real talk
Wrecking ball
‘Adam Ruins Everything’ takes aim at all you hold dear
By Breanna Henry
TV Media
Just don’t ruin television:
Adam Conover, have you no
shame? First he ruined free stuff,
and he continued on to ruin all
that we hold dear: animals, wed-
dings, sleep, Christmas, football
— even the internet isn’t safe
from Adam and the CollegeHu-
mor team!
Now he plans to ruin America
itself in the mid-season premiere
of “Adam Ruins Everything,”
airing Tuesday, Aug. 13, on truTV.
The show, which started out as a
YouTube webseries, first debuted
on television in 2015, and it has
been picked up for an increasing
number of episodes every season
since. Many of the laughs come
from the show’s self-awareness;
it doesn’t take itself too seriously,
and Adam knows his character is
“that guy” no one wants to have
at their parties. In an interview
with the New York Observer,
Adam said he worries that his
on-screen character is how
people actually perceive him,
saying, “... I learn something and
try to tell people in conversation,
but when I tell them, they are
annoyed.”
Adam is the son of a marine
biologist and a botanist, and he
has a sister who studies particle
physics — I won’t make any
jokes about how he has
a bachelor’s degree
in philosophy and
writes jokes with
his friends for a
living, but he has
poked fun at
himself, saying
that he is “the
only member
of the family
without a PhD.”
With this kind
of fam-
ily background, it makes a whole
lot of sense that “Adam Ruins
Everything” feels a whole lot like
“edu-tainment” for adults.
Thankfully, Adam doesn’t
just ruin the good stuff. He’s has
also ruined work and death,
and a special episode titled
“Emily Ruins Adam” dug into
the man himself. “Adam Ruins
Everything” is the kind of show
that has you laughing (either
with, or at the cast) one mo-
ment and saying, “Oh my!” the
next. Tune in for the fifth epi-
sode of Season 3, titled “Adam
Ruins America,” on Tuesday,
Aug. 13, on truTV. He hasn’t
ruined television yet — fingers
crossed Adam can let us keep at
least one thing sacred.
Straight up ‘stunner’:
Some might say entertainment
wrestling has had its day and
is past its golden years of pop
culture relevancy. My college
roommates, however, would
like to assure the WWE that it
has absolutely nothing to worry
about. Whatever the case may
be, many of those who make
it big in the the world of this
severely misunderstood sport/
soap opera also make it big in
the real world.
Think about guys like Hulk Ho-
gan, The Undertaker, Dave Bau-
tista, and who could forget the
beer-can-crushing, leather-vest-
with-nothing-underneath-
in-a-manly-way-wearing
Stone Co— whoops,
seems like that name
has a copyright. Sorry, Mr.
McMahon. Steve Austin
is one of the most iconic
wrestlers to have graced
the ring, and now he’s
treating USA Net-
work viewers to a re-
ality experience like no
other. Catch the
series
premiere of “Straight Up Steve
Austin,” airing Monday, Aug. 12.
Have you ever wondered what
a day in the life of Steve Austin
was like? Spoiler alert: it involves
a lot of driving trucks, drinking
beer, riding four-wheelers and
hanging out with a bunch of his
famous friends. In each episode,
Steve and a buddy take a trip to
a different American city, talk
about life and their careers, and
then have some old-fashioned
American fun.
Expect to see guests like
Gabriel Iglesias (“Magic Mike
XXL,” 2015), Cleveland Browns
quarterback and Heisman win-
ner Baker Mayfield, and fellow
WWE Superstar Becky Lynch.
Don’t miss it, “’Cuz Stone Cold
said so!”
Greedy for more: Stacy Ke-
ach (“Gotti,” 2018) has profiled a
whole lot of avarice since show-
casing con artist Barry Hunt and
the Maxfield Parrish art heist in
the premiere episode of “Ameri-
can Greed” way back in 2007.
Season 13 — and the 168th epi-
sode — of the show kicks off on
CNBC on Sunday, Aug. 11, with a
look at the recent college admis-
sions scandal, a.k.a. “Operation
Varsity Blues,” and I’m not sure
whether I should congratulate
“American Greed” for 12 years
of stickin’ it to the rich folks or
just feel a bit sad that there is so
much content for this series.
If you’re a fan of the show, I
definitely don’t have to tell you to
tune in, but if you happen to have
been cryogenically frozen or have
just woken up from a 13-year
coma, then you’re going to need
to strap in. “American Greed”
dives deep into the absolutely
wild things people will do for
money; from gangsters to fake
doctors, hackers to bank robbers
and every no-good scammer, con
artist and bribe-taker in between,
their schemes are laid bare by
Keach. Tune in to the Season 13
premiere and you’ll be talking
about it for days — just don’t
get any ideas. After all, most of
these people got caught.
Adam Conover
hosts “Adam Ruins
Everything”
20 | Screentime
August 7, 2019 | East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald
Late laughs
Conan
Democrats are invoking a
law that goes all the way
back to 1924. The law was
written by a middle-aged
Bernie Sanders.
Facebook is
introducing
a new
feature
where you
can select up
to nine Facebook friends
you would like to date. This
new feature is called
“cheating.”
In Britain, tests of English
river shrimp found that
every single one of them
had traces of cocaine in
their system. That explains
the No. 1 complaint about
river shrimp: it tastes like
it’s been awake for days.
Things are getting tense
here at Comic Con this year.
Earlier today, I saw
President Trump tell three
Klingons to go back where
they came from!
The Tonight Show
With Jimmy Fallon
It’s so hot, NBC has a new
show. It’s called, “Law &
Order: Sweaty
Victims Unit.”
Today is the
50th
anniversary of
the Apollo 11 launch when
we first went to the moon.
Back then, everyone held
their breath and no one
knew if we would make it.
Today, that’s called flying
Southwest.
We’re in the middle of a
giant heatwave right now
with temperatures in the
90s. It’s crazy out there! I
sat on a bench for two
minutes — when I got up,
my pants had grill marks.
Officials are telling people
that beer is not a good way
to stay hydrated, and that
you should drink water.
When New Yorkers heard
that, they were like, “OK,
Coors Light it is.”
Taco Bell just came out with
a new burrito that’s made
with the world’s hottest
pepper: the Carolina
Reaper. It’s for people who
walk into Taco Bell and
think, “How can I make this
bad decision even worse?”
I read about a man in
Belgium who just set the
Guiness World Record for
sitting on a toilet for 116
straight hours. He wasn’t
trying to break the record,
he just ate Taco Bell’s new
Carolina Reaper burrito.
Here in New York, the
humidity is close to 100
percent! It’s so humid,
tonight’s crowd is just last
night’s crowd, still stuck to
the chairs.
During a heatwave, experts
say it’s important to check
in on the elderly. That’s why
today, Bernie Sanders’
phone is ringing off the
hook.
The Late Show With
Stephen Colbert
I would like to
congratulate the entire
staff and crew of “The Late
Show” because this
morning we
received four
Emmy
nominations.
Of course,
the real Emmy
is the friends we made
along the way. Unless we
win. Then you don’t need
friends, ‘cause you’ve got
an Emmy.
Jimmy Kimmel Live
It was a big day today in
Hollywood, you know, the
Emmy nominations were
announced this morning.
I’ll say this —
the best
acting I saw
this year,
which did not
get nominated,
was R. Kelly in
that interview with Gayle
King. That, to me, was the
No. 1 performance.
“Chernobyl” racked up 19
nominations, including Best
Limited Series. As you know
if you’ve seen it,
“Chernobyl” tells the true
story of how a nuclear
disaster caused a whole
village of Russians to have
British accents for many
years to come.
This is what everyone is
doing right now — the
Face App. You take a photo
of yourself, and it makes a
very realistic-looking
picture of you as an old
person. Everyone is doing
this. Why, I don’t know —
if you want to see what
you’ll look like old, just
have children.