Friday, May 9, 2025

Lydic, Colbert, Meyers, and Kimmel take closer looks at the first American Pope for Flashback Friday

Happy Flashback Friday! I set up today's post in the middle of 'Conclave' — fiction vs. reality, when I wrote "I expect I'll return to the topic once the real conclave elects a new Pope." That happened yesterday with the election of Leo XIV. Without any further ado, I begin the videos with The Daily Show's First American Pope Makes History and MAGA Catholics Already Have Issues.

Desi Lydic has the latest from the Vatican after the announcement of the first American pope, Leo XIV, including the world's reaction to a Chicago-style pope and Fox News immediately yelling at him to speak English. Plus, Michael Kosta celebrates America's conclave win.
The Pope told off JD Vance? I like him already.

Unlike Michael Kosta, Stephen Colbert is Catholic, and he weighed in with White Smoke! | The Chicago Pope | Melania Absent While Donald Handles First Lady Duties.

The new Pope is an American from Chicago, and Melania Trump is M.I.A. so her husband has taken on tasks traditionally managed by the First Lady.
"Pope-S-A! Pope-S-A! Pope-S-A!" and "Daa prayers" — classic. On the other hand, Stephen repeating Desi Lydic's line about "English being good enough for Jesus" is enough to bring out my inner pedant to say "Well, actually, Jesus probably spoke Aramaic," complete with pushing up my glasses.

As for the First Lady being at the White House for a total of two weeks out of the first 100 days, I'm not surprised. I wrote Melania Trump prefers Trump Tower to the White House more than eight years ago. Some things haven't changed.

Before I move on, the nomination of Casey Means to be Surgeon General after Dr. Janette Nesheiwat withdrew shows two things; first, the influence of RFK Jr. remains strong, and, second, things can get worse. I can say the same about the replacement of Ed Martin with Jeanine Pirro as Interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. Break out the w(h)ine!

It wouldn't be a closer look post without Seth Meyers, so here's New Pope Criticized JD Vance; Conclave Upstages Trump's Underwhelming U.K. Trade Deal: A Closer Look.

Seth takes a closer look at Donald Trump announcing a meaningless trade deal with the United Kingdom, which is the first deal he's reached after claiming he already had 200, and him getting upstaged by the new pope.
Donald "Hoover Cleveland" Trump deserved to be upstaged. I'm not so sure about UK Prime Minster Keir Starmer, who I mentioned here for the first time since his election, although he was boring. I hope he feels like his country got something out of the deal. Hoover Cleveland probably does; he might buy a Rolls-Royce because of it.

I close the video portion of today's post with Jimmy Kimmel's Trump Reveals First Trade Agreement, MAGA Nuts Lose Minds Over New Pope & MTG’s Dumb-assery.

A new Pope was selected and he’s American, thousands of worshippers gathered in St. Peter’s Square to welcome the new holy father, right wing social media is losing its collective mind because the new Pope cares for the poor and the sick and the plight of immigrants, Trump announced his first trade deal today with the UK, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was not able to be at the White House but he did call in to kiss some ass, Trump blamed Pete Buttigieg for all of the issues at Newark Airport, several of Pete Hegseth’s personal passwords have been compromised by cyberattacks, Klan Mom Marjorie Taylor Greene put on a magnificent display of dumb-assery, Trump has an important Mother’s Day message, and Jimmy’s wife Molly gives a helpful hint for how to make this the best Mother’s Day ever.
Not only did the new Pope criticize Vance, he criticized Hoover Cleveland. I like him even more. Speaking of criticism, fake Starmer was a lot more entertaining than the real one. So was Representative Melanie Stansbury, who showed that Hoover Cleveland isn't the only politician who can be fooled by a doctored photo and then insist they weren't fooled. "Who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" was a lot funnier when Chico Marx said it.

Because of the criticism of VP Vance combined with the election of the Pope, today's retrospective covers last year's most read shares of blog posts on social media about the 2024 election I haven't already covered. Follow over the jump.


Take 'A 538 Election Road Trip', a driving update earned 1 like and 1 reply, the most on Threads during the 2024-2025 blogging year.


I shared Rachel Maddow examines Curtis Yarvin, one of JD Vance's influences from October 7, 2024 multiple times on Bluesky since I joined in November 2024. The first share earned 9 likes, 3 reposts, tied for second most during year and most during month, and 4 replies in 3 threads, the most threads for November 2024 and tied for most replies on Bluesky during November 2024. The second earned 10 likes, most during February 2025 and third most during the blogging year, 2 reposts, and 4 replies in 2 threads, the most during February 2025. The third share earned 5 likes, 1 repost, and 22 replies in 3 threads, most replies during first 3 weeks of March 2025 and most replies on Bluesky during the blogging year. The repost earned 7 likes, 3 reposts, and 6 replies in 3 threads, which was the top mention during first 3 weeks of March 2025 and the blogging year.


The horse is loose in the hospital again from January 21, 2025 earned 7 likes, the second most on Bluesky during January 2025, 3 reposts, tied for most during month and second most during blogging year, and 1 reply.


A History of the US Vice Presidency for Veep Day earned a comment during August 2024 to be the most active, in fact, the only active pin on Pinterest during 2024 and the first three months of 2025. Just the same, this means that my prediction in Trees vs. climate change for Arbor Day, a Flashback Friday holiday special was premature.
This will almost certainly be the final post about the blog's year on Pinterest because Pinterest ceased its notifications of other users saving pins during the first week of December 2023. That's why I listed no 2024 monthly rankings. Sic transit gloria mundi.
Notifications for comments are still turned on, so the possibility of future retrospectives exists. That written, today's post counts as the retrospective about Pinterest for last year.

Stay tuned for a non-retrospective entry tomorrow, maybe the one about Stephen Miller I mentioned in the footnote to 'SNL' mocks Trump's executive orders during his second first 100 days. Stay tuned.

Previous posts in this series Previous retrospectives about the 2024 election Previous retrospectives about Pinterest
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)