Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah looked into why Instagram “sucks” lately, causing many followers to publicly complain about the un-usability of the app. “Everything is an ad, and your feed is full of people you don’t follow,” the Daily Show host said on Wednesday evening.
“Which is so confusing – I’m scrolling, and I start reading someone’s post and I’m like, ‘Do I know this person? Was I supposed to be at this wedding?’ And then you look and it’s like, ‘Because you follow your friend, we thought you might like a post from a stranger.’ No, I don’t!”
The app’s parent company Meta, formerly known as Facebook, was forced to respond publicly after, as Noah put it, “the royal family of Instagram stepped into the fray”. That would be prolific Instagram users Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian, who this week posted messages calling on Meta to “make Instagram Instagram again” and “stop trying to be TikTok”.
If you've been on Instagram lately, you may have noticed that it…sucks? pic.twitter.com/kXDMdB2GWO
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) July 28, 2022
Instagram’s chief executive, Adam Mosseri, responded in a video posted to Twitter, saying the changes, which promote video content over photos, would ultimately improve the user experience.
“Yeah that’s right, people, you thought Instagram was for pictures of your friends, well that’s over!” Noah said. “You were always bitching about brunch pics, now you’re going to be begging to see them!
“It seems like Instagram wants to get into the algorithm game, and that’s what I’m worried about because it’s going to change everything,” Noah continued, as algorithms are “only about engagement. They only feed you things that make you angry, that make you sad, make you horny.
“Now, the problem with that is that it all happens within a few posts. It’s an emotional rollercoaster,” he added. “It’s just like, ‘Ugh, I’m so mad about this random racist event, and I’m sad about all the poverty, and goddamn that ass is fine.”
Stephen Colbert
On the Late Show, Stephen Colbert started with the astronomically high Mega Millions lottery prize – $1.02bn, the fourth largest lottery prize in US history. “Think of what you could buy with all that money – a mansion, a yacht, a tank of gas,” Colbert joked.
The host also celebrated the announcement that the justice department is investigating Trump’s actions in their January 6 investigation. “It is about damn time,” he said. “At this point, the investigators are like the last people in the office to catch onto a popular TV show.”
According to the Washington Post, the department is looking into two central crimes: seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct a government proceeding, and potential fraud associated with the false electors scheme. “‘Potential’ fraud? It’s the ‘false electors’ scheme!” Colbert marveled. “You generally don’t call something a scheme and false if it’s on the level. No one’s ever said, ‘Barbara, I accept this ring, and I promise to love you forever, as part of my false marriage scheme.’”
In other news, Biden returned to the Oval Office after overcoming Covid and spending the weekend overcoming cabin fever. According to reports, aides stocked the president with at-home entertainment – video equipment, phone calls from his grandkids and a stack of books about Ireland. “When that didn’t work, they tried everything else he likes – a pile of old train schedules, the encyclopedia of taffy, a Reader’s Digest from 1952, a Post-It note that just said ‘Delaware’,” Colbert joked.
“Now that the president’s over Covid,” he continued, “he can happily skip to work with a spring in his step and get absolutely nut-punched by his approval ratings,” as the latest CNN poll found that 75% of Democratic voters want someone other than Biden in 2024, compared to about 51% in January. “Ah, the good old days, when only half of his buddies wanted to take away grandpa’s launch codes,” said Colbert.