Author Topic: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (Read 13916 times)

Latenight Surfer · « **on:** October 21, 2014, 06:47:11 pm »

It's getting better and better every week and the content is also relatively fresh.

Each week it's providing us with material which are rarely news topics elsewhere but very important nonetheless.

Gods_Left_Boot · « **Reply #1 on:** October 21, 2014, 06:55:37 pm »

Quote from: Latenight Surfer on October 21, 2014, 06:47:11 pm

It's getting better and better every week and the content is also relatively fresh.

Each week it's providing us with material which are rarely news topics elsewhere but very important nonetheless.

Great show. Loved Oliver since his time on Stewart's show and I really like what he's doing there. The format and the fact that it's a weekly show is also interesting, allowing him to go more in-depth on delicate issues, rather than doing news of the day bits like Stewart and Colbert. Definitely something different. It's pretty obvious at times that both Oliver and the show as a whole are still trying to find their feet, but the results have been beyond the rosiest expectations.

Oh, and he's also a massive red, which definitely helps.

Latenight Surfer · « **Reply #2 on:** October 21, 2014, 07:21:37 pm »

A very good advantage that he has for sure over others should be his wife, who was an Iraq War veteran. So no surprise about the content there especially the latest episode but boy do they not do their research thoroughly before tearing new ones for every major corporation that tries to fuck people and that is their USP IMO.

Well let's hope he invites Hodgson onto his show someday.

Ray K · « **Reply #3 on:** October 21, 2014, 08:46:57 pm »

The Supreme Court with dogs this week is incredible stuff. I watched the raw ten minute footage and now think it's a work of genius.

At a time when long-form journalism is on the decline, and everyone has the attention span of a gnat with ADHD, to start producing long 12-15 minute pieces on unsexy subjects like net neutrality, or asset forfeiture, and keep them funny, engaging and important is a remarkable achievement.
He's undoubtedly the breakout tv star of the year. And deservedly so.
Kudos to HBO for allowing those pieces to be posted on YouTube too - all here on https://www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight

If you haven't watched it, you're missing out. Here's his take on FIFA during the World Cup

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/DlJEt2KU33I" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/DlJEt2KU33I</a>

oojason · « **Reply #4 on:** October 21, 2014, 11:59:34 pm »

Essential viewing - and also serves as a decent quality introduction to many varied topics - warts and all - that you may not hear or read about in the mainstream media.

Well in to him and his team.

Loved the Drone, Miss America pageant, Food labelling, student debt, on Ferguson and Police militarisation, the wealth gap, prison, and corporations on twitter episodes especially.

Corkboy · « **Reply #5 on:** October 22, 2014, 12:29:32 am »

And he's a Liverpool supporter.

Redcap · « **Reply #6 on:** October 22, 2014, 05:06:53 am »

His apprenticeship at The Daily Show obviously served him extremely well.

Jon Stewart will always be a hero of mine, but I think Oliver is taking the format to a new level by being that much more hard hitting. He's also not bogged down on keeping 24 hour news channels to account, which while always important and funny, can get a bit repetitive.

I worry a bit for The Daily Show. I know I've pretty much switched to Last Week Tonight since it's started.

Ray K · « **Reply #7 on:** November 13, 2014, 07:22:25 pm »

Matt Zoller Seitz's review of his first season on Vulture (edited)

John Oliver Is Outdoing The Daily Show and Colbert

I haven't watched an entire episode of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report in months. My disengagement coincided with the debut of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, which ended its first season Sunday night. Oliver's show gives me the same giddy charge that really great segments of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report once did. If you're a fan of those Comedy Central time-slot-mates, you share their embedded video segments not just because they're repeating your favorite bits of received political wisdom (which is a huge part of their appeal), but because there's a high level of craft happening from one minute to the next: clever writing, acting, editing, and graphics. But there's a big difference between those shows and Last Week: When I watch John Oliver, I feel as if some sort of progress is being made.

....

Oliver's brand of journalism (which is, of course, couched as cheerful Sunday-night entertainment) often has an actual, demonstrable impact on public consciousness, as when his segment on net neutrality caused untold numbers of people to crash a government server. At the very least, he's become a model for so-called straight journalists, particularly of the TV-news variety. We're told over and over that people won't sit still for news segments longer than about a minute, yet Oliver's showpiece explainers often run five, seven, even ten minutes without a break. Granted, they're not above using singing puppets to explain the prison-industrial complex, but hey, a spoonful of sugar.

...

Oliver's show threw a wrench into that possible outcome by taking core bits that once were the sole province of The Daily Show (the punny/smart-assed headlines, the "gotcha" deconstructions of political chicanery, the "Does this person I am interviewing know I am putting them on?" segments, the occasionally surreal imagery) and putting them at the service of education. I've watched every installment of Last Week since its debut. Every time, I've come away feeling that I've truly learned something. In an increasingly degraded journalistic landscape, that's an astonishing achievement.

full piece here

Rob K · « **Reply #8 on:** November 13, 2014, 07:48:37 pm »

I wish we had something over here as good as this and The Daily Show/Colbert.

10 O'clock Live is the closest(but also nowhere near as good) we've had recently and that's finished now.

Mouth · « **Reply #9 on:** November 13, 2014, 08:04:38 pm »

Quote from: Rob K on November 13, 2014, 07:48:37 pm

I wish we had something over here as good as this and The Daily Show/Colbert.

10 O'clock Live is the closest(but also nowhere near as good) we've had recently and that's finished now.

Well there is Screenwipe as well. But its only on once a year for a few weeks.

I don't know why one of the channels hasn't tried to do it. Its not a difficult format, it only has to be 20 minutes long and doesn't even have to be spot on up to date with the stories it covers. The Daily Show often features items from later dates, Oliver expands it even more. It doesn't even have to be daily, once a week, like Olivers show would be good enough. 10pm on a sunday would be a good timeslot.

Lone Star Red · « **Reply #10 on:** November 13, 2014, 08:34:13 pm »

Really enjoy Oliver's pieces. Don't get HBO, but I make a point to watch the uploaded videos on Youtube.

My ex was involved in the Miss America pageant crap, and it was the straw that broke the camel's back in our relationship because it was awful to be a part of (for me).

Needless to say, Oliver summed up my thoughts on it in his piece back in September much more eloquently than I did at the time.

SJL · « **Reply #11 on:** November 13, 2014, 08:38:05 pm »

Quote from: Mouth on November 13, 2014, 08:04:38 pm

Well there is Screenwipe as well. But its only on once a year for a few weeks.

I don't know why one of the channels hasn't tried to do it. Its not a difficult format, it only has to be 20 minutes long and doesn't even have to be spot on up to date with the stories it covers. The Daily Show often features items from later dates, Oliver expands it even more. It doesn't even have to be daily, once a week, like Olivers show would be good enough. 10pm on a sunday would be a good timeslot.

It has been done before, albeit very briefly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Late_Edition Remember watching it before I regularly watched the Daily Show, the formats were very similar.

ericthered10 · « **Reply #12 on:** November 13, 2014, 08:44:18 pm »

Its so good, the writing is excellent. And they really did themselves a favor limiting the scope of the show to once a week and for less of the year than Colbert/Stewart, it allows them to allot the amount of time needed to delve deeper into stories which generally unearths even more gold.

Colbert Report is amazing for its consistency of reaching high standards, and I've always been impressed at how they could manage to be so good so often, but after hearing Colbert talk about what goes into the process I have even more respect for the work ethics and intellects of everyone involved. It was a Slate podcast called Working; if you search "slate Stephen Colbert working" you should be able to find it, and it is 100% worth a listen if you are a fan.

Mouth · « **Reply #13 on:** November 13, 2014, 08:47:26 pm »

Quote from: Lone Star Red on November 13, 2014, 08:34:13 pm

Really enjoy Oliver's pieces. Don't get HBO, but I make a point to watch the uploaded videos on Youtube.

My ex was involved in the Miss America pageant crap, and it was the straw that broke the camel's back in our relationship because it was awful to be a part of (for me).

Needless to say, Oliver summed up my thoughts on it in his piece back in September much more eloquently than I did at the time.

She was a beauty queen?

TepidT2O · « **Reply #14 on:** November 13, 2014, 08:51:23 pm »

There's a touch of that's life about what he does....

KillieRed · « **Reply #15 on:** November 13, 2014, 09:20:28 pm »

It's really enjoyable. Needs to say " fuck " more

My favourite was the Scottish Unicorn, damn those Turkeys who voted for Christmas, that would be a fine national animal to flaunt at you lesser nations!

Lone Star Red · « **Reply #16 on:** November 13, 2014, 09:51:55 pm »

Quote from: Mouth on November 13, 2014, 08:47:26 pm

She was a beauty queen?

She was Miss Insert City Name Here and was a semifinalist or something in Miss Texas back to back years. Never was even brought up the first year we dated and then out of left field she wanted to do it. I put up with it for a while but it was horrifyingly awful, fake, judgmental, shallow, blah blah blah. Broke up with her and I'm much happier now with someone else who doesn't feel the need to be told by people who have no flipping idea who she is whether she's 'beautiful enough' or not. Sorry for the mini-rant. I could go on for a while. Can you tell I hated that shit?

Anyway, back to the badassery that is John Oliver...That pageant video was on point along with most of his other stuff.

Mouth · « **Reply #17 on:** November 14, 2014, 12:17:05 pm »

Actually, saying no one here is doing something similar, Russell Howard's show is in a similar vein and he is doing good stuff. Which is no surprise, as Oliver is his mate and something of a mentor to him, they were roommates when Howard was first getting into stand up. Both of them are reds as well, so thats another feather.

Quote from: Lone Star Red on November 13, 2014, 09:51:55 pm

She was Miss Insert City Name Here and was a semifinalist or something in Miss Texas back to back years. Never was even brought up the first year we dated and then out of left field she wanted to do it. I put up with it for a while but it was horrifyingly awful, fake, judgmental, shallow, blah blah blah. Broke up with her and I'm much happier now with someone else who doesn't feel the need to be told by people who have no flipping idea who she is whether she's 'beautiful enough' or not. Sorry for the mini-rant. I could go on for a while. Can you tell I hated that shit?

Anyway, back to the badassery that is John Oliver...That pageant video was on point along with most of his other stuff.

Ah well, I was just going to make dirty jokes. Never mind

Ray K · « **Reply #18 on:** February 18, 2015, 11:39:14 am »

John Oliver's been signed up by HBO for two more years, 2016 and 2017, with 35 episodes per year.
So he's definitely off the Daily Show shortlist.

Continuing to kill it on his show, pissing off Philip Morris tobacco this week, leaving them whining like a bunch of bitches.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/6UsHHOCH4q8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/6UsHHOCH4q8</a>

nicholasanthony · « **Reply #19 on:** February 18, 2015, 01:54:48 pm »

Comedy Channel must be kicking themselves they couldn't keep him around just a bit longer and be the obvious successor. He is indeed killing it at HBO.

Latenight Surfer · « **Reply #20 on:** February 28, 2015, 11:49:17 am »

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/2sWRXr2Yu9g" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/2sWRXr2Yu9g</a>

Back to form

Sir Afghan · « **Reply #21 on:** February 28, 2015, 11:52:46 am »

I only really know this fella from community but I've got an inexplicable desire to punch him in the face. I think it's because of his ridiculous accent.

Latenight Surfer · « **Reply #22 on:** March 10, 2015, 01:07:50 pm »

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/CesHr99ezWE" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/CesHr99ezWE</a>

Another decent episode this.

Wonder how many such territories are present around the world who have to fight for their rights from their parent countries.

IndianRed · « **Reply #23 on:** March 11, 2015, 07:31:05 pm »

Quote from: Sir Afghan on February 28, 2015, 11:52:46 am

I only really know this fella from community but I've got an inexplicable desire to punch him in the face. I think it's because of his ridiculous accent.

Eh, John Oliver's a Liverpudlian settled in the US.

Elmo! · « **Reply #24 on:** March 11, 2015, 07:35:49 pm »

Quote from: IndianRed on March 11, 2015, 07:31:05 pm

Eh, John Oliver's a Liverpudlian settled in the US.

Brummie actually but a Liverpool fan.

Redcap · « **Reply #25 on:** March 11, 2015, 11:34:51 pm »

Quote from: Latenight Surfer on March 10, 2015, 01:07:50 pm

Wonder how many such territories are present around the world who have to fight for their rights from their parent countries.

I thought the same thing.

Actually I'm surprised the Democrats don't care more about this. Surely there are some pretty handy electoral college votes in those territories.

Otherwise I think it's been a relatively slow last couple of episodes. The tobacco takedown was one of the very best though. I hope it'll return to that quality soon.

Latenight Surfer · « **Reply #26 on:** March 12, 2015, 02:39:24 am »

Quote from: Redcap on March 11, 2015, 11:34:51 pm

I thought the same thing.

Actually I'm surprised the Democrats don't care more about this. Surely there are some pretty handy electoral college votes in those territories.

Otherwise I think it's been a relatively slow last couple of episodes. The tobacco takedown was one of the very best though. I hope it'll return to that quality soon.

I think as long they can recruit the people in the army (that's the main thing) they don't really care about the rest of the right that are need to be given really.

Yeah your right though about the quality of the show, it hasn't been anywhere near the 1st season but I guess the 1st season was just too good than most of the other shows of that kind. I guess they will improve with time. I'd blame it on the lack of action in the world maybe.

Bruce88 · « **Reply #27 on:** March 14, 2015, 12:36:46 pm »

Best show around, even beats Jimmy Fallon's show for me, although you can't compare those two I guess.

Redcap · « **Reply #28 on:** March 25, 2015, 02:33:37 am »

Another decent episode, without being anything really special.

I wonder if this issue with fines exists in other developed countries as well. I'm sure the private probation agencies aren't around in Australia, but the escalating fines exist. They're probably not quite as punishing though.

Ultimate Bromance · « **Reply #29 on:** April 6, 2015, 05:34:42 pm »

Anyone seen last night's ep? How the fuck have they managed to swing that interview? Amazing stuff.

Latenight Surfer · « **Reply #30 on:** April 6, 2015, 06:08:37 pm »

Quote from: Ultimate Bromance on April 6, 2015, 05:34:42 pm

Anyone seen last night's ep? How the fuck have they managed to swing that interview? Amazing stuff.

Exactly.. I just saw that now and was completely surprised to see that interview. It really put things into perspective that interview.

Kudos the whole team..

Ray K · « **Reply #31 on:** April 6, 2015, 06:36:01 pm »

Here it is for those who don't have HBO/Sky, the piece on surveillance with an interview with Edward Snowden

<a href="https://youtube.com/v/XEVlyP4_11M" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://youtube.com/v/XEVlyP4_11M</a>

Kashinoda · « **Reply #32 on:** April 6, 2015, 06:39:26 pm »

For those unable to see the above video (so anyone outside the US)

You can install Hola internet extension for Chrome http://hola.org/ and select US so you can view.

Kashinoda · « **Reply #33 on:** April 6, 2015, 07:10:13 pm »

The interview with Snowden is fucking amazing.

Very clever too.

Some odd reaction to this interview on the web and press, seems many didn't get it. Even the likes of The Guardian, deary me. Apparently he was making Snowden squirm and was being two faced in the interview?

Do people not watch this show? Are people outright thick?

Latenight Surfer · « **Reply #34 on:** April 7, 2015, 12:11:14 am »

Quote from: Kashinoda on April 6, 2015, 07:10:13 pm

Do people not watch this show? Are people outright thick?

My sentiments exactly but it's not like most of the media don't know how Last Week Tonight works but they have to act dumb to attract the dumb people to create an agenda (If any).

Seebab · « **Reply #35 on:** April 7, 2015, 06:02:59 am »

While Oliver brilliantly dumbed it down for the masses to understand Snowden's explanations, by acting like a rude and obnoxious buffoon and interrupting him all the time, I thought that interview portrayed Snowden very well and he came out of it as humble, smart, patient and polite guy with an obvious desire to fight the status quo. While Snowden's methods may be questionable, his motives are good and I reckon Oliver admires that he is at least trying to change the world for the better.

Good job from both in my opinion.

wheresnemeth · « **Reply #36 on:** April 7, 2015, 07:14:37 am »

Quote from: Seebab on April 7, 2015, 06:02:59 am

While Oliver brilliantly dumbed it down for the masses to understand Snowden's explanations, by acting like a rude and obnoxious buffoon and interrupting him all the time, I thought that interview portrayed Snowden very well and he came out of it as humble, smart, patient and polite guy with an obvious desire to fight the status quo. While Snowden's methods may be questionable, his motives are good and I reckon Oliver admires that he is at least trying to change the world for the better.

Good job from both in my opinion.

I initially thought that Oliver was fucking up the interview but the way he eventually got Snowden to explain everything in terms that the average buffoon could understand was brilliant.

Rob K · « **Reply #37 on:** April 7, 2015, 08:19:15 pm »

John Oliver supercut

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/6wWmIcKtVI0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/6wWmIcKtVI0</a>

Ray K · « **Reply #38 on:** April 9, 2015, 04:34:32 pm »

John and Ed Snowden discuss password security

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/yzGzB-yYKcc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/yzGzB-yYKcc</a>

7777 · « **Reply #39 on:** April 10, 2015, 07:11:55 pm »

For anyone who watched last weeks

http://gchq.careers/?job=dick-pic-sheriff