‘The Nightly Show’ recap: ‘Levar Burton’

A segment of Backlash 2016: The Unblackening opened the episode of The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore on May 26. This Backlash covered Donald Trump, particularly the news that he had secured enough votes to earn the Republican nomination. In honor of a bet he made the previous summer, Wilmore pulled out a bottle of vodka, claiming he had promised to drink it on live television should Trump win the nomination. Though the “vodka” was clearly water, Wilmore repeatedly took shots of the substance, while playing video clips of some of the more concerning Trump quotes.

Moving on, the Backlash switched to Hillary Clinton, who was still in the news for violating federal standards in her emails. After cracking a joke on what it must be like to be her campaign manager, the show transitioned into a skit featuring Nightly Show contributor Jordan Carlos posing as “Carlos Jordanson,” an “official” on Clinton’s campaign team. Visibly sweating the whole time, Carlos continued to assure Wilmore that everything was fine. His demeanor only became more unhinged as the skit went on, as he repeatedly attempted to change the subject.

Next, Wilmore covered the approaching Angry Birds movie, addressing speculations of the film’s racist undertones. To answer any questions of racism, Wilmore introduced Mike Yard’s The Y Files segment. The segment, however, turned out to be an elaborate skit, with Yard comically attempting to prove that Angry Birds was about black people. Going full conspiracy mode, the segment included a giant bulletin board with various tacked pictures of the Angry Birds movie and yarn connecting various images. Despite Wilmore’s repeated attempts to inform Yard that he was acting crazy, he eventually came to the conclusion that Angry Birds was really about Beyonce being Solange's mom, completely satirizing any attempts to call the film racist.

The night’s panel featured Nightly Show contributors Holly Walker, Jordan Carlos and special guest Levar Burton. Conversations centered on the reboot of the 1977 mini-series, Roots. Burton being a producer on the new show. The subject was topical for the night’s talk. During their discussion, panelists reflected on the original show’s impact and pondered the effect the reboot might take, particularly in the case of racism and slavery, a subject of great importance, conversation remained respectful throughout, closing the night’s show.

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