Last night, Jon Stewart and Larry Wilmore discussed the ad from the Mitt Romney campaign that seemed to feature almost exclusively white people in it.
LARRY WILMORE: Jon, this has to be deliberate. Do you know how hard it is to compile three minutes of footage shot in America, and not have any minority end up on camera? That takes a lot of skill! Take a look at this shot of Romney at a restaurant.
You move that camera two inches to the left, you'll catch at least one brother in a hairnet!
....
JON STEWART: Look, don't you think adding a few black faces could help Romney with the black vote?
LARRY WILMORE: Well, I guess it could help him with the black vote, the same way jumping gets you closer to the Sun. (wild audience applause and laughter) This election is not about the black vote. It's about the white vote.
JON STEWART: It's... uh... is that a thing? Is the white vote a thing? Is that....?
LARRY WILMORE: Absolutely, Jon! And back in 2008, Obama made a serious play for it. He went bowling, put on his mom jeans, threw his black preacher under the bus.
JON STEWART: He did the hope and change thing.
LARRY WILMORE: Yeah, that's right! You white guys love that stuff.
JON STEWART: Well, we do, it's very nice.
LARRY WILMORE: True, it's nice, which is why he won, with 43% of the white vote! But since then, he's inviting rappers to the White House, wife's growing collard greens in the garden, you know, he's getting all angry about the 1% and paying your fair share, and this!
BARACK OBAMA (1/19/2012): ♫ I... so in love with you. ♫
LARRY WILMORE: Perfect pitch?! White voters are looking around, thinking, "Was he always this black??" It all adds up to white flight, Jon. .... Look, point is, you're not losing the black vote, unless you do something crazy, like support gay marriage.
JON STEWART: (awkward pause) ....
LARRY WILMORE: What? He...?
JON STEWART: Nothing.
Video and full transcript below the fold.
Of course, sometimes a gaffe can consist, not of what you said or did, but what you did not do. Case in point, last week the Romney campaign released a 2½-minute Internet ad, showed Mitt Romney greeting supporters all across America.
MITT ROMNEY AD: To all of the thousands of good and decent Americans I've met who want nothing more than a better chance, a fighting chance, hold on a little longer. A better America begins tonight.
Aww, with the hug. What could Romney say? He craves human contact. He's a people... something. But critics are concerned that the ad falls short in one regard.
5/31/2012:
THOMAS ROBERTS: It's got the amber waves of grain, it's got all of that, one thing that it's being criticized for is its lack of diversity.
....
KAREN HUNTER: He's not running for the Presidency of the United States. Maybe he's running for the Presidency of Caucasiastan, or someplace that doesn't have anyone of color in it.
Fun fact about Caucasiastan, its top exports include golf shoes and Josh Groban.
JON STEWART: For more, we turn to Senior Black Correspondent Larry Wilmore. Larry, nice to see you. Larry, we saw this ad, this ad is three minutes long. There was not a single black person in this ad.
LARRY WILMORE: Well, no, no, no, not true, Jon. If you go to the tape, you'll see a brother riiiiiiiiiiiight... here! Wait, wait, back it up, back it up, back it up! Forward, forward, forward, forward, right there! Stop, right there!
Fifteen frames of the back of a black guy's head. Well, most likely black. Possibly Indian, could be my Persian friend Parsa, definitely not white.
JON STEWART: But that's a big oversight.
LARRY WILMORE: Oversight? Jon, this has to be deliberate. Do you know how hard it is to compile three minutes of footage shot in America, and not have any minority end up on camera? That takes a lot of skill! Take a look at this shot of Romney at a restaurant.
You move that camera two inches to the left, you'll catch at least one brother in a hairnet! Or how about the scene with Romney in the office?
You can't tell me there's no Mexicans just off camera emptying the waste bin. "Cut! Jose, get out of the shot."
JON STEWART: Larry, that's unfair. A Mexican could be running that business.
LARRY WILMORE: All right, I guess if it's a waste bin emptying business, that makes sense.
JON STEWART: Look, don't you think adding a few black faces could help Romney with the black vote?
LARRY WILMORE: Well, I guess it could help him with the black vote, the same way jumping gets you closer to the Sun. (wild audience applause and laughter) This election is not about the black vote. It's about the white vote.
JON STEWART: It's... uh... is that a thing? Is the white vote a thing? Is that....?
LARRY WILMORE: Absolutely, Jon! And back in 2008, Obama made a serious play for it. He went bowling, put on his mom jeans, threw his black preacher under the bus.
JON STEWART: He did the hope and change thing.
LARRY WILMORE: Yeah, that's right! You white guys love that stuff.
JON STEWART: Well, we do, it's very nice.
LARRY WILMORE: True, it's nice, which is why he won, with 43% of the white vote! But since then, he's inviting rappers to the White House, wife's growing collard greens in the garden, you know, he's getting all angry about the 1% and paying your fair share, and this!
BARACK OBAMA (1/19/2012): ♫ I... so in love with you. ♫
LARRY WILMORE: Perfect pitch?! White voters are looking around, thinking, "Was he always this black??" It all adds up to white flight, Jon.
JON STEWART: What?!? White flight?
LARRY WILMORE: Yep.
JON STEWART: So Romney's positioning his candidacy as...
LARRY WILMORE: The suburbs. That's right, Jon. It's a nice, safe enclave where white people can hike up their pants without worrying about being cool, basketball courts still have nets, you know, and people can say shit like this.
MITT ROMNEY (5/31/2012): What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
LARRY WILMORE: Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! And other people will know what that means! Now that's how you get the white vote! Well done, Mitt Romney! Meanwhile, Obama's still out there, posing with black people.
(sighs) God, we get it, you're down!
JON STEWART: I actually... I... I think that's his family.
LARRY WILMORE: Right, Jon, we're all related. Right. Look, point is, you're not losing the black vote, unless you do something crazy, like support gay marriage.
JON STEWART: (awkward pause) ....
LARRY WILMORE: What? He...?
JON STEWART: Nothing.
LARRY WILMORE: Jon...?
JON STEWART: Larry Wilmore, everybody. We'll be right back.
Jon then had John Oliver on to talk about the
story of David Cameron leaving behind one of his children at a pub.
Meanwhile, Stephen first
bemoaned astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson pointing out a mathematical flaw in
Prometheus, before talking about how the Catholic Church is
reprimanding a nun for writing about caring for the poor, and had on
Simone Campbell to discuss the issue.
He then profiled an actual product, the
Banana Bunker.
Jon then talked with London mayor Boris Johnson, while Stephen talked with Martin Sheen.