Homage to Last Week Tonight – Edutaining a World of Shit

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John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight is a comedic review of political and social events and people from news and stories from the previous week. Airing late Sunday evenings on Home Box Office (HBO), Oliver covers the news with an investigative journalistic style that employs parody and satirical irony to educate Oliver’s audience on topics that he feels need attention in our social discourse.

Oliver’s style and delivery is demonstrated in this clip, from his main story “Coal.” In this clip, Oliver disputes a claim by the EPA Commissioner on coal jobs created by the Trump administration:

LWT is not simply an entertaining platform about current events. It is a carefully crafted commentary designed to educate and engage Oliver’s audience with fact-based clarity.

About

John Oliver is a British/American (naturalized) comedian with a heavy focus on political commentary. In 2006 he was invited by Jon Stewart to join the writers of The Daily Show (TDS) after Stewart was introduced to Oliver’s work by Ricky Gervaise. Oliver rose to prominence in the United Kingdom with his stand up comedy, political satire radio and podcast work.

HBO offered Oliver his own show, Last Week Tonight (LWT), in 2014 after Oliver guest-hosted TDS during the summer of 2013 while Stewart was directing his first film. An anchor was born.

After its 7th season, Oliver and his writers have been critically acclaimed every year since 2015, with 59 awards (out of 61 nominations) as listed on this IMDb site.

Oliver has a special fondness for pouncing on the media, likely carried over from his days at TDS, as can be seen in this short clip, also from “Coal.” He has special distain when there’s an opportunity to call out Fox news.

Fox News is not the only mainstream news media target – Oliver’s early days on TDS indicate his loathing of CNN also:

Strategies

As an educational platform, LWT and Oliver use several strategies to inform his audience on the topics he chooses to illuminate. When compared to other late night satire, LWT is is more than comedic commentary on the politics or social issues of the day. Oliver cleverly crafts his episodes to educate and inform his viewers to form lasting opinions. Click the link below to explore more.

Contact

One does not simply pick up the phone and call John Oliver, unless that one is Adam Driver.

John Oliver’s management agency is Avalon Management, and can be reached by email.

Oliver is also on Twitter and Facebook

The social media icons in the footer below are also linked to the LWT social media pages.