The 38-year-old daily show alumnus has taken blowing spitballs from the back of the room to a new level with his HBO show Last Week Tonight. Instead of pointing out the corruption of the politics we see every day on the 24-hour news channels, Oliver and his staff have applied the tools made famous by The Daily Show and The Colbert Report to the major issues left untouched by the mainstream media, even handling the most sensitive subjects of our generation like abortion (below).
The research, while somewhat opinionated, is some of the most in-depth journalism on TV, if not the most. Perhaps the most ambitious piece to date has been its episode on Government Surveillance where Oliver dissects all available information on America's privacy. Oliver held back no punches when it came to the re-authorization of The USA Patriot Act, the controversial act of Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2001, just one month after the horrific September 11th attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. The Act has been supported by some, opposed by some, and either misunderstood or neglected by the rest of society.
"I realize most people would rather talk about literally anything else," Oliver began, "like 'Is my smartphone giving me cancer?' to which the answer is 'probably,' or 'Do goldfish suffer from depression?' to which the answer is 'yes, but very briefly.' While this introduction is saturated in comedy, the message Oliver's conveying was simple: No one cares. This was later proven by a selection of street interviews whereby people were asked how they felt about certain programs and if they knew who Edward Snowden was.
Edward Snowden quickly became the main topic of the show, and, to the surprise of his studio audience and his viewers at home, Oliver revealed a secret interview he recorded with Snowden in Russia. "I know this is confusing, and unfortunately, the most obvious person to talk to about this is Edward Snowden. But he currently lives in Russia, meaning if you wanted to talk about any of this issues, you'd have to fly all the way there to do it and it is not a pleasant flight," Oliver continued, "And the reason I know that is that last week, I went to Russia to speak to Edward Snowden...and this is what happened."
Say what you will about comedians like Bill Maher, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and now John Oliver, but you can't deny that him and his staff over 530 million views that their YouTube channel has accumulated over its short 22-month run. Their editorial pieces are not just funny and compelling, but shining light and discussing some of the most important issues of our time. Further, even those who disagree with the opinions of Oliver and his staff deserve our attention because if we continue to avoid these issues, we are sure to be confronted with much bigger problems than we face today.
"That in which you run from will appear before you."
Anonymous
