I understand that “some” people don’t appreciate John Oliver’s caustic, witty Dimples of Truth around here. To that I say: you have no idea how brilliant he is!!!! I’ve been crushing on Oliver for a while now and I’ve got it bad. Anyway, Oliver appeared on CBS This Morning late last week and he was jokingly asked about Donald Trump and whether he would ever have Donald Trump on Last Week Tonight (Oliver’s HBO show). Oliver said, in part: “I don’t really care about him in any capacity. I don’t really have anything to say to him. He’s said everything he has to say. He has no internal monologue, that man… [he’s] an open book … that doesn’t have that many interesting words in it.” Which is a pretty good summary of Trump.
But since Trump has no inner monologue AND his numbers are falling a bit, he decided he should pick a fight with John Oliver. Trump tweeted this:
.@thehill John Oliver had his people call to ask me to be on his very boring and low rated show. I said "NO THANKS" Waste of time & energy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2015
I would argue that Trump probably hasn’t even seen Last Week Tonight and Trump thinks it’s just another late show, with traditional interviews and such. That’s really not the format of the show at all and Oliver doesn’t really “book” political interviews in the traditional sense (although he’s great when he does conduct sit-down interviews). So, obviously, Trump was lying. But watch how Last Week Tonight’s Twitter shut him down:
A couple of points…
1. Yes, we have a boring show.
2. At no point did we invite Donald Trump to appear on it.
https://t.co/qjpg9FLb0V
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) November 1, 2015
Yay! John Oliver for president!
Also: I never think Last Week Tonight is “boring” but it is often somewhat depressing. Oliver does long-takes on complicated subjects and he explains everything thoroughly and without “talking down” to his audience. It’s often fascinating and depressing, but never boring.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
LOL. Trump is such an embarrassment. John OIiver is the bomb sh*t.
This!^^^
The first time I saw John Oliver is when he interviewed Edward Snowden…been hooked ever since. That interview was the sh*t.
I’d been watching before Edward Snowden, MG, but you summed it up perfectly. I was blown away by that. (And everyone who hasn’t seen it should watch it. Here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVlyP4_11M )
It really was!
That interview for a split second made me on Snowden’s side.
Word!
Yes! I love this show. It has replaced The Daily Show as my must-see late -night show.
FOR ME TOO! I really didn’t like J.O. before his stint hosting the Daily Show, and he completely won me over. Sometimes the expected wackiness of being a correspondent does not align with the seriousness and moderateness required of a host. I love Last Week Tonight and that he’s made a news comedy show his own. Trevor Noah is good, too, but I don’t watch every episode of TDS anymore.
I’ve never watched it but will check it out now!
I already loved him, but now I love him more!
I have a question about an episode of LWTWJO. He did a segment about the band Laibach going to North Korea. Did he actually think they are fascists, or did he get their subersivness because I couldn’t tell from the segment?
I thought he was pointing out how they didn’t get irony or subversiveness or even the original evil.
Who didn’t get it? The North Koreans? I got that, but it seemed from the segment like he actually thought Laibach were fascist, which is totally missing their point.
Maybe I didn’t get him.
Anyway, I love John Oliver. I first saw him in an old episode of Mock The Week and he was funny even then.
I don’t understand how the Republican party is letting this happen. (I’m not a Republican but I respect them enough to be disappointed that they are not separating themselves from this man.)
Loved his Canadian election coverage.
That clip was totally on point. John Oliver is very witty and extraordinary clever. I think I might forever refer to him as “Dimples of Truth”
That was the best. With the Moose, Mike Myers on a snowplow and them throwing around Canadian dollars telling people not to vote Harper … Classic.
It really was the best. The only thing is I thought Mike Myers should have been on a Zamboni instead of a snowplow, but that’s just a technicality…
^^^ THIS! That is exactly what I told my friends – a Zamboni instead of a snowplow. But that bit was hilarious, and it was perhaps the second time I can ever recall (the first being Rob Ford) that any of my American friends have ever paid attention to the politics of my home and native land.
Me too! My husband got me going on his you tube clips. He’s great.
I feel like it may have helped the election go the way it did. He was pretty balanced about all three leaders, but Harper just does not come off well.
I adore this man (Oliver). His show is my go-to background while I work from home. I’ve watched the episode on Televangelism at least 20 times. Hi-larious…and depressing.
That televangelist episode is when I became a John Oliver believer.
call me out of the loop but who is this guy? Does he criticize all candidates or just GOP? Is it all political? I have a hard time enjoying one sided jokes but if he sees the idiocy of Democrats too then I can appreciate that. I can’t take one sided arguments.
Praise Be!
I could be wrong, but I think he criticizes everyone — and covers elections in other countries, not just the USA.
@kcarp he used to be on The Daily Show and filled in for Stewart as anchor when Jon was directing Rosewater. I’m wondering why John Oliver wasn’t offered the hosting gig. Granted, Oliver left Comedy Central well before Stewart announced his retirement….. Anyway, he’s on HBO now with a weekly show Last Week Tonight. He seems to focus mainly on topics (Medicare, statehood of American territories) rather than politics.
He hasn’t gotten into any of the candidate stuff because he thinks it’s silly to be discussing it when we aren’t even in the year when the thing (election) is supposed to happen.
Praise be! Send your seed! (but not actual seeds, in any use of the word)
Church of Perpetual Exemption!
My favourite recently was his one on the US school curriculum. It made me feel the teeniest bit better about the fools in charge of our education system!
How have I never found these on YouTube before??
@kcarp you really should see him he is hysterical, and he really isn’t one sided and mainly deals with topics in more depth. The absurdity of some of our laws and some politicians and yes not just the US either. Below is a link to his show on surveillance. I don’t think he was considered to replace John Stewart because he already had a lucrative contract with HBO. Love his answer to Trump too, don’t you wish they would
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVlyP4_11M
He covers topics. Last night he covered Medicaid expansion in four states holding gubernatorial elections tomorrow and presented the views of the major party candidates. Nobody was left untouched. His only points on the presidential election have been that it is way too early to cover something that won’t happen for another year. He has covered the Indian, Canadian, several South American, and some African countries. One candidate in South America (Bolivia) tried to start a Twitter war with him.
Praise be.
I adore his segments and his humor. If I were to list my favorites we’d be here a while.
And people don’t like JO? Are they robots programmed to be humorless?
Fascinating, depressing, never boring, and sadly, pretty much the most in-depth news program on television, which is a bad commentary on all the other news shows.
Nailed it.
I have to laugh – whenever someone dismisses Trump for the waste of space he is, his ego gets bruised, and out come the insults and lies about how everyone wants him. He is so pathetically predictable.
He makes me wish it was a part of our culture to throw shoes at a person as an insult. He would be awash in footwear. Donald Trump is the biggest bully and liar and far too thin skinned.
Yes. He’s the best.
And Lucy2, Trump really is the worst, so predictable and pathetic.
I’ve learned more about some issues through watching John Oliver than I would through most outlets. He is covering issues that the mainstream media won’t touch with a 10-foot pole.
Can we put our differences aside and go after the real problem here? The media is baiting us all! I am aware many don’t watch John Oliver so I will tell you it is not a talk show and does not have guests on to talk. Oliver has also said many times he cares nothing about ANY presidential candidates this early on. Now the media knows this, but they also know there are many who don’t. So they take a comment from Oliver, make it like he is personally attacking Trump, then show the quote to Trumps people knowing they have never seen John Oliver and knowing they will respond back before looking into the context of the comments. And just like that the media has a “feud” to get people to read their articles. They are manipulating all of us and we are all falling for it! Look at the arguments and hateful comments going on for no reason at all. How can you argue about a person you don’t know? I don’t watch CSI so I’m not gonna argue about who the best character is. The media is using our base emotions to manipulate us into fighting over bs! Tell everyone you know not to read this story, its nonsense and pits the people against each other for the medias benefit.
He’s the best. I love the episode on Paid Family Leave in America:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIhKAQX5izw
He’s NEVER boring IMO. All his points are perfect as they are delivered.
I saw that and thought the same thing too – Trump (or whatever unlucky soul is in charge of his Twitter account) clearly hasn’t even seen Last Week Tonight!
I agree about the somber nature of the topics he chooses to cover, but Oliver has an incredible talent for somehow keeping it humorous while also giving biting commentary.
My favorite are people who try to defend him by saying he’s “struck a chord” with Americans on the immigration issue. AS THOUGH IT HASN’T BEEN A TALKING POINT FOR THE LAST TWENTY YEARS. That’s like ranting about the problem of eating ice cream in winter because it is so cold YET SO GOOD, and if there was an easy way to fix that, don’t you think we’d have done it by now?
The ones claiming that he struck a chord on immigration are the same ones who haven’t noticed that they keep electing the “build a fence” guys who have failed to produce a single viable bill on immigration for numerous election cycles. Because if they did manage to pass something they would lose a party platform
He didn’t “strike a chord” so much as make outright racism apparently okay.
Also, Trump’s going to learn why Republicans have started to quiet the anti-immigration rhetoric – because it turns out that you can’t get elected when you appeal solely to white, straight, men.
Oliver should assume the throne….
I adore John Oliver!
Good for him. Someone was telling me this weekend about how “liberals” don’t like Trump because he “tells the truth.” I responded that there’s a difference between telling the truth and having no tact and/or filter. Adults have filters; three year olds don’t. And that’s exactly what Trump sounds like all the time: “oh, yeah? Well, you’re ugly/boring/stupid, etc.”
Ugh that’s exactly it. I can’t believe anyone would support trump even AFTER listening to him. How arrogant and idiotic are you? It’s like asking a Kardashian to be president. Dumb af.
To add to what someone told you I’ve also heard:
“They want to destroy this great country. They won’t be happy till the queers are fornicating in the streets for the children to see. They just want everyone on welfare primed and ready for when the govt. tries to make us all into communists”
Trump appeals to those people…says it all.
I think that’s the classic “argumentum ad hominem” and the last resort of those who have no cogent or relevant point of view. Trump in a nut shell!
What truth? He calls people names and says really stupid stuff.
Especially because he isn’t even TELLING the truth.
Trump doesn’t tell the truth. He’s a troller.
My two year old son makes more sense than Trump does.
LNT is a brilliant show! Trump is just revealing he resides in his “oblivious bubble” by knocking a show that’s getting wildly great reviews and a wide audience! I can’t see John Oliver giving this blow-hard any airtime and in my view that’s a good call.
I love John Oliver and Trump isn’t even smart enough to be a lump on Oliver’s backside!
Weirdly, I never liked him as a Daily Show correspondent but when he subbed for Jon Stewart I started to love him. Now it’s a full-on adoration.
Also “an open book that doesn’t have that many interesting words in it” is a brilliant description of Trump. And, incidentally, also of my narcissistic ex-boyfriend.
Agreed
Me too. He was great, Carlos Danger!
Me too! Something just clicked with him in the desk – maybe it was getting to see more of his real personality and humor, instead of the unfunny “British” stuff he did as a correspondent?
DANGER!
I agree… I didn’t like him as a correspondent. As a host, I like him more than Jon!
Jesus Christ, Americans. Positivity and platitudes are B.S. Oliver tells sometimes-difficult truths. Maybe if we faced these truths more often and did something about them, we’d actually have a better world instead of optimistically pretending to have a better world.
(Off my soapbox.)
I can agree with your sentiment but for better or worse we’ve got an (approximately) 50/50 split of ideologies in our country and a govt system intended to function best when we work together (which hasn’t been happening lately).
How do we move forward when half of us want to dig our heels in the ground and ignore all scientific data and fact in favor of appealing to fantasies and ignorance? That’s the million dollar question honestly.
What I can say is little by little we’re improving even if we have to drag the other 50 with us kicking and screaming.
Except Oliver openly says that he loves America’s optimism and positivity, as opposed to the cynicism that pervades a lot of Europeans politics. Americans tend to see things positively and believe that we really can get what we want through hard work. In many respects, that’s a great thing. Oliver has, however, pointed out that it can also allow crooks to get away with screwing others over, like when he talked about the wage gap. Our positivity can allow us to get taken advantage of, and that’s what he rails against. But I have never doubted that Oliver likes being here in America (heck, he did marry an American woman who saved him at the RNC). And he talks a lot about America’s virtues and positive attributes.
I agree with everything you say here. This is my favorite show currently on TV. I love JO. He’s brilliant and hilarious, and he does an amazing job of tackling really complex issues in a very unique and accessible way. Trump is a sphincter-mouthed buffoon.
I love John Oliver! He was one of my favorite TDS correspondents, and I was so excited about him getting his own show. He’s intelligent, insightful, and hilarious! What’s not to love?
+1000. I just love him!
And credit to his writing team too!
Funny story, I knew of John Oliver slightly separate from TDS and his work there when he did a comedy special about coming to the U.S. and how hard it was to adjust.
Then he got a stuffed bear in the mail from a friend as a gift. It was one of those bears you can record a message to someone in and when he pressed the button he heard, “You will die alone and scared in a country where no one knows you.”
He said it impressed him to think at the time his friend recorded that message in the shop that someone could have thought “This is either a prank or someone violent and dangerous threatening someone else…and they still took the money and gave that man the bear!”
That always tickled me. Add to it his amazing wit and I’ve always been a fan.
He always makes me laugh out loud. When he did the zoos in Denmark segment. I’m sitting there laughing how he’s approaching this horrible subject. Apparently Denmark has been killing animals in its zoos. I was like damn he’s brilliant.
I hate to be a voice crying in the wilderness, and I do agree that Oliver is witty and intelligent, and always has a cutting point of view, but I also find him smug and self satisfied. He is not always the smartest person in the room, although often he would have you think so. Maybe not the most popular of opinions but maybe in a field where the majority of people on news shows are toadying and sycophantic he stands above them only by virtue of having a caustic wit which he employs, in my view, in a pretty bleedin’ obvious way. I will now escort myself from the room.
I disagree. I think Oliver is far, far more measured that, say, John Stewart, who had a tendency towards hysteria or overblown ideas. For example, Oliver’s piece about the Hobby Lobby decision was pretty great. While he pointed out that Hobby Lobby was in the wrong for fighting some birth control coverage based on poor science, he also pointed out that Hobby Lobby is a standout in the retail world for paying all its workers well-above minimum wage, guaranteeing days off, among other benefits, and insuring all of its employees, even the part timers. That’s a good company to work for – as opposed to say, a place like Wal Mart, where the insurance plan covers all BC now, but most of the employees make so little that they can’t afford to pay into it. Having decent insurance isn’t too great if most of your employees can’t get to it. So basically he wound up saying, “The Hobby Lobby case isn’t good law and sets bad precedent, but it’s not this evil company that a lot of leftists and feminists are portraying it as.” It was even, honest and decent, and it made me like him.
I think part of your problem is you think he is a news show. Nope he is satire pure and simple. Some people, and on this site a lot of people, like it others don’t. I like that he satirizes one topic in depth, and yes it is smug, but it is his humor not for all.
I completely agree. “Smug and self satisfied” is a perfect way to describe him.
Johns pose in the top pic is hilarious but an attractive man he is not.
What a weird lie. Last Week Tonight isn’t a traditional talk show and very seldom has guests in the traditional sense. It’s not remotely believable they asked Trump.
I love john Oliver but as a New Zealander, he has totally got it in for our prime minister john Key. Granted John keys does some quirky-ish things but hes a pretty smart leader & as a country we are in great shape – our economy has been called a ‘Rockstar’ etc. I wish john Oliver would stop taking the piss out of him and lumping him in with dictators and despots.
You guys should check out his podcast The Bugle. He cohosts it with andy zaltzman and it is brilliant!
Yes, especially when John impersonates Colonial Brits. And don’t get me started on f***eulogies.
Best episode ever!!!
I love John O.
I love the way john oliver explained that, because it’s true. you interview someone and want to watch an interview because you what to know things about someone you dont’ think you know already-they have some mystery. trump has no censor, he thinks it-he says it. there’s no reason to interview him
I love Oliver. But this is also a classic business gambit. My first agency pres used it a lot. He’d send us after work to a reluctant or full on negative target’s watering hole to talk smack, on the agency’s generous dime. Nine times out of ten, he’d sign the target within a couple of weeks. 🙂
So, maybe not what it seems. It’s basically…how to get a date with the quarterback.
John Oliver rocks!! My teenagers even love his show! Recently I heard that they will be sunsetting the “no child left behind” initiative and I want to believe that he may have played a part in that, however small.