• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - returns Feb 12th 2017

Status
Not open for further replies.
GraveRobberX

GraveRobberX

Platinum Trophy: Learned to Shit While Upright Again.
HOLY FUCK, this episode

Tears, so many tears from laughing so hard

He slayed on the Scotland Segment

The reaction to finding out the National Animal is a Unicorn and his mannerisms then following it up Top Hot Wookie and what the Fuck Grimace is

Fuck this Motherfucker gave good laughter burn, fuck my belly hurts
 
X

xbhaskarx

Member
I thought the few shows he had between the end of July and now were somewhat weak (so however many shows he did in August), but the last two have been back up to the earlier high standards.
 
M

Matush

Member
That Miss America bit was amazing. I don't watch any other Daily/Weekly shows, but this has to be the best one, right?
 
Z

ZenaxPure

Member
Matush said:
I don't watch any other Daily/Weekly shows, but this has to be the best one, right?
Click to expand...

By far the best, but, like I mentioned before in the thread it has more to do with the fact that stuff like the Daily Show is only about 11 minutes long where as last week tonight takes close to a full half hour to flesh out its stories. Way more informative and more jokes. It's not like the other shows are bad really (imo), just constrained.

Anyway, yeah, the Miss America bit was fucking incredible. Really weird to me as well because just last night I was talking to my friends about how fucking weird beauty pageants are and how they creep us out more than anything else.
 
B

backflip10019

Member
Joeku said:
Well, that ISIS response was something to behold.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was honestly taken aback by it. She must have prepared a response to it beforehand because I doubt someone can speak that intelligently on that subject as quickly as she did. But even if she did, it was a great response.
 
A

Akainu

Member
Wow, I didn't know you couldn't be married or have kids to be able to qualify. I think that is more messed up than anything.
 
M

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
I also thought the Miss America response to ISIS was more eloquent and solid than president Obama's... xD But yeah, wouldn't be shocked if they knew the questions in advance (even so, it was still delivered well, mind you) or all staged.

Fantastic segment, amazing how they actually did all the journalistic work. Seriously, LWT is more informative than many actual news reporting segments. Laughed so hard at the end when they parodied the whole thing with the two men. It's a fucked up tradition and I'm glad someone highlighted that fact the way they did.

Akainu said:
Wow, I didn't know you couldn't be married or have kids to be able to qualify. I think that is more messed up than anything.
Click to expand...
I can't think of any non-misogynistic justification for these rules. It's really fucking disturbing.
 
D

Dany

Banned
Probably an odd complaint but Last weeks seems more disorganized than colbert or stewart.

at least so far.
 
R

real_slime

Banned
Dany M said:
Probably an odd complaint but Last weeks seems more disorganized than colbert or stewart.

at least so far.
Click to expand...

I...totally disagree with that. Colbert and TDS often have segments which were clearly written last minute and the host can't believe they're saying, the interviews are often awkward and boring, and so on. Last Week Tonight feels more polished on the whole, fitting with the fact they are a once a week show rather than several times a week.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
- Rolling Stone cover article: John Oliver Is the Angriest Man in Fake News (short Q&A)

AzAi0xM.jpg
Click to expand...
 
C

Cornballer

Member
Also:

- THR: John Oliver's Talk Show Ratings Edging Out HBO Colleague Bill Maher
Five months in, Last Week is pulling an average of 4.1 million weekly viewers across TV airings and DVR, on-demand and HBO Go plays. That puts Oliver's show narrowly ahead of Real Time With Bill Maher's 4 million weekly viewers, according to HBO. Oliver, 37, benefits greatly from multiplatform views and time-shifting, but his show also performs well in its live airing in the unforgiving 11 p.m. Sunday slot, averaging nearly 1 million viewers (more than the first-run viewing of HBO's Girls and even outperforming The Colbert Report's recent nightly average).

Still, the war of perception is now fought online, and HBO has held little back in its pursuit to build Oliver's digital profile. Last Week's main story, which typically takes up 15 minutes of the show, is posted in full on YouTube after every episode. There, it is devoured and discussed — a rarity for pay cable content. For example, Oliver's Sept. 14 analysis of Scotland's unsuccessful independence campaign raked in more than 3 million YouTube views within a week of premiering on TV.
Click to expand...
 
D

Dany

Banned
real_slime said:
I...totally disagree with that. Colbert and TDS often have segments which were clearly written last minute and the host can't believe they're saying, the interviews are often awkward and boring, and so on. Last Week Tonight feels more polished on the whole, fitting with the fact they are a once a week show rather than several times a week.
Click to expand...

Well ignoring the talk segments, it feels like segments regarding miss america or isis go on too long and the jokes lose their punchline.
 
DJ_Lae

DJ_Lae

Member
Brawndo Addict said:
I figured Miss America was fudging the scholarship numbers but I didn't think it was to that crazy of an extent.
Click to expand...

I was blown away too.

A portion of my job consists of bending statistics to a certain message but it's more by omitting things rather than actually modifying anything.

The lengths they went to for that $45 million figure were astonishing - not only that, but actually coming up with that sort of weird logic in the first place. It's baffling.

Dany M said:
Well ignoring the talk segments, it feels like segments regarding miss america or isis go on too long and the jokes lose their punchline.
Click to expand...

As long as they stick to a couple of stories each episode I think it generally works. The one about payday loans from the other week, though, I felt went on for way too long.
 
X

xbhaskarx

Member
Joeku said:
Considering the general lack of talk of it online I'm surprised the ratings are so relatively good.
Click to expand...

What? There's a GAF thread about pretty much every John Oliver youtube segment. I regularly see them posted on my Facebook timeline. Who discusses whatever it is a drunken Bill Maher talks about every week...

Dany M said:
Well ignoring the talk segments, it feels like segments regarding miss america or isis go on too long and the jokes lose their punchline.
Click to expand...

It's not a comedy set, he's actually trying to educate people about what's going on in the world and doing a somewhat thorough investigation instead of just taking quick potshots that are easily digestible for the ADHD generation.
 
D

Dany

Banned
xbhaskarx said:
It's not a comedy set, he's actually trying to educate people about what's going on in the world and doing a somewhat thorough investigation instead of just taking quick potshots that are easily digestible for the ADHD generation.
Click to expand...

Haha really? That's it. The show needs to be faster and less informative to accommodate my disorder. :D
 
J

Joeku

Member
xbhaskarx said:
What? There's a GAF thread about pretty much every John Oliver youtube segment. I regularly see them posted on my Facebook timeline. Who discusses whatever it is a drunken Bill Maher talks about every week...
Click to expand...

Maybe it's just the circles I run in, then, but I still hear far more mentions of Colbert and Daily Show bits than I do LWT. To hear you say that isn't the case everywhere makes me happy, though.
 
D

Dommo

Member
Keasar said:
It was great definitely. Really dislike her, her views and everyone who agrees with her.

Drones bit is up on Youtube now.
Click to expand...

I actually teared up a little bit at the kid at the end describing blue/grey skies. Absolutely abhorrent. Petrifying.

And those ass wanks back in the press conference about the first drone strike. "We don't know who it was, but based on our information, we thought it'd be a good place to shoot." You don't know who it fucking was! How can it be an appropriate target!? How can you be so callous with life? Goddamnit it's disgusting. And furthermore you're just creating orphaned extremists everyday, growing up, conditioned to hate America and everything it represents. How can you even blame them? Sickening.
 
A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
On the surface I suppose drone strikes are similar to fighter jets doing bombing runs on similar targets, in that both can be carried out quickly and with little to no danger to Americans executing the strike. The difference probably lies in the culpability of those who order the strike, though, as a manned bombing run must require more oversight and approval (and much more cost) than a drone strike.

I guess we all just feel better knowing that we can kill indiscriminately with no human cost and little material cost to ourselves and with only a handful of people potentially knowing the strike even occurred, let alone when and where. As long as the CIA continues to post marginally important kills (top ranking Al-Queda/ISIS leaders and the like) they will continue to be justified, sadly enough.
 
K

Karu

Member
The bit on Karzai's relative was a bit... mean-spirited? Didn't like that one. Other than that the episode was okay.
 
Z

ZanzibarBreeze

Member
The Rand segment was really good. But I feel like the show's dropped significantly in quality beyond that. They struck gold with the long middle segments in the first few episodes (the Indian election to start with; can't recall what the others were) and it's almost like they've boxed themselves into doing this ten-minute piece each episode now. Drones, student debt... it's all interesting stuff (and is all certainly worthy of discussion) but it isn't actually funny, and those segments have had very few laughs.

It's fine to discuss those topics -- they're just failing at spinning comedy out of them.
 
I

Inferno313

Banned
Joeku said:
Maybe it's just the circles I run in, then, but I still hear far more mentions of Colbert and Daily Show bits than I do LWT. To hear you say that isn't the case everywhere makes me happy, though.
Click to expand...

Practically every monday, the main topic of last night's episode hits the front page on reddit. It's getting a ton of online buzz.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Succession Ending With Season 4
34
2K
thefool replied
HBO Original | The Last of Us | Part 1 OT | Endure & Survive
79 80 81 82 83
4K
178K
Pelta88 replied
‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Will Have ‘A Lot More Infected,’ Creators Address Complaints About Lack of Action
News 2 3
104
6K
Moochi replied
Lara Croft Crowned Most Iconic Video Games Character of All Time, According to BAFTA Poll
2 3 4 5
208
7K
ResurrectedContrarian replied
  • Locked
How The Last of Us became 'the greatest story' ever told in video games
Opinion Analysis 2 3 4 5
203
17K
Elysium44 replied
Top Bottom