Image Credit: huffingtonpost.com
Disclaimer: This post contains strong language.
If you haven’t seen the hilarity and truth-bomber that is John Oliver and his show Last Week Tonight, I highly encourage you to do so.
Here’s the link to Oliver’s channel on YouTube:
Oliver started out in stand-up comedy. You may also recognize him from the very funny show Community.
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In July 2006, he joined The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as its Senior British Correspondent.
Admittedly, whilst watching The Daily Show, primarily in college, I didn’t like Oliver.
At all.
I thought he was immensely annoying!
Image Credit: ecuadortimes.net
Fast forward just a few years:
My, my, how things have changed.
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Oliver is fucking BRILLIANT.
He struck gold with HBO.
The show started on April 27, 2014.
The best way I can describe the show’s popularity:
Meteoric.
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If you take a few minutes and just casually scroll through the uploads on his YouTube channel, almost every single episode has at least two million views.
Two MILLION.
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And then, if you find his EPIC Donald Trump video, behold:
TWENTY-EIGHT MILLION views.
Yup, 28 million views since it was uploaded five months ago.
Wow!
Aside from his humor and parodies, he’s a major truth-bomber.
Since Al and I started watching Last Week Tonight every week, about a year and a half ago, part of me has immediately wanted to pack up, leave southeastern Virginia, and head straight for New York to beg for a job on his staff.
I love what he does:
Researches the shit out of a topic, and then makes fun of it. With facts!
Image Credit: imgur.com
Last Week Tonight airs on HBO on Sunday nights at 11:00 p.m.
New episodes are uploaded to the YouTube channel on Mondays.
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Here’s the links to a few of my favorite episodes:
- Journalism
- Televangelists
- Net Neutrality
- Sex Education
- Civil Forfeiture
- Standardized Testing
- Debt Buyers
- Stadiums
- Infrastructure
- Government Surveillance
- The IRS
Let me know what you think!
Did you watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart?
Do you watch Last Week Tonight?
If you haven’t seen it, do you plan to start watching it?
If you have watched it, let me know what your favorite episode is!
Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂
Hot Shot Headlines 
I have seen bits and pieces of John Oliver’s stuff, but we don’t get HBO, so I’ve never seen a full episode. I’ll have to check out his YouTube channel. I did watch Jon Stewart though! My favorite late night show is Late Night with Jimmy Fallon!!
We haven’t seen a full episode, either. However, most of his topical ones run about 20 minutes, so they’re a perfect length.
You and my mother-in-law would get along very well – She absolutely loves Jimmy Fallon! I wonder if I could surprise her with a trip to NYC and to see one of his tapings …
Take me with you!!! Lol!
Absolutely! Road trip!!
Yay!!
I’ve been itching to go back to NYC for several years. My husband’s never been!
It’s been a long time since I’ve been, but I didn’t get the chance to do much touring when I went. I’ve always wanted to go close to Christmas, or sometime near the Holidays.
I usually visited with my parents in the summers, but we went for Christmas in 2010 with friends. There was 20 inches of snow on the ground! The tree at Rockefeller Center was gorgeous. I really want to go back one Christmas, so I can ice skate!
I love the idea of ice skating, but I can’t stand on the ice. I don’t know what the deal is. I can roller blade. It makes no sense. Lol. So anyway, I will happily sit on the side and watch you as I sip hot cocoa! 🙂
Sounds good to me! Let’s do it!
check out his youtube videos! hilarious stuff
I LOVE JOHN OLIVER!!!!!! HE IS THE BEST!!!
I’m so glad I’m not the only one! He’s BRILLIANT.
He really is!!!
Do you have a favorite episode of his?
Plenty, but probably (on Last Week Tonight) it’s probably his Drumpf episode. I almost died laughing.
When he was on The Daily Show, it was the three-part gun control episode.
Oh my God, yes. Seeing “Drumpf” in your comment instantly made me giggle.
I’ll have to check out the three-part gun control episode – I don’t remember watching that one!
It’s on the Daily Show! To be fair, part of the reason I loved it was because a) John Oliver is just awesome and b) it was mostly set in Australia!
Awesome! I’ll have to find it!
He makes news fun! I didn’t think that was even possible 😀
Exactly. I studied Mass Media in college. I love what he does.
I would have loved to study mass media, instead went for silly engineering
Engineering is a fine field. I don’t have the math and science brain. I have the English and history brain!
thats nice! I have no brain at all and still I managed it :p
I know!!! And it’s fact-checked, which makes it better!
true that
I didn’t watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart when it was around. I kick myself for that choice every day now that he’s off the air. I didn’t realize how brilliant Jon Stewart was until he was gone. 😥
I do watch Last Week Tonight & I freakin’ love it. The things he has done are simply amazing. I loved when he bought up all the “dead debt” & just… let it go. I think HBO gives him a lot more leniency than cable networks would & it works out brilliantly for him & for us.
I can’t even pick a favorite episode. I do love the segment he did on Drumpf (& that he popularized calling him that!). But every time I think I found a favorite, the next show comes around & I have a new favorite.
It’s a perfect show for me, personally, since I find the news so darned depressing most of the time. He discusses serious topics w/the levity I need to be able to watch the news w/out crying.
I agree with you. I was raised in a family that didn’t watch Saturday Night Live, or anything like that. So, my introduction to comedy was in college. At first, I didn’t like The Daily Show – I thought it was silly. But, over time, both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert won me over. I was a mass media major in college, and the real media affected me very deeply. I made the difficult decision to not go into journalism or broadcast media because of the depressive feelings I felt, despite writing for the college newspaper for all eight semesters.
I can’t pick a favorite episode, either. I’m like you – I think I have a favorite one, and then the very next week, I love the new one as much as the last one.
I have my sources that help me stay in touch with the real world – CNN, NPR, and a bit of the local news – but that’s it. Everything else is massively depressing!
Thanks for sharing – You and I are a lot alike!
Oh, I was never allowed to watch SNL growing up. But I’m a wee bit older than you, so I -should- have looked into Jon Stewart when I had the chance. Darn him for retiring! Although, I started watching (through YouTube, of course) Stephen Colbert recently & Jon Stewart did a guest spot, which made me very happy.
It’s true – the news is 90% bad/sad/terrible, b/c sensationalism sells. I don’t blame you for not going w/what might have been your first passion/field of study. Sometimes reality is just very different than the presentation. I find that comedy – especially delivered w/a DELICIOUS English accent – really helps to soften the blow. It has really changed the field, I think.
Oh, trust me… Stephen Colbert & John Oliver aren’t my sole sources for the news. I help admin a political FB pg & I have to keep up w/my particular areas of “expertise” in preparation for my weekly posting day. If I had to guess, I must read about 100 articles a week. I’m fond of Huffington Post, but I’m biased. Plus, I don’t have to pay for it like the Washington Post or the NY Times. 🙂
I agree! We do have quite a bit in common!! I’ve quite enjoyed talking to you recently about … well… EVERYTHING!! 😀
I was thrilled when Stewart guest-starred on Colbert. It was the best!
Absolutely – Sensationalism has sold for centuries. It took off with Hearst and Pulitzer and their newspapers.
The Huffington Post is pretty good, too. I try to have a diverse set of sources, especially if I’m covering a significant topic on the blog. I know my writing and research studies have paid off in that way. I try to give my readers as much source material as possible, to educate them.
Same here! Thank you so much for being one of my readers, and for commenting so much. I really appreciate it!
Of course you want to provide adequate sources for postings. I merely share links & silly memes on this FB pg to which I’m referring, so I don’t need to craft it like a research paper. I often find myself reading provided links in the online news articles I read (which is how 2 minutes allotted to read an article finds me on the same subject an hour later), but I haven’t really written anything that required citing sources in a looong time.
I think it’s great that you support your positions w/sources, however. It speaks to your presentation of a solid argument/point of view. As to whether or not it will get people to learn things online… well… that is often beyond the writer’s control. 😉
I appreciate your comments too!!
You’re exactly right. I provide the resources, and it’s up to the reader if they use them or not.
Laura interesting blog, if you want to be amused go over to mine and watch few stand up comedy videos there! I also have john oliver in my miscellaneous section
Thank you for reading, and commenting. I’ll check out your blog soon!