Hello, buglers! John Oliver has a weekly show, "Last Week Tonight"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzheZlnz9TU

yeah the zebras thing was funny. It reminde me of something Andy and he would go on about for 15 minutes on the old Bugle.

I can barely watch this show though, since it's so much less funny than the podcast was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg5Ui6JwoIs

what a great way to come down from the mueller report

Feel like he's been on a really good run lately, I really liked the WWE episode.

yeah, that was great. very well-timed too

i had mostly written this show off but been watching the youtubes lately and he seems improved

Aw, I feel like he never had a dip in quality.

I really appreciate that they use this platform to do some actual useful journalism, I find the main segments really informative (and usually depressing)

yeah I think the show actually kinda works best when its not trying to be funny

I still can't look at this thread and see "hello, burgers!" and not get hungry.

okay, i like john oliver again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN8bJb8biZU

that ending was WONDERFUL

excellent.

We’ve gotten back into watching him again. It’s not as depressing as it was during the first two years of Trump.

my 15 yo kid- “cool, that’s the guy from _the love guru_, dick something-something, i like him. he made a live-action family guy skit.”

me- “it’s john oliver he does a mixture of news analysis and comedy.”

him- “ok boomer” *exits for school eating toast*

me toward closing door- “hey actually i’m not a boOMER!”

John Oliver as Richard "Dick" Pants

Forgive the thread spam, but I wanted to note that this show's 2019 season is nominated in the 2019 ILX TV poll:

ILX's Best Television of 2019 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends January 31

If you like this show and you'd like to see it have a good showing in the poll (running in February) all you need to do is submit a ballot including it and your other favorites (4 minimum, 25 maximum, organized by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail by end of day today. It'll take five minutes; get to it!

just watched the most recent ep (the one with no audience that's just in front of a white background) and man is it weird to see this guy do his thing with no audience response whatsoever

i actually found him less annoying doing this for some reason.

the colbert episode without the audience kind of was reminding me of Eric Andre.

I enjoyed that one. but I think Colbert is often better than his material

its definitely odd and kinda fascinating to see these shows that are heavily dependent on audience response (see also: the WWE) just plow forward with the same sort of scripts.

Definitely been enjoying his work during the last month

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf4cea5oObY

phenomenal

Really want to see this but they fucking block it outside of the US and the copies Ive found on YT have evasive edits in play that make it hard to look at.

as ever, crazy condescending with an incoherent thesis, but some interesting information/research and uncovers some new targets for justified outrage, but there's always this feeling from John that "I know how to fix this" and, no. No you don't

Really want to see this but they fucking block it outside of the US and the copies Ive found on YT have evasive edits in play that make it hard to look at.

if I point vpn at France or Netherlands I can usually watch it.

but there's always this feeling from John that "I know how to fix this" and, no. No you don't

???? this sounds like projection

If anything I think one if his trademarks is that he constantly underscores that he often does not have a solution and wishes he does, because he is heartbroken or furious. And barring that, he'll bust out a squirrel suit.

I do like the show but I have reservations. First that he always says things are brilliant or hilarious when I don't find them to be so, Second that I'm used to him being an English person on The Bugle and find his references to American culture strange and disconcerting, I get that he is reading a script but it just sounds wrong. Like the "Drumpf" episode, it isn't a funny joke anyway, and the bit about "the word 'trump' sounds impressive" is annoying because he grew up in the West Midlands in the 80s and I can assure you that the word 'trump' meant "fart" among kids in the West Midlands in the 80s.

drumpf was bad

i think the show's writing has sharpened in the past 1-2 years though, and (possible controp) the jokes have worked better without an audience

I liked how he ended the show by turning it over to the very righteous anger of a black woman protestor. certainly not saying Oliver deserves a medal for that or anything, but it does seem like the opposite of "condescending."

I agree with you Brad on both those claims: the first couple of quarantine eps were rough and awkward but I think it is better when he's not pitching the jokes to the back row

I don't fuck you's and suck my dick's from a talking head as some sort of performative validation of my feelings (or as instruction how to feel). That's what I find condescending

I really don't read him as ever telling you how you should feel, but rather, particularly in episodes like this, that he works from a starting point of trying to focus his sadness and rage and working from a point of empathy. But I don't see condescension in him at all. If I think performative condescension, I think Maher and not Oliver.

If we can’t all come together over saying fuck you to tucker carlson then what do we even have left?

fuck you i won't feel how you tell me

honestly thought the "Drumpf" thing was a parody of Krassenstein shit

i much prefer his show without an audience (even the small one he has). This week's was one of his best.

honestly thought the "Drumpf" thing was a parody of Krassenstein shit

― frogbs, Wednesday, June 10, 2020 9:54 AM (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Didn't it predate Krassensteins? I thought Drumpf was before he was elected president, like "this'll be the thing that ends his candidacy."

could be...I thought the joke was that none of the things that would've killed any other campaign had any effect on him, so the "this'll be the thing that ends his candidacy" thing was sort of a joke onto itself

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_(Last_Week_Tonight)#%22Make_Donald_Drumpf_Again%22

"Drumpf" was before Trump was elected. It was also the first time that show really addressed Donald Trump's campaign, having mostly set aside to talk about other issues at the time.

i agree about his quarantine episodes being better, and i think part of it is that it eliminates my least favorite part of the show: when it all develops into a big stage production at the end and there's music and props and costumes and fireworks etc

That was one of many reasons I tuned out for sure

The Police segment proves he's much more tolerable when he tones down the shtick by 75% or so

for as much as i complain about john oliver, i usually end up watching almost all the episodes each season.

Casting the Drumpf thing as a parody of tryhard #resistance shit is revisionism

that segment was tryhard without all that shit tbh
that said i think Oliver is far more good than bad, especially his work lately

idk y'all are probably right. maybe I just don't get British humor

that said yes the latest episode was very good and I think he works better now without the audience, unlike the other late night shows which just don't really work anymore

the facial recognition episode was terrifying. particularly the bit where it was able to find a 30-something news anchor's teenage photo

I've told this story in another thread but I was pretty alarmed when Facebook tried to tag me in someone's photo from the work Christmas party, despite the fact that A) I'm way in the background and B) we have no mutual friends. my 'hope' was that it's just using location data but even still that seems pretty questionable