er, much.
It also happened to be the most anti-female of the progressive comedy shows. Ironic.
Not doubting you at all, but why do you say this? Did they nonstop shit talk white women, or was it something else?
She did an entire show monstering JK Rowling for defending women. And Bee famously calling Ivanka a cunt.