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I wholeheartedly support the writers and actors striking right now, they’re fighting the long overdue fight to structure fair payments in the era of streaming and protect against AI taking their jobs. Speaking selfishly, though, I must admit that the withdrawal symptoms from the cold turkey stop in Last Week Tonight episodes have been intense. I miss the once a week dose of someone telling the truth on TV without worrying about making it palatable for all sides, and then abruptly pivoting to absurdist statements like “Pandas don’t want to be here,” as in on Planet Earth. I know I’m not alone right now in missing John Oliver and his superlative, Emmy award-winning team of writers, so I take some joy in this story of Reddit activists protesting new policies… by flooding the network with photos of Oliver:
What the protestors are doing: Several of Reddit’s largest self-moderated communities, including r/pics and r/aww, have turned spaces that were once devoted to images of everyday life, or cute and cuddly animals, into what may now be the internet’s biggest repository for pictures of the comedian… There have been numerous pictures of Oliver posing in sharply tailored suits, and screenshots of humorous moments from his show. There is Oliver as a koala. There are images of his face superimposed on the Mediterranean fruit commonly used to garnish martinis (“John Olive”). And an AI-generated image of Oliver as a “Game of Thrones” character (“John Oliver Snow”).
What the company is doing: Reddit users are protesting a decision taking effect next month that will introduce fees for apps to access Reddit data, much in the way Twitter has erected a paywall for third-party access to its own platform. Reddit, for its part, is looking to bolster its revenue ahead of a rumored initial public offering. Reddit’s critics have said they object to the suddenness of the change, as well as the steep proposed fees, which are expected to force multiple app makers out of business… more than 6,000 Reddit communities went dark to protest the move, including some of the platform’s most popular forums, which claim to have more than 25 million members.
Reddit Co-founder & CEO Steve Huffman adores Elon Musk: Huffman has staunchly defended the coming move as necessary to help make Reddit a profitable enterprise. He has also sharply criticized Reddit’s volunteer moderators who are committed to the protest, describing them as out of touch and unrepresentative of the forums they lead. And he has praised Elon Musk for his handling of Twitter, citing the company’s billionaire owner as an inspiration for Huffman’s own business decisions.
John Oliver approves: In selecting Oliver as a main object of obsession, however, Reddit users are also appealing to a man with a history of wading into tech topics on-air and causing real-world effects with his show’s coverage. Over the past week, many Reddit users have expressed hopes that Oliver might air a future segment about suddenly becoming the face of the revolt, and perhaps feature their content on his show. Oliver has not committed to using any of the material, but true to form, he himself gave users his blessing to continue posting his image on Reddit and provided even more fodder for them to plaster across the site. “Dear Reddit,” he tweeted last week, “excellent work.”
Of course he would be covering this if they were on air right now! This is a man who has, over his Last Week Tonight tenure, seen the openings of the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant and the John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward. And this is the second time in the span of a year that Oliver has been inserted into the intersection of art and technology: just last August he wed a cabbage on air after learning there was a vast catalog of AI-generated images devoted to the subject (it was a lovely, if brief ceremony officiated by Steve Buscemi). Reddit’s CEO Huffman sounds like a dick and I’m sure Oliver would expertly read him for filth while also managing to raise funds for the app-owners who will suffer.
photos credit: Getty and Sara De Boer/startraksphoto.com. Screenshots of Reddit.com
This article has reminded me I need to reread my copy of A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo.
It’s pretty cute. I can’t get over how many John Oliver puns there are out there!
For anyone following r/place, it’s a fascinating look into how many angry users there are. Sometimes it’s hard to tell from the outside how much action is driven by moderators versus users.
I moderate on Reddit. A key piece many of the articles leave out is how they hamstrung moderators by removing the ability to use 3rd party apps.
They effectively made r/blind close as the app itself doesn’t allow blind people to moderate or interact with Reddit, whereas the 3rd party apps did.
Other issues include less ability to remove illegal content, catch toxic users and remove their ‘contributions’, and more.
The cherry on top is that Spez himself (Huffman) moderated a sub called jailbait before it was removed, and created a special award for a sexual offender.
The premise of Reddit has always been active mods don’t get removed. The top (first) mod can remove anyone below them. They have since gone back on this years long policy that they wouldn’t change even for major issues (top mod going rogue, to mod absent etc) before.
They’ve forced subs to reopen, against user and moderator wishes, cleared mod teams out, and have forced NSFW subs to change their rating to SFW.
The NSFW tag keeps advertisers away and those subs can’t be monetized.
Switching to John Oliver posting allows subs to protest while remaining open. Unlike staying private, changing to nsfw or other methods. So far.
Thanks for the context.
I unabashedly love John Oliver and LWT with my whole being. Like you, Kismet, I’m having prolonged withdrawal pains having not had new JO content for months and months.
If you are serious about getting a fix, John Oliver is doing a short standup tour with Seth Meyers. They are starting in Denver this weekend and finishing up in Boston at the end of August.
Correction! Only the New York dates are with Meyers. The rest of them are JO – solo!
I saw him before he was “big” at a little place in NJ. I literally had no idea who he was.
I don’t think I have ever laughed that hard.
I am sooooooo sad we don’t have John Oliver commenting on Trump’s indictments!!! It’s sad that I rely on a comedy news show for my actual news but John Oliver is the voice and view I trust most.
Sunday night with John Oliver was something of a ‘date night’ for my husband and I. We’d pour ourselves a glass of something and watch it after the kids went to bed. He and his team do such an excellent job on so many wide reaching topics in an easy to digest way.
Between losing ‘A Closer Look’ during the week and Oliver on the weekend, it’s been a lot of yelling at House Hunters here. @Kismet, you aren’t alone in your pain.
“Reddit users are protesting a decision taking effect next month”.
The decision entered into force on July 1st.
Very frustrating how we’re hostage of our tools, between the maddening algorithms and the loss of functionality everywhere. I find myself going more and more Luddite.