Countdown with Keith Olbermann: Difference between revisions

** 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.

* [[Every Episode Ending]]: "I'm Keith Olbermann, [[Homage|good night and good luck]]."

** During the Current version of the show, he also added "Congratulations for getting through another day of this crap." During the earlier days of the MSNBC version, it was "That's Countdown, thanks for being a part of it."

* [[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!

** 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>

** [[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.

* [[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.

* [[Insult to Rocks]]: When O'Reilly did a panel for Newsmax, claimed by him to be a de facto Ponzi scheme, Olbermann said that this was beneath even him; two days later, he named [[Self-Deprecation|himself]] third-worst person in the world... for insulting ''Newsmax'', following [[Our Lawyers Advised This Trope|legal threats]] over his use of [[Insistent Terminology|the actual phrase "pyramid scheme."]]

* [[Ominous Pipe Organ]]: Complete with [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]]'s [[Toccata and Fugue In D Minor (Music)|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.)

** He's also a fan of ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', ''[[The Kids in The Hall]]'', [[Eddie Izzard]], and ''[[Harry Potter]]'', and has quoted from any of these on occasion.

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

* [[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.

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and [[Self-Deprecation|mocked]] in a guest appearance on [[The Daily Show]]. Jon Stewart met him on [[Chat Roulette]], and Keith took this trope as far as humanly possible.

* [[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]].

** [[Actually Pretty Funny]]: His reaction to these lampoonings. He replayed both on his own show.

* [[Viewers are Morons]]: Replacing "Worst Person in the World" with "Worst Person in the World (Not Really)," which was meant to become something less strong, as though all objections were from people taking the blatant hyperbole seriously.

* [[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.

* [[You Make Me Sic]]: A significant portion of "batting practice" on [[Twitter]] was spent joking about typos in incoming tweets. (One won Tweet of the Day when a critic called him ''[[Critical Research Failure|Ken]]''.)