Countdown with Keith Olbermann: Difference between revisions

* "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."

* "#3" similar in scope to #4. Often, but not always, an under-reported story.

* 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).

 

 

Please use the [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement]] when adding examples to this page.

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

{{quote| [[Useful Notes/Iran|Iran]]<br />

[[Useful Notes/Libya|Lib]][[Harsher in Hindsight|ya]]<br />

* [[Cowboy Bebop At His Computer]]: There were times that someone thought they were the "Worst Person in the World" when they just got bronze or silver. One example that stands out would be Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who he named bronze, who proceeded to boast that he named her "the worst person in the world", so guess what? he put her on the list as bronze again. The bronze is sometimes reserved for minor offenses such as amusing typos and translation mistakes; Olbermann gave ''himself'' the bronze before. Most people finding themselves publicly displayed on a list of "worst persons", however, tend not to appreciate the joke.

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

** This attitude also leads to nicknames for the [[Fox News Channel]] and his right-wing rivals (see "[[Fan Nickname|Detractor Nickname]]" below) and the occasional indulgence in a mocking/sarcastic [[Evil Laugh]] when the right wing accuses the left one of something particularly supervillain-ish.

* [[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.

* [[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.

** At Current, Keith is a bit more unbridled and has taken to saying "God damn" a lot.

* [[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"]]

** The "Worst Person in the World" concept was lifted from an old [[Bob and Ray|Bob & Ray]] routine of the same name, originally [[Take That Critics|aimed at a critic]] who had given their stage show a vicious review.

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

** [[Crack Fic]]: Punditslash has a tendency to put him with Anderson Cooper. They don't often interact with each other or bring each other up ''that'' much, or hardly ever in fact.

* [[I Always Wanted to Say That]]: On one Oddball segment about the birth of a baby elephant, he says "I always wanted to do this" and then shows the footage of the elephant walking with its mother while playing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Elephant_Walk Baby Elephant Walk].

* [[Informed Ability]]: Any clip on [[YouTube]] titled "Keith Olbermann DESTROYS [insert Fox News commentator here]!!!" is usually too short and petty to be all that devastating.

* [[Large Ham]]: Olbermann, sometimes intentional and sometimes not. Probably comes from being a sportscaster.

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

* [[Parenthetical Swearing]]: Keith can make the word 'sir' sound unprintable.

* [[Pet the Dog]]: Despite his despise of Republicans, he seems sometimes to have a relative soft spot for his ex, [[Laura Ingraham]], despite her being O'Reilly's replacement host. He once compared her favorably to Glenn Beck and Brian Kilmeade on a "worst persons" segment they shared together saying, among other things, she wasn't an idiot. They still attack each other, but he sometimes doesn't seem to despise her as much as most of most of his political opposites, and he also condemned Ed Schultz on Twitter for calling her a "right-wing talk slut". Note that this did not once stop him from saying she "hated the troops".

* [[The Rival]]: O'Reilly, Beck, Limbaugh, Murdoch, Bush, Cheney, Palin, Bachmann, Cain, Perry, Gingrich, Levin, Gibson, and Coulter are the biggest. Sometimes it seems reciprocated, sometimes not; O'Reilly acts aloof and tries not to give him the time of day, Beck, Levin, Gibson, and Coulter make fun of him frequently, and the others are somewhere in the middle on that.

* [[Scandalgate]]: Every story in the (now retired) "Bushed" and "Still Bushed" segments and several others outside it, often to the point of (intentional) ridiculousness.

* [[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.

{{quote| [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucker_Carlson TUCKER?!?] [[Big No|NOOOOOO]][[Large Ham|OOOOOO!]]}}

** 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 (TV)|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]].

* [[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.

* [[Widget Series]]: Olbermann's "weird news" segments includes something odd happening in Japan on a relatively frequent basis.

* [[YouTube]]: At least one segment of Oddball/[[Serial Numbers Filed Off|Time Marches On]] usually features video from [[YouTube]]; also, <s>most</s> all Special Comments wind up there as soon as they air.

** Invariably referred to as "the internets", [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15387069/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/ definitely] in memory of [[George W Bush|a certain ex-president]] who in 2004 said "I hear there's rumors on the internets that we're going to have a draft" during a debate.