Screenwriters make up an extreme left-wing activist group called "Eat the Rich" referred to as a "Next Generation Occupy Wall Street." In the opening scene, they break into a mansion, violently destroy everything they see, and the ringleader calls Spanish police pigs and claims the government is corruptly letting the wealthy owner evade sanctions. An activist also posted, "die, rich bitch, die" online about the wife. And the kicker is that everything they say and do is completely subverted. There is revealed to be no corruption whatsoever and actually the opposite -- the $75 million mansion they vandalized was in the name of the philanthropist wife who intended to donate it to environmental charities and move back to the USA with her husband leaving her corrupt father-in-law. It is also later exposed that the group leader doesn't actually care about the issues and instead does it to meet women and promote his social media. In this regard, the activist followers are depicted as non free-thinkers who are easily manipulated to violence (which is the opposite in real-life).
Staff Aside
This ridiculously absurd episode is perfectly crafted to trigger false conservative beliefs about liberal economic issue protesters who in real-life do not lead, condone or encourage criminal or violent behavior. There are no liberal groups remotely like this one in the USA and in contrast the right-wing is filled with activist groups condoning and engaging in violent behavior.
The FBI interviews a woman at a catering company who says "things have slowed down a lot because of COVID, the economy" in an episode that filmed 18 months after Biden took office. In fact, however, the economy was doing fantastic and covid was no longer a problem when they started filming in July of 2022 and the episode aired later that September.
Staff Aside
They say the economy is bad when Biden happens to be president when the opposite is actually true. Companies are having some troubles but it's because the economy is so hot and the unemployment rate so low, they are having trouble finding workers. Little things like this make a HUGE different as conservative audiences are told the economy is doing poorly when Democrats are in charge, and they will believe it no matter how good things are.
A terrorist from Portland, Oregon burns down the home of a member of the Republican National Committee and then tries to blow up a large conference of the right-wing Federalist society. He also has a bulletin board full of pictures of conservative targets at his home.
Staff Aside
This episode is so completely ridiculous spreading false propaganda making liberal terrorism seem like a problem when it's actually the other way around. And additionally, they make the terrorist from Portland which is certain to further trigger conservatives who received constant propaganda falsely depicting liberals in the city negatively by the right while ignoring actual extremists like right-wing Proud Boys. And in the process, they also depict the far-right extremist Federalist Society as sympathetic victims.
Oliver rants about blackouts as if they are common and happen all the time in New York City.
The plot centers around left-wing terrorists with ties to Venezuela who are planning an attack on a building that symbolizes American capitalism in New York City.
Charles (Steve Martin) selfishly pushes the close elevator button to prevent Oliver (Martin Short) from getting on the elevator even though Oliver, who's juggling three decent boxes of mail, clearly asks Charles to hold the elevator for him.
Charles (Steve Martin) narrates that "New Yorkers have a special way of communicating" as he walks past an older woman who scowls and gives him the middle finger without so much as saying a word.
Mabel (Salena Gomez) narrates in the opening scene of the series that "New York can be a f*cking lot" while she walks past a man who catcalls her. She proceeds to narrate that "2,000 women report assaults here every year, so it's a place that makes you binge Dateline to find out how not to end up on Dateline."
Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) casually smokes a cigarette inside an interrogation room during the opening credits while the Animals "Don't let me be Misunderstood" plays in the background. Later in the movie we are taken back to the same interrogation room and Hutch continues to smoke his cigarette while officers unsuccessfully try to get information from him.
Laird's (James Franco) private chef offers Stephanie's (Zoey Deutch) parents vegan surf and turf, which consists of edible soil and plankton foam. Her parents both awkwardly stare at the dish then walk away without having a bite.
Mary (Kate McKinnon) reprimands a woman employee for wearing an overly revealing unbuttoned shirt in an office environment. But the woman wants to wear the shirt that way and she thanks Mary's boss Josh when he allows for an exception. Jeremy (Rob Corddry) also accuses Mary of body shaming her when she says that some people may find her shirt offensive.
Overly PC HR director Kate McKinnon wears a "multi denominational" holiday sweater that includes "Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the Buddhist Day of Enlightenment". She later clarifies that their Christmas party is a "nondenominational holiday mixer."
Rizzoli says she didn't go to college because she couldn't stand the idea of listening to a professor "drone on and on" and instead wanted to do work right away. Even though she was top student with academic accolades.
A Occupy Wall Street hacker who called detective Javi a tool of the 1% takes a subway hostage with a bomb in order to free his girlfriend who went to prison for six years for hacking the federal reserve failing to find information that the federal reserve "colluded" with big banks.
A woman portrayed as overly annoying makes a vapid comment, "First I'm freezing, and then I'm sweating. It's like, global warming is so upsetting."
Zoe Barnes sleeps with Frank Underwood in order to get inside access
Pete (Paul Rudd) grimaces after he's told grilled tofu is for dinner after he excitedly asks if they were having grilled cheese and then then mockingly says "dressing always get in the way of the natural taste of the lettuce" after finding out his wife is cutting back on salad dressing in order to eat healthier.
The Bronx in NYC at night is depicted as overly dark and dangerous with nobody on the streets and no ways for Castle and Beckett to get help after losing their phones and wallets. There are many references to the fact that nobody walks out on the streets there at night because it is not safe.
Staff Aside
The Bronx in 2012 when this episode aired had the
lowest murders seen since 1963 and a 70% decline over the prior 20 years with a rate of 8 per 100,000 which was lower than Boston and 11 other major cities for the year. This trend continued up until present time. Yet, writers like to perpetuate conservative stereotypes of overly scary and dangerous crime ridden cities in liberal states.
A protester leader for a liberal 99% movement (based off of Occupy Wall Street) stages a false flag bombing of his protest to gain sympathy and attention from the media, but it backfires when the bomb is moved to a place where it kills 5 people.
Mickey Haller gives the bailiff $200 in a Christmas card for preferential treatment including moving one of his clients further up the list to save him time.
Matthew represents known criminals including a biker gang and says his worst professional fear is having to defend an innocent person which is depicted as being very unlikely.
Mick Haller (Matthew McConaughey) is depicted as exploiting the legal system to get clients off the hook or getting them to agree to less favorable plea deals so he can make more money.
Matthew McConaughey engages in unethical schemes to get money throughout the movie including hiring a fake freelancer to film his wealthy, high profile client that he "pays off" to get a kickback.
Professor Hadley (David Koechner) is a kooky college professor consumed with proving that Bigfoot is real.
Alan mispronounces the word "retard" and when asked what he meant, mispronounces it again. Doug corrects him and says it's "RE-tard."
Tank (Dane Cook) smokes a number of cigarettes both indoors and out despite the fact that smoking indoors was outlawed years earlier in Massachusetts, the city the film takes place.
British director Damien Cockburn makes several mistakes costing the studio a lot of money upon which studio boss Les Grossman says to him, "This is all your fault, you limey f*ck!
Staff Aside
The entire movie is a satire on the film industry, but this is not one of those moments. They are making fun of directors sometimes going over budget and getting into squabbles with studio execs. And they chose a British director as their foil as, apparently, it's funnier for a foreign director to screw things up than an American. And you can call him limey too for added laughs. It is all genuinely very funny as is the entire movie which is super hilarious. But they are still using the British as a butt of one of their jokes here.
Vanity Fair journalist Christine Everheart has a "one-night stand" with Tony Stark and wakes up in the morning to Pepper Potts bringing her dry-cleaned clothes in a scene that implies this is a regular common occurrence for Tony. Christine quips to Pepper that "Tony still has you picking up the dry cleaning" upon which she replies, "I do anything and everything Mr. Stark requires. Including occasionally taking out the trash."
Female journalist Christine Everheart aggressively interviews Tony Stark and asks him about his nickname "Merchant of Death". His response is, "That's not bad. Let me guess... Berkeley?" and argues that weapons are needed to keep the peace and that "peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy". Tony also points out how their military sales helps fund good things that journalists ignore such as the millions helped by their advancing medical technology and Intelli-crops."
Staff Aside
Her investigative reporting later reveals a dangerous plot that helps Tony thwart the bad guys, but journalists are often treated poorly on screen and used as foils to protagonists for just doing their jobs.
Vanity Fair journalist Christine Everheart has a "one-night stand" with Tony Stark after interviewing him at an event and awakes later alone in his bed with him gone. When Pepper Potts greets Christine with her dry-cleaned clothes, Christine quips, "After all these years, Tony still has you picking up the dry cleaning."
A top male corporate lawyer calls an aggressive woman financial journalist the C-word over the phone for simply doing her job by asking for comment on a true story they are guilty of that she plans on publishing the next day. He relents handing the phone to the company head for comment saying very dismissively, "she will not go away."
Matt Farrell sows distrust in the media by saying, "The news is completely manipulated. Everything you hear, every single day is designed by corporate media to do one thing only. To keep you living in fear."
Staff Aside
This is a false equivalence as right-wing and conservative media is way, way more untrustworthy and in many cases completely manipulated. And they constantly use fear mongering on their audiences. But this isn't the case with mainstream or liberal media outlets. Lumping them together is an example of conservative bias.
Monty (Ryan Reynolds) tells Dean (Justin Long) he can "get a job substitute teaching for r*tarded kids or something" after he asked what type of job he could get with an Associates Degree.
Yuri quips, "It's like parking your car in certain neighborhoods in the Bronx. You don't do it." before African locals completely disassembled his crashed cargo plane for parts overnight.
When Joey asks his Dad about his homework assignment, "why is the American government the best government?" Nick responds jokingly, "because of our endless appeals system."
Staff Aside
Conservatives favor restricting most all rights (except guns) including those who are accused or convicted of crimes whereas Democrats are defenders of freedom. They also are critical of defense lawyers. So a joke about endless appeals resonates with conservatives.
Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes) is depicted as an unethical reporter who sleeps with Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) to get information from him on a story on his lobbying for the tobacco industry. He never said anything was off the record but just assumed so when they were having sex. He attacks her in the media and she loses her job because of it and is shown in the end stuck doing a weather report in a very bad storm. Joey later adds, "Mom says it's because you have dependency issues and it was all just a matter of time before you threw it all away on some tramp."
The entire movie glamorizes smoking and ends with the conservative message conceding that smoking is bad for you, but that favors individual choice which includes education from parents over regulations against tobacco companies. As summarized by Nick Naylor in a speech before congress, "It's called education. It doesn't come off the side of a cigarette carton. It comes from our teachers -- and more importantly -- our parents. It is the job of every parent to warn their children of all the dangers of the world including cigarettes so that one day when they get older, they can choose for themselves."
Staff Aside
The movie is satire and Nick Naylor quits his job as a tobacco lobbyist at the end. But the movie only "concedes" the message that smoking is bad for you which everyone already knows. And the conservative message of trusting individuals to make the right choice wrt smoking is promoted. And the movies was funded\backed by Libertarians.
Thank You for Smoking (2005) A Senator from Vermont actually named Ortolan Finistirre is used as a liberal foil throughout with many confrontations with Nick Naylor setup to make him and his staff look bad including using false equivalences to depict him as being hypocritical.
Hollywood power broker Jeff Megall (Rob Lowe) and his assistant Jack (Adam Brody) are satirized as overly eccentric with a video of a great white shark eating a seal in the lobby and a carefully taken care of Japanese zen garden.
A woman asks Andy (Steve Carell) "are you f*cking r#tarded? What the hell is the matter with you?" after he asks her the same question twice during a round of speed dating.
Staff Aside
Cal (Seth Rogan) told him to "just ask questions" and apparently he took that literally.
40 Tropes
40 Movies
17 TV Shows
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