Countdown with Keith Olbermann: Difference between revisions

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Introduced as ''Countdown:Iraq'', this hour-long show evolved into an opinionated [[Political Programmes|political program]] that saw itself as a left-wing foil to [[Bill O Reilly|Bill O'Reilly]], Sean Hannity, [[Glenn Beck]], et al. Stories were given in "countdown" order:

* "#4" was a slightly shorter political story.

* "Oddball": Short segments of weird news, first followed by "Best Persons" (originally called "Top 3 Newsmakers", segment scrapped in 2009), then preceded by the Tweet of the Day ([http://twitter.com/keitholbermann he gave in and joined]). Now referred to as "Time Marches On."

* "#2", the night's "Worst Persons in the World", a listing of three people/groups who've done or said something that Olbermann found rather ugly or reprehensible. Briefly suspended a couple of times, once in response to the Jon Stewart "Rally to Restore Sanity" (brought back after a fan poll, with a new [[Viewers are Morons|"Not Really"]] graphic) and once in the wake of the Tucson shootings (the show ended on MSNBC shortly afterwards, and Worst Persons was revived on Current). When a [[Guest Host]] fills in for Olbermann, there is a short political story instead.

* Finally, "#1", usually entertainment news or some other fluff piece. Sometimes this is replaced with a "Special Comment", a rather long diatribe reserved for when someone in (or seeking) a seat of power does or says something Olbermann considered ''[[Egregious|egregiously]]'' bad. During the final weeks of the 2008 Presidential Campaign, this became a more regular segment called "Campaign Comment". 2010 introduced "Quick Comments", which were [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|shorter and more frequent]] and which evolved into "Tea Time". Friday shows sometimes have "Thurber Fridays", a reading of a [[James Thurber]] story (sometimes relevant to the week's news, sometimes not).

Keith used to work on ''[[Sports Center]]'' and was the inspiration for [[Word of God|at least one]] of the anchors on ''[[Sports Night]]''.

 

 

 

 

{{tropelist}}

* [[Arch Enemy]]: [[Bill O Reilly]] and [[Glenn Beck]].

* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: The list of "Muslim Countries Obama Continues To Refuse To Bomb (So Far)" in the [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#38824355 parody of Obama Muslim conspiracy theories]:

[[It Makes Sense in Context|Dearborn, Michigan]] }}

* [[Backhanded Apology]]: He did this in his statement on Twitter about his firing from Current TV:

* [[Berserk Button]]: Hard to pick just one. Keith is infamous for his bad temper and perfectionism, which has cost him a lot of friendships. [[Emphasize Everything|He gets worked up about pretty much everything,]] from bad plays in a baseball game to horrible political scandals, which sometimes makes it difficult to take all of his anger seriously.

* [[Big Good]]: To Keith, this would probably be [[Barack Obama]]. Most emphasized during the 2008 campaign, but still standing. Others to him would be Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, and Elizabeth Warren.

* [[Channel Hop]]: [[MSNBC]] to [[Current TV]].

* [[Clip Show]]: A couple were done, mostly when his father was in the hospital, and at least one hour-long episode of his Special Comments. Also, the obligatory "Best of the Year" reels for the holidays.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: ''Newsweek'' editor Richard Wolffe, who showed up just so Olbermann could set him up to snark on the GOP.

** Keith himself, in many of the "Worst Person" segments and some of the lighter Special Comments, particularly the Campaign Comments. Certainly his [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|"Thanks, Dick"]] and [[Rollerblade Good|Rocket-powered Rollerskates]] lines qualified as snark, as was the reaction to Doug Feith's Pre-war consequences memo.

* [[Depth Deception]]: In [[Real Life]]. The reason Keith doesn't drive is that he hit his head on a subway door, and now has no depth perception when moving over 15 mph.

* [[Fan Nickname|Detractor Nickname]]: Too many, created and used by him, and often adopted by his fans.

** Sean Hannity: The Walrus, The Manatee (this one was actually coined by John Cleese and adopted by Keith).

** [[Rush Limbaugh]]: Comedian Rush Limbaugh, Boss Limbaugh, [[Government Conspiracy|Orly Taitz]] Limbaugh, [[Tokyo Rose]] Limbaugh.

* [[Drinking Game]]: Take one shot every time he calls someone a "racist" during a show, and you'll end up quite drunk.

* [[Dueling Shows]]: To The O'Reilly Factor. Almost literally!

** Also, unlike [[Rachel Maddow]] who likes the sport, he shares frequent enemy [[Glenn Beck]]'s hatred of soccer.

** When Keith was suspended in November 2010 for not clearing campaign contributions with the network, right-wing pundits Jonah Goldberg and William Kristol and recently fired CNN newsman Rick Sanchez, all of whom Olbermann has had on his Worst Persons list, actually defended Olbermann and attacked MSNBC for the policy.

* [[Executive Meddling]]: [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/business/media/01feud.html The deal] between MSNBC and FOX. Every person involved seems to have a different story about exactly what happened there, but whatever it was, it's over now!

** [http://www.tmz.com/2012/04/05/keith-olberman-sues-current-tv/ New revelations from the lawsuit show that it was more Keith being enticed by Al Gore to come over to Current from MSNBC than Keith getting fired, however.]

* [[Fascinating Eyebrow]]

* [[Follow the Bouncing Ball]]: "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8ebImnfQzE Dear viewer, this is our new logo.]"

* [[Game of Nerds]]: Keith is a huge baseball fan and historian.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: Literally, in a hurricane of euphemisms when interviewing the ''[http://www.twitter.com/shitmydadsays ShitMyDadSays]'' guy.

** Keith once used footage from CSPAN with cursing senators as justification for showing the footage uncensored — since they can't exactly go after him for showing live footage of ''the United States Senate'', even if they're cussing left and right.

** He expressed sheer joy that the new British government included a guy called Ed ''Balls'' and mentioned his name as often as possible that segment.

** Olbermann no doubt ''greatly'' regrets that he was on vacation when the Tea Party first came to national prominence, and missed out on participating in the initial MSNBC barrage of "teabagging" jokes.

* [[A Good Name for a Rock Band]]: "If there isn't a band called Crossing the Sex Line by next week, someone is asleep at the switch." — [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#31672262 June 30, 2009], on a quote by South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.

* [[Gray Eyes]]: [[Twitter|"gray, hint of blue - but gray"]]

* [[Guest Host]]: Several. Both he and Rachel Maddow started out this way before getting their own shows.

** This inspired Keith to utter an [[Evil Laugh]], as now (save for [[Chris Matthews]]' show ''Hardball'') all of MSNBC primetime is occupied by him and his former guest hosts.

* [[He Who Must Not Be Named]]: Keith. "It's like a [[One of Us|Voldemort]] thing, it's gotta be":

** [[The Unpronounceable]]: The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfiHtXAC1D8 real reason] Bill won't say Keith's name.

** This came to its logical conclusion when Bill did a whole segment with Bernie Goldberg on Keith getting fired, ''without once using his name''.

* [[Homage]]: Keith uses Edward R. Murrow's sign-off in homage; also, the theme is a remix of Beethoven's 9th, 2nd movement, which was the theme of ''The Huntley-Brinkley Report'' (precursor to ''NBC Nightly News''). He also reads a story from [[James Thurber]] to end the week after his late father and Thurber's daughter asked him to.

* [[Ho Yay]]: Olbermann is the most popular subject (along with [[The Daily Show|Jon Stewart]]) in the world of punditslash.

** There's ''punditslash?'' [[Brain Bleach|Aaaarrrgh!]] <ref>(But really, [[Rule 34|why are you surprised]]?)</ref>

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: Some of the segues from Oddball/Time Marches On back to news content before the commercial break can be pretty jarring.

* [[The Nicknamer]]

* [[Ominous Pipe Organ]]: Complete with [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]]'s [[Toccata and Fugue in D minor]], for "Worst Person in the World". Dropped when Olbermann felt the day's Worst was really [[Egregious]].

** Sometimes substituted with other music that he considers thematically appropriate to whatever offense the "winner" committed. This is a recent trend for "Worst Persons" that Olbermann considers to have done something genuinely bad, but not [[Egregious]] enough to forgo comedy altogether. For example, when [[Rupert Murdoch]] is the day's Worst Person (not an uncommon occurrence), he plays [[Star Wars|the Imperial March]]. (See [[Fan Nickname|Detractor Nickname]] section above for the context.)

* [[Screwed by the Network]]: He was presumably a little ''too'' left-wing for even MSNBC, although his problems with MSNBC president Phil Griffin are somewhat infamous.

* [[Self-Deprecation]]: When Bill O'Reilly circulated a petition to have him fired, Olbermann promptly signed the petition himself on-air, and got the hosts of all the other MSNBC shows to do the same.

** He's also named himself the Bronze in "Worst Person in the World" a couple of times after making a particularly bad on-air error.

** In the aftermath of his November 2010 suspension, Keith was visibly sheepish during his return to the show, and made a remark to the effect of, "I'd have expected viewers' vocal support and cheering to be directed to other high profile figures, like '''Chilean miners!'''" in-effect claiming he didn't deserve to be cheered on so loudly.

* [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]]: His rants can get there.

* [[Shout-Out]]: 1.21.11 - Keith's been [[Professional Wrestling/Memes|"future endeavored"]] by NBC.

* [[Take That]]: The purpose of the "Worst Persons in the World" segment, which went temporarily defunct after [[The Daily Show|Jon Stewart's]] rally made him realize the segment had become a platform for anger rather than satire as originally intended. Also the recipient of a pretty great one from [[Ben Affleck]] on an episode of ''SNL''. And about as good a one from [[The Daily Show|Jon Stewart]].

* [[Take That Me]]: Having a Worst Person in the World every single episode seems to lampshade Olbermann's [[Large Ham]] tendencies, and on one occasion (after the Jon Stewart lampoon mentioned above), he placed himself on that list, and has done so a few other times as well.

* [[Talk Like a Pirate]]: Whenever he quotes [[Rupert Murdoch]]. And when [[Revenge of the Sequel|James Murdoch]] got his first Worst in 2010, he got the voice too.

* [[Torches and Pitchforks]]: He would introduce "Worst Persons" with "Get out your pitchforks and torches", and the title of his recent book, a collection of special comments, worst persons, etc., is ''Pitchforks and Torches''. Funnily enough, many of the people named in this segment are being criticized because he thinks they're [[Hypocritical Humor|using violent imagery in invective]].

* [[Weirdness Magnet]]: A much higher than average number of Oddball segments come from [[Only in Florida|Florida]] or India. See also [[Widget Series]] below.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Nonfiction Series]]

[[Category:American Series]]

[[Category:TV Series]]