See John Oliver Spend 30 Minutes Talking About How Much Elon Musk Sucks
Of course, because the subject is Elon Musk, it's impossible for Oliver to cover everything in just one episode of Last Week Tonight
Aux Features Musk
It’s been a long year. The Titan submersible getting crushed? That was only six months ago even though it feels like it must’ve been at least two years ago considering all that has happened since then. Elon Musk, especially, has been in the news constantly and rarely for anything positive. Yes, he finally managed to deliver 10 Cybertrucks, which is great news for Joe Rogan fans, and he cut prices on most of Tesla’s lineup, but he also made it abundantly clear over the last year that even if you like Teslas, you shouldn’t be giving him your money.
In fact, Musk has been in the news so frequently that it can be incredibly hard to keep up, especially when it comes to all the racist, anti-Semitic, transphobic and generally bigoted views he’s been pushing on Twitter, a site that Vox reports is now worth less than half of what Musk paid for it back in 2022. And for some reason, telling advertisers to go fuck themselves after they decided they didn’t want their ads to appear next to bigoted posts didn’t fix the problem. His behavior on Twitter is more than enough of a reason to want nothing to do with Musk, but as John Oliver explained on the most recent episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, the problems with Musk go a lot deeper than that.
Yes, Oliver dedicated more than 30 minutes of that episode to exactly how much Musk sucks and how dangerous it is to let a man who sucks that much have so much power and influence. Unfortunately, since it’s Musk we’re talking about, 30 minutes isn’t even close to enough time to cover every single reason Musk sucks. Unless we missed it, some important things like the widely reported racism in Tesla’s factories and Musk’s longstanding hatred of unions didn’t make it in. Trust us, though, the episode still covers enough to make it worth 30 minutes of your time (or 15 minutes if you speed it up).
Collin Woodard writes for Jalopnik which, like The A.V. Club, is owned by G/O Media.
63 Comments
Well, this article is misleading.
If you watch the episode, John Oliver explicitly states it’s a balanced take that’s going to piss off both fans and critics of Musk alike. And it is.
Furthermore, Oliver’s conclusion is while making the episode he was impressed by what Musk had achieved while also being horrified at how much people are relying on him. And fair enough.
All I can say is, I hope 2024 has more people relying less on hyperbole. But it’s going to be 202-fucking-4, so of course that won’t happen.
Is Oliver the weird nerd? Because he did defend Musk (to a degree) in the story.
Did you watch the segment before posting that meme in response? I’m no Elon Musk fan but the poster you responded to is basically right. To John Oliver’s credit this was more nuanced than a 30-minute crowd-pleasing torching. Save the meme for a more deserved Elon simp.
Yeah, if anything, I thought they painted Musk in a way too positive light. The piece seemed to buy in to the Great Man theory, which made me squirm at various points.
I think it more painted some of the things he’s done (mostly via just bankrolling), not the man. And they made a very specific point about “net” positivity. That he’s done a lot of very good things while also being a huge piece of shit and how doing a lot of good things doesn’t excuse all the bad things he is accountable for. And the final point being that if he doesn’t turn it around soon, any good he’s been even semi-responsible for will be overshadowed by his amazing toxicity
You might have a point here, thank you for your input. (That wasn’t meant sarcastically, it’s just hard to express sincerity on the internet.)
That Yarpie shitcunt is about as a useless as flyscreen tits on a submarine bull – without money. Money is literally the only thing he had going for him. No, he wasn’t a billionaire back in the nineties, but he still had more money than any of the actual techies he latched onto, and that’s the only reason they ever tolerated him. He couldn’t code for shit, just as he can’t design or engineer for shit, be funny for shit, be normal for shit, or even be vaguely tolerable for shit.
I normally like Oliver but he’s flat out wrong being impressed with Musk, aside from him being a shrewd businessman, knowing when to invest and hiring smart people. That is all he should be credited with, period.
He’s not a genius, he’s not a visionary, he’s not altruistic and he’s most definitely not a Tony Stark figure. He’s an incredibly flawed human that is far more terrible than good.
If it’s any consolation, Oliver did seem to say “impressed” begrudgingly. I’m no fan of Musk, but I’ll concede I haven’t invested like him, so he’s got me beat there.
Nah.
Yeah. I want to see a lot more investigation into whether the various amazing things Musk-related companies have achieved are because of Musk or if he just routinely takes the credit for the work of people he hires. I mean, I’d be shocked, I tell you shocked to find out that Musk of all people steals credit.
It’s already been debunked that Elon was responsible for a majority of the things he claims to have come up with by himself. Maybe he’s had a few of them by himself, but definitely not the majority that’s claiming. He also pretends to know so much about software engineering (he does not, there was a hilarious online forum call where one his own ex-developers challenged him on basic programming fundamentals and how Twitter is built, and he just left the call like a man-baby), rocket science (his claim to fame is that he changed the shape of the nose of the rocket, wahoo) and engineering in general (he has a bachelor of arts in physics, ffs).
He said, hyperbolically.It’s unlikely to be the year that the trend of ignorant people making incorrect claims about an article changes, either. It’s unlikely to be the year in which folks like you drastically improve their reading comprehension, either.
You don’t seem humble enough to admit when you’re wrong, so no point arguing with you or pointing out your unnecessary use of commas. Dismissed.
I have a question not related to Musk. The writer’s strike shortened the season of Last Week Tonight, as mentioned in the finale. So I’m left wondering why they didn’t just…keep going until they hit the normal number of episodes per season?
well it be up to the studio and how they handle contracts. contracts are up end of year. financials. etc needs to be “renewed” people have holdaies or or studio wants to save money. etc. etc.
I have a question not related to Musk:Why is The AV Club so dumb?
Why isn’t it dumber?
If we really apply ourselves, we can get there. Dream the dream, comrades!
Why isn’t it dumber?Hey man, the Kinja Caffeine Spider only has so many hours in the day to post stupid shit. Everyone else needs to get on board & help swamp this thing.
We can get there. Have faith!EDIT: Ah shit, someone already made my very clever joke.
Rest assured, you’re doing your part.
Because the year is over.
At the end of the episode Oliver lists some stories they meant to cover and gave me the ultimate validation: car headlights have indeed gotten brighter and are pointed pretty directly in other drivers’ eyes. It just seems so insane the auto industry lets this happen, I’ve assumed I’m just a crank. Guess both things are true, not just one!
zerozzzly. really wish they had done this one, instead of about 1/3 of them this year were extremly ultra amarica and like meh, totally unrelable for somone in quebec, and i like amarican poltics ones, but the ones abotu really obsure amarican things like. ohh well that just what the rest of us already know very well about the dumpsterfire its not news, or insiteful and was very dull. headlights on other hand are huge problem across north amarica. and should be worth while adressing as i’ve heard no one bring it up or deal with it. (vs food safty, medical saftty whaver, anyone not an amaircan KNOWS amarica is terrble for those thigns. its common knowage here)
Preach.
I’m Canadian and have no problem with the topics covered this year. I can relate to people in other countries.Good luck recovering from your stroke, btw.
I’d prefer this in whatever its original language was, because the attempt at English (either by Man or Machine) is headache-inducing.
It’s my right as an undereducated inconsiderate douche to aim my 75000 lumen lightbars at your mirrors.
Freedumb!
I wish someone would do something about it. And not just for my sake driving, but for my sake having every. single. conversation with my dad loop back around to the lights blinding him.
There was a very good YouTube video about it, at least tangentially. Basically, it went from “you must use one of these two sealed-beam headlights” to the Wild West because regulations haven’t caught up with the technology.There are other issues, like way more SUVs on the road than there were in previous decades and even misalignment in some cases.
I was just talking about this with someone last week. I HATE driving at night now, I live in a rural area where there frequently aren’t street lights and people are already driving around with their brights on; add super bright blue-white LEDs to that and I feel like I’m literally being blinded.
Judging by the reactions all over, record levels of incel rage semen will be choking sewer systems everywhere.
Musk is human garbage. There. Saved you 30 minutes.
tell it to Earth
You are human garbage. There. Saved you thousands in psych bills.
did you see Elon’s response? Of course it was basically “John Oliver was funny until he got WOOOKKKEEEEE”It’s illuminating to see Elon’s mental illness unfold in real time on Twitter and losing billions he deserves to lose, but his ultimate damnation is just the simplest thing: Elon is painfully unfunny. This is what hurts him when nothing else does, when he doesn’t care that his children hate him, it’s that he’s just not funny. And he tries so hard, which is part of why he’s not funny.
I’m kinda curious when he thought Oliver wasn’t “woke”.
that’s easy, up until the moment Oliver said the first non-worshipful thing about Elon Musk
When he was still doing Monica Lewinsky jokes?
Wokeism is a religion that leads to mental illness. There is no redemption arc; just constant self-flagellation and performing endless, impossible-to-meet purity tests.
It’s illuminating to see Elon’s mental illness unfold in real time on TwitterBeing a piece of shit isn’t a mental illness.
Being a racist bigot isn’t a mental illness. Stop tarring those of us who deal with actual mental illness with the same brush you use to discuss entitled, racist, transphobic assholes. They are not remotely the same thing.
fair, and I certainly don’t want to do the thing where someone says “it isn’t a gun issue it’s a mental health issue” and then defines anyone who uses a gun as mentally ill, but it can also be two things
It can be two things, but diagnosing mental illness is better left to the professionals. It’s enough that Muskrat is a plutocrat jackass piece of shit, which any of us can diagnose.
I think more than funny, Elon wants to be cool. I mean, did you seem him in his little bomber jacket and dog tags a few weeks ago? What a fucking dweeb. And I agree with you. It absolutely eats him up that even if he had a trillion dollars, he’d still be an unfunny, uncool dork.
I know, but I know and I know that what bothers him more than anything, more than aNyTHinG is that he’s not funny. It is that simple.
What everyone needs to understand, and I mean this seriously, is that coolness over aged 25 is exceedingly rare. Tom Waits maybe. I can’t think of anyone else. Thus, all the midlife crisis jokes aimed at Musk.
I find it ridiculous that people that are anti-woke are all ready to point the finger at those who they say are woke, and yet I’ve never met someone who called themself woke. I’ve been called woke and don’t call myself or even consider myself woke.
It’s like woke can only exist when it’s identified by the anti-woke. Seems counterintuitive.
when Neo got redpilled he was woke…en up. it’s all the same stuff that happens to them, that’s all that they can imagine happening to anyone else, they have no empathy or sympathy, you have to put them through the experience to develop that for them. We need more escape rooms. lol jk
Wait, John Oliver is a Wookiee?! I had no idea.
“racist, anti-Semitic, transphobic and generally bigoted views”lol… Do these words actually mean anything anymore?