Our battle against COVID continues to be at the forefront of our Scholarly brains as two of our top rec’s tackle that issue from very different, but both comedic, angles. A nightly host looks into the upsides and downsides of remote education while Trey & Matt sicc their team of crudely drawn puppets–a gang who often get to the heart of contentious issues–on both QAnon and the vaccination process. If even Eric Cartman can wear a mask, so can all of you (or at least respect his… sovreignty).

BRAD’S PICK:
South Parq: The Vaccination Special [Comedy, 8p]
There was a time, and it wasn’t that long ago, that a South Park special on something as relevant as the COVID crisis would be something that everybody would be talking about the next day. South Park may not have that cultural heft anymore, but you can can still expect the same biting satire and fart jokes. This special is an hour so it seems that the boys have a lot to say.

JASON’S PICK:
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Presents: Remotely Educational [Comedy, 8:30p]
In a rare move (first in the Trevor era), Comedy Central puts its tentpole show earlier in the day–in this case in prime time. In this four-part series, Noah looks at education while also examining the struggles children, teachers, and parents have had with the sudden adjustment to Zoom learning.

KATHERINE’S PICK:
The Con [ABC, 10p]
Tonight’s episode, “The Royal Con,” is about Anthony Gignac, who swindled Boomers in Florida by pretending to be Prince Khalid bin al-Saud. His undoing was eating prosciutto. “Scam Goddess” host Laci Mosley, who will appear on tonight’s episode, covered this on her podcast, so her re-telling is sure to be a delight.

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

• While JUCO’s do occasionally produce a Josh Allen or a Jimmy Butler, most of the players in the system will never come close to playing in the NFL or NBA. Netflix’s below-the-radar community college sports show which usually focuses on football, takes a stab at basketball this time around with Last Chance U: Basketball. The focus of this season is the East Los Angeles College Huskies, led by fiery coach and clear-cut star of the season, John Mosley.
• In Dealer, also on Netflix, the mockumentary trope gets an adrenaline-fueled twist as French music video director Franck decides to make a full-length doc on a local drug dealer who is trying to cross over into the rap world. However, when that wannabe MC gets caught in a turf war, Franck is deeply intertwined in the crossfire. The trailer does look quite thrilling.
• Netflix’s newest debut in the forced reality genre, Marriage or Mortgage, is somewhat less cruel and depressing than its title suggests, but it’s still depressing and ranks higher than zero on the cruelty scale. Couples are given actual money that they can spend on either a lavish wedding or an investment in shelter for their future.

• We’re heading back to peak Wayne Brady as he adds to his TV saturation hosting a game show that we have to admit is a pretty clever twist given how picked over the game show concept buffet is. Fox’s Game of Talents takes the 70-or-so-year-old What’s My Line? idea of guessing people’s profession, adding the twist that the panelists are introduced to multiple sets of odd job workers and have to guest from a list of possibilities which one is which.
• We can’t believe that we’re already up to the fifth go-around for The Masked Singer and while we’ve been feeling over it, we’ll admit the Russian Dolls outfit is kind of clever. We just wish we knew it didn’t hurt as bad as it looks when the mask came off–maybe “No celebrities were harmed in the filming of, dot dot dot.” Also, we love Niecy Nash, who is playing the role of Nick Cannon for at least a few weeks.