John Oliver is back and he’s mad as hell
A news recap from Last Week Tonight's first show back really puts the length of the strike into perspective
Aux News John Oliver
A lot’s happened since the writers strike first kicked off five months ago. Succession was still on, for one. But professional news quipper John Oliver didn’t get to talk about any of it, and now he wants audiences—and, more importantly, studio execs—to know that he’s “furious” about being so late to the punch.
Oliver opened Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight—the show’s first since the writers strike officially concluded September 26—by making up for lost time. In a wide-ranging and rapid-fire recap, Oliver covered just some of the biggest headlines from the almost half-year hiatus, including Trump’s mugshot (“He looks like he’s struggling to find Waldo on a crowded ski slope.”), Lauren Boebert’s Beetlejuice exploits, the coronation of King Charles (“the world’s oldest boy”), the Maui wildfires, Reddit’s meme-y use of Oliver’s face in their own protest (“To their credit, they used some pretty good ones.”), the cop slide (“cinema at its finest”), the Titan submersible (“Yeah, we missed that too! That was a weird few days.”) and more.
With one last dig at Fall Out Boy’s ill-advised cover of “We Didn’t Start The Fire” (“What else do you have to say? Nothing, Fall Out Boy!”), Oliver got serious. “I’d have loved to have covered all of these stories back when they originally happened. I wish so much that I could have told you these jokes at the time, but I couldn’t,” he said, before continuing:
Our writers, the people who wrote those jokes, were forced to strike for a fair contract for the last five months. And it was an immensely difficult time, not just for them but for everyone else working on this show and many others who could no longer do their jobs. And to be clear, this strike happened for good reasons. Our industry has seen its work severely squeezed in recent years. You’ve probably seen stories about writers and actors whose work you may even recognize, routinely not making enough to qualify for health insurance or afford basic needs, so the Writers Guild went on strike and thankfully won.
“But it took a lot of sacrifices from a lot of people to achieve that,” he went on. “And while I’m happy that they eventually got a fair deal and immensely proud of what our union accomplished, I’m also furious that it took the studios 148 days to achieve a deal that they could have offered on day fucking one.”
Still, Oliver hopes the strike encourages other industries, from baristas to auto workers to healthcare providers, to “find power in each other” and “take what the writers achieved and leverage it to win fair contracts for themselves too.” And, in case you were worried, the studios did at least allow the strike to end in time for Oliver to comment on one of the most sacred American traditions of all: Fat Bear Week. Thank god for that.
85 Comments
This is my first exposure to that cop slide story and boy, is it beyond stupid! Not the actual part where a cop got injured going down a slide (mind you, it is stupid, but I was never a fan of the “America’s Funniest Home Videos”/ Fail videos/ Darwin Awards nonsense), but the part where a bunch of adults just had to check out a piece of playground equipment because it was a Twitter thing.
You know, it really is insane, people’s desire to copy dumb shit they see others do on TikTok or wherever. But I have to remind myself that it’s not new. Remember people have been trying to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel because they heard someone else tried it for like a hundred years.I don’t know if I should or shouldn’t find it comforting that people have always been dumb as hell.
I find comfort in the mantra “50% of the human race has below average intelligence”.
Yikes, I don’t know if that’s comforting–those people vote and serve on juries. 🙁
And write moral opinion pieces for entertainment sites.
Somewhere, someone opined that “Juries are filled with people too stupid to get out of jury duty”. Wasn’t me, and certainly it’s an oversimplification that totally dismisses people who are actually motivated by civic duty, but agreed it’s not a comfort.
They do say that, but that’s not what I was saying. As a lawyer I’m always (even on here) telling people that trying to get out jury duty is the wrong move and that we should all be happy to serve this duty. My point wasn’t that stupid people are the *only* ones on juries, but they are on juries, just like they aren’t the *only* ones who vote but they do vote. It’s not comforting to know that if my life hangs in the balance I’m being judged a group half of whom can’t comprehend the forensic evidence.
So, as a functioning member of “the justice system”, how do you justify the pittance that is offered for actually serving on a jury balanced vs. the fact that people like me – consultants/contractors/however you want to define people in a “don’t work, don’t get paid” situation – stand to lose literally thousands of dollars a week if I serve?And don’t get me wrong, I’m not railing on my job here, I love what I do, and it pays me for not only being smart and experienced, but also being “available”. Which of course, I’m very much not going to be if I’m sitting in a courtroom. [and yes, that makes a simple “vacation” fraught with peril, but that at least comes with self-defined parameters whereas a court case has undefined parameters.And that doesn’t even touch on folks at the other end of the employment scale, working in an “at will” state or anywhere else where it’s “if you miss work you are fired” with no recourse.
I tend to agree with your desire to have juries populated by educated smart people (people who understand that lie detector tests are not based on any valid technology, that labs make mistakes, that cops and prosecutors and judges have a far too cozy a relationship because they know that they need to work together every day – far beyond the confines of any single case, that coroners and expert witnesses are at their core simply people … with every foible that implies) BUT you also have to acknowledge that there are many people who simply can’t afford it.The economics of the situation eliminate many of the people you want serving and I’ve never really heard anyone even attempting to propose a solution. A simple appeal to “do your civic duty” doesn’t put food on the table.
“So, as a functioning member of ‘the justice system’, how do you justify the pittance that is offered for actually serving on a jury”Why would it be my responsibility to justify that? Do you realize how many working parts there are to “the justice system” and how few have anything to do with setting the rate of juror compensation? That is nowhere within or even near the purview of my job. In fact, as far as I know it is set by the state legislatures. So, long story short, write your congressman.
Not the question I was really asking, but I worded it fairly poorly, so I’ll try again. You work inside the justice system. So you see things, hear things and are simply aware of stuff that the rest of us don’t have access to.I would imagine that your desire for smart people to serve on juries is shared by a decent percentage of your fellow “justice system people”.My question is more along the lines of “is the justice system aware that because of the economics it forces on jurors, they are doomed to NEVER attract the kind of people they want?” and, if so, is there any kind of “back channel” movement amongst your people to try and change it? Or, is it a bunch of people sitting around wondering “why don’t people want to serve on juries?” and doing nothing about it.Because, let’s face it. Yes, the public can write to whatever government entity sets the rates … and that will move the needle exactly zero. But, a broad spectrum movement rising up from inside the system might actually stand a chance of changing things.
Of course we’re aware of it? We’re not idiots. I wouldn’t know of any “back channel” things going on to change it, but I wouldn’t, as my job doesn’t involve court or juries at all. It’s a political issue, as I said, as the rates are set by elected officials. Make it an issue in your local elections. Nobody sits around and wonders “why don’t people want to serve on juries.” Everyone knows why people don’t want to serve on juries, and money isn’t the only reason. It’s also usually boring. A “broad spectrum movement” from lawyers wouldn’t make anymore difference than a “broad spectrum movement” from non-lawyers. Also, not all, or even most, lawyers operate in the court system. You keep using phrases like “your people” but the jury system is important to everyone. It matters for everyone. If you feel this strongly about it I really recommend that you start a grassroots movement. There’s a shortage of money for a lot of things. Lawyers are advocating for things like better options for children in state custody, and better prison conditions. I personally am working on getting people healthcare. Jury pay is not at the top of my list.
Rita Rudner, I think.
It’s probably greater than that. The upper bounds of intelligence bring the average up, but the lower bound is restricted to a level where you can at least perform life functions. For every Einstein, there’s 100 Joe Rogans to hit “Average.”
Thank god for the morons. That’s John Oliver’s target audience!
It’s what animals do. People are animals. I don’t say that pejoratively – just that a bunch of our baseline behaviour is rooted in the fact that we’re biologically social creatures.
I’ll allow it.
Exactly. And people have to get that. You can’t understand human behavior by just studying humans; you have to put it in the context of the behavior of other animals we are related to.
In the case of the slide I’m not sure it’s copying dumb shit, but just being really curious how the fuck the cop came out of that little slide going mach 2.
Fair enough.
Honestly, I think a lot of people don’t realize how much they subconsciously move to control their momentum. I don’t know the specifics of this slide, but in my youth I spent a lot of time in a local water park where I absolutely could have shifted my weight in such a way to get my body flying over the sides of some the twistier slides. Even as an adult, I once went down an extremely long and tortuous roller slide (made of a bunch of cylindrical rollers that greatly reduce resistance), and I got a nice long friction burn down my arm trying to slow down because my body went into panic mode when I realized I was going to shoot off the end. My friend who did it with me managed to control that impulse but came flying off the end skipping across the ground on her ass as a result. A normal, sober adult would probably unconsciously slow down using their body, but whatever led to that cop riding upside down probably prevented him from doing any of that.
I have memories of a long-defunct water park I went to as a kid, and the “fast slides” (paired side by side) wound up shooting me up the side of a curve and into the slide next to it.At the time I thought it was awesome, but yeah. Glad there wasn’t someone coming through when I landed.
Push the button, Frank…
To think, before social media we just had Cletus to shout out there was a tractor pull about to happen!
I’m one of the adults you’re shaming. I didn’t actively seek it out but I happened to be nearby so I went on it.
The slide was fun! If that gets you all in a tizzy, you need to rethink your life.
Apologies for questioning your life choices.
but the part where a bunch of adults just had to check out a piece of playground equipment because it was a Twitter thing.Hey now, I think we re-defined the word “adult” a few years back to be 26 years old right? (I have no idea if people checking it out were older than 26, but it seems like that’s about the age of people I no longer “get”)
Agreed on both parts. Although the actual slide clip is easily the funniest thing I’ve seen in weeks
Cops injuring themselves will never not be funny. I stand by that.
That slide does look fun, though.
It’s fucking weird.Also, our love of Dunkin’ is weird. It’s…definitely hot, brown, caffeinated water!#TeamHoneyDew
“The Spice must Flo-o-ow”.
Do other people not find this bit absolutely insufferable? It feels like a SNL skit to me: funny in concept, and maybe a little chuckle-worthy the first time they do it, but then it goes on and on and on and, good lord, on. Instant fast-forward.
glad he’s back.
The part where the guy from the ACLU is talking about how companies get paid for delivering healthcare to prisoners at around 8:20? He’s basically describing a full-risk capitation model – something HMO’s really like and something we always refused to participate in.
We who? The Tennessee state Medicaid program is a full-risk capitation model.
My Northern Illinois private Oncology practice. Full risk models are potentially suicide for oncologists. All it takes are a few people who need multi agent checkpoint inhibitor therapy, CAR-T, recombinant factor replacement, or just stem cell transplant and you are out of business. God forbid you find somebody with Gaucher’s disease who needs enzyme replacement therapy for the rest of their lives.
I see. In Medicaid it’s full-risk for the MCO, not the provider.
See, that makes more sense. I’m biased, but I think it is probably sound economically for a large organization to take on risk and spread it among 1.8 million people as opposed to asking a much smaller business and having them hope that one out of a few thousand people doesn’t bring down the whole company through bad luck.
It makes a lot of sense. Some other states do it too and it’s the best way to have a cost-effective program. We don’t have the providers take risk, but we do have different programs where they get rewarded for meeting quality benchmarks. As you pointed out, the providers never like a stick approach but they love the carrots.
I remember the days of dealing with Tennessee Medicaid with peds oncology kids. My favorite part was if coverage was denied we had a fax number to send an appeal to and they promised an answer within 3 months (that’s literally true — no email, no phone number, and tell the child with cancer to wait for a few months…).
It’s actually a federal law that says appeals must receive an agency response within 90 days, not a state law, and they go as fast as they can. So any state using managed care will tell you 90 days. There are ways to get an expedited appeal, however.
Thank God that now the late night guys can go back to ignoring Democrat criminality.
Flagged: delusional and incorrect use of grammar
Not to mention, standard right wing playbook – make wild accusations, offering no proof, as if just repeating a thing enough times will make it true.
Goebbels agrees. Also make it a BIG lie, not a small one. And every right winger who ever voted for trump now feels the need to defend that vote on the basis of something other than ‘I just hate black people, Hispanics and Chinese, uppity women, non Christians and homos and anyone who believes in science too much’. Also Jan 6 was an antifa plot, trump is a good person who never lies, sexually assaults or treasons and the Democrat party are the real traitors!
Yeah they really be covering DemocratIC criminality…..
name the crime
Every accusation from the right wing is a confession.
I’m sure “Gunner” (Subtle name—with a capital “B”) is trying to make some false equivalence between Bob Menendez and Joe Biden.Which would work ever so much better if it wasn’t that the Democratic Party was pushing for Menendez to resign despite his exiting taking out their one-vote majority, while the Republicans think he should stick around!
Child murder. For starters.
Pictured, at top from left: Farzad, age 9, Faisal, age 10, Zemaray, age 40, Zamir, age 20 Bottom, from left: Naseer, age 30, Binyamen, age 3, Armin, age 4, Sumaya, age 2.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58604655https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/us/politics/afghanistan-drone-strike-video.htmlhttps://theintercept.com/2021/12/15/drone-strikes-joe-biden-pentagon-kabul/#:~:text=Despite%20the%20notable%20reduction%2C%20at,civilians%2C%20seven%20of%20them%20children.
I think the problem you’ll find is that the Democratic criminals generally just aren’t as amusing as the Republican ones. There are exceptions of course, Anthony Wiener comes to mind but let’s be honest half the joke there was his name.Stuff like Mendez’s bald faced corruption just doesn’t have the same comedic potential as Trump’s inept attempts to commit crimes, Santos being a complete fraud* or Gaetz hiring underage prostitutes.*Still laughing at “I said I was Jew-ish.” That guy is a fucking national treasure.
The gold bars were a really nice touch, though.
Santos will come and go in office, but he’ll never leave our memory banks. How on Earth could you, his biography has to be titled Not Based on a True Story.
Go light a baconfat candle for Ashli Babbitt and cry about it, dork
Better than yours for George Floyd.
Only because right-wing criminality is more stupid more often.
Are we supposed to take this one-sentence bullshit of yours seriously? You couldn’t be bothered to elaborate even a little bit? Maybe link to something substantive? Why did you even post that comment?
Be honest… you feel owned. At least that’s what lil water pistol thinks.
You’re talking to an entire echo chamber that ignores criminality. I doubt most of the comrades here are familiar with Hunter Biden’s creepy crimes, the billions of dollars in leftist anarchist (they’re just an idea) attacks or the fact gender clinics in the U.S. are getting sued and are shutting down… This comment section is where reality comes to die.
That’s not fair. It aint Johnny’s fault that his 30 minute rants are only watched by minimum wage basement dwellers
The dude talked about Menendez, FFS.
The strike had been going on since before the coronation? That feels like it was ages ago. Man that was long.
Writer’s strike started May 2nd, King Charles’ coronation was May 6th.
Maybe I’m thinking of when the queen died? It feels like it was winter. What do I know, though.
I remember because I was semi annoyed that we missed one last Charles dig before the strike. Thankfully we got it here so I’m fully content.
How does everyone feel about him showcasing the A.I.-generated images over the end credits?
No one cares.
Sammi Byzanti is taking one full grade off the season as we speak.
It was part of a story/joke he told earlier so it’s fine and they sort of thing LWT does all the time. They’ve even showed AI images over the end credits before.
The point is it’s what other people have created regarding John Oliver, without John Oliver asking them to do so. That they’re made via AI is secondary at best.
You’ve gotta be a serious basement dweller to spend time makin pics of Johnny
How stupid are you?
Oliver? I hardly know ‘er!Has that been done before? Probably.
John Oliver is right; but when people go on strike, the company saves enough money to give the strikers what they wanted in first place.
That one senior citizen Republican Senator from Louisiana, Kennedy, talking about dildos, strap-ons, and sex acts was comedy gold, surprised that didn’t get a mention lol.
I wish he’d given some context for that, because it’s not something I was previously aware of.
John Neely Kennedy was reading from the book Gender Queer as part of an argument to ban it from libraries.
Thanks!
I’m glad they finally got their deal and could get back to work. I will miss the Strikeforce Five podcast, though – ridiculous how much it made me laugh!
Yeah, it’s frankly funnier than most of their actual shows (particularly Fallon).
Sounds like the writers are overpaid
The other hosts having to translate Fallon’s attempted questions during the Letterman episode was great.
John Oliver has been nuts for quite awhile now. Was that news to you?
Oh thank god. We badly need a brain dead woketard ranting for 30 mins about shit no one cares about
“That was a weird few days.” That is the funniest and most succinct way to describe the media frenzy around the Titan submarine.
So an annoying POS as usual