If you want to understand the Russia Ukraine War on a deeper, geopolitical level, there are two ways to do it: read and watch everything you can about the years-long tension between the two countries and what finally brought them to the violent conflict they’re currently engaged in. Or watch Fox News spin some serious pro-Putin propaganda and emerge with a totally distorted view of what sort of dude Vladimir Putin is.
In a desperate attempt to understand why, exactly, Putin invaded Ukraine, The Daily Show’s Desi Lydic decided to spend “648 straight hours” watching Fox News in order to get a stronger grasp on the situation—at least as the network that has brought us Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham sees it—and was able to “Foxsplain” it all in just under three minutes.
The biggest question, of course, is: Why did Putin invade Ukraine? The answer, Lydic says, is complex:
“Burisma. Critical race genders. Minnie Mouse in a pantsuit. Don’t believe me? Take a look inside the gender neutral bathroom in Hunter Biden’s laptop. This is happening because ‘President’ Biden is weak. When Donald Trump was president, Putin didn’t meddle in Ukraine—he meddled in America! Putin is strong and Biden is weak. America needs a strong leader. By the way: Why are we supposed to think that Vladimir Putin is evil? He’s not the one poisoning our children with critical race theory!”
As anyone who has ever tried to follow the illogical trajectory of Fox News’ thinking knows, there is no logic to it. And flip-flopping ideologies are part of the network’s trademark, though you’ll never hear one of their talking heads admit it—despite the fact that hours of video and countless transcripts of their previous comments exist, as Lydic demonstrated.
After stating that “Vladimir Putin is evil, I’ve always said that” then reiterating that she has “never said that Vladimir Putin is a handsome genius with a hottie’s body,” a clip from a week before featured her saying exactly that.
And like any true Fox devotee, Lydic has some pretty bold ideas about how we can put an end to the current situation between Russia and Ukraine: “We need to be sending cruise missiles! Chevy Cruzes, Penélope Cruzs, Norwegian Cruise Lines… Tom Cruises, Terry Crewses, booze cruises, Booz Allen, Tim Allen… Allen Iverson?”
You can watch the full clip, which is sadly not too off-base, above.