Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Loved John Oliver on Community and love him on this show. He's intelligent and sarcastic, and somehow manages to make topics that are completely horrific (e.g., the U.S. government's actions) not thoroughly depressing. I love how he will make fun of ANY political party; so many shows just spend their time panning Republicans, losing half the country as a result. Oliver must be a libertarian, because he very fairly simply makes fun of anyone who is doing something stupid, regardless of political affiliation. This is something that cannot be said of the unbearable John Stewart, or SNL, for example, but can be said of the awesome Lewis Black as well.

I also like his way of poking fun at the U.S. - it's not condescending or rude, it's just good humored teasing. The segment in which he shows the globe with countries marked as Not the U.S. is priceless.

Oliver's topics are well chosen, and his take on them is unique. I greatly hope HBO will continue this show as it's the best comedy late night hosted whatever genre you call this currently on TV.

There have been a lot of comparisons to the Daily Show so I decided to point out some important distinctions. Aside from what one can only consider Jon Stewart's showbiz fatigue, there are two glaring differences between the Daily Show and Last Week Tonight.

First, Last Week Tonight is not only fresher, younger, and therefore has more to prove (and has been successful so far), but perhaps most importantly its on HBO. At first the difference didn't really strike me, then they did a long segment on Comcast and Time Warner Cable that was not only eye-opening in an investigative manner, but is a subject you would NEVER see on the Daily Show, probably because it is ultimately a subsidiary of a subsidiary of one of those two companies.

Secondly, and perhaps less importantly, Last Week Tonight is not, like its title suggests, a weekly show. Just look at its episode air dates. I'm not sure why so much time goes on between two episodes, but as long as they keep up what they've done so far I'm looking forward to it.

Primarily I'm excited to see a comedy news anchor go after the things that have been off-limits for comedy central personas due to their network status.

Well first of all, I have always liked John Oliver. He is yet another talented comedian in a line of many others bred at the talent breeding grounds known as the Daily Show. For people who don't know, Oliver lured away the talented Tim Carvell, former head writer for the daily show, away from Jon Stewart. This was clearly a brilliant move and Stewart was nice enough to part with Carvell. Now that both Oliver and Carvell have a show on HBO with pretty much unlimited creative freedom, they are tackling the most important issues with a fearless tenacity that most comedians/hosts/shows can't afford to have. The reporting is concise and brilliantly edited, the delivery is sharp and witty, and the fact that the show is only 30 minutes long is long enough to hold most people's attention. Good job HBO on creating this gem!

The insane level of awesome energy John Oliver feeds the viewer can almost be felt! John cuts through the bullshit and touches on real news.

There's something about this show that I really genuinely like (and I'm an Australian). Perhaps it's the way most of us would like to already live in a world that does good and makes fun of the stupid and absurd, a bit like Japan perhaps!? Well John Oliver has us covered. Each week a much needed hit of vitality and rejuvenation gets subtly unveiled, then straight up sucker punched to us.

The views on issues are sublime, as though John has been on our planet in a future time of peace, then come back to help lube us all through the hole we're already headed for, the peace hole. The energy and views on the show are just like a pick me up to make us go a tiny bit faster.

I've just watched episode 3 and that episode alone sums up the type of people, media and just the general positive peaceful way I'd like to see humanity head.

10/10 for the sole fact we need to take a look at ourselves in a mirror and thankfully John Oliver's right there, holding up the mirror for us! If you enjoyed Chasers War On Everything, Newsroom, Real Time with Bill Maher or a slew of other 'younger trend news~ish' shows, I'd say this is well worth a look!

After the season finale of Game of Thrones, Veep, and Silicon Valley (whichever comes last), I was going to cancel my subscription to HBO. Now comes Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and I'm in a quandary. The history of television and big belly laughs for me is a rare combination. The best sitcoms every have mostly merely amused me. Laughing out loud so hard I can't stop and I have to get online and tell my friends to add this to their watch list is more rare than a lamb chop in Hell's Kitchen. John Oliver made The Daily Show funnier. It's great to see talent like that finally get its due share of hate mail.

So now, what to do... cancel HBO and pay $1.99 per episode to watch it on Roku? Yeah, that's how frugal I can be. But can I wait 24 hours for that kind of laughter? Therein lies the quandary.

I must take a moment to thank John Oliver and his creative team. Laughter is the best medicine. You're saving the planet--perhaps the multiverse. Boredom is hell. Torture is preferable to boredom. At least torture is something. So thank Fox for 24 hours of torture. But boredom will kill you to death. I didn't know what I was going to do after Dexter ended. Being Human relieves me for a few months, then it's agony. Hannibal comes along and I'm mesmerized for a few months, then I have to wait like a pregnant woman for the next amazing moment. OK, I admit, Wednesday nights in the summer are delicious because of the people who think they can dance. But you, sir, you are the kind of jester who comes along once in the history of an empire, and where would we be without you? Perish the thought.