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| 3 | %% Due to his political stance, and his known criticisms towards GOP and right-wingers, the Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment is FIRMLY in place here. Remember to restrain your personal opinions from being on this page or there will be a massive FlameWar. Thank you! |
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| 7 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/johnoliver_lwt_keyart_final_5952.jpg]] |
| 8 | [[caption-width-right:300: A new episode every Sunday. Well, ''most'' Sundays. We'll be taking some Sundays off.]] |
| 9 | |
| 10 | ->''"Welcome, welcome, welcome to ''Last Week Tonight''! I'm John Oliver, thank you so much for joining me! Time for a quick recap of the week!"'' |
| 11 | |
| 12 | ''Last Week Tonight with John Oliver'' is a weekly satirical news program on Creator/{{HBO}}, featuring former ''Series/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart'' correspondent Creator/JohnOliver. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Each week, Oliver tackles some of the most important news stories of the previous week, and then segues into a longer segment where he takes an in-depth look at some important overall issue, sometimes ending the show with it, other times ending with another shorter story that has a lighter tone to it. Segments are split up by short, narrated sequences that either attack an outdated cultural item, or use a montage of clips of media personalities and politicians doing silly things. Interviews appear sparingly and from a variety of personalities. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Because the show airs on HBO, it has more creative freedom than a late-night basic cable talk show; and, in an interview on ''The Daily Show'', Oliver made fun of the fact he can curse as much as he likes without being censored. And with no commercials, Oliver has the full 30 minutes (and sometimes longer) to explore issues in greater depth. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the series, the official ''Last Week Tonight'' [=YouTube=] channel [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmKbqjSZR8TZMVP4UwUfCK9MA_vmP_-ZD uploaded the entirety of the first season to the platform, with "Seasons 2-8 to come, whenever [they] don’t have a new episode".]] |
| 19 | |
| 20 | ---- |
| 21 | !!And Now, These Tropes: |
| 22 | |
| 23 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 24 | |
| 25 | [[folder:Tropes A to G]] |
| 26 | * AbortedArc: The episode on "Stupid Watergate" ends with what would be the main segment, on the TSA, shortened to just three minutes but still featuring most of the research, weird background graphics, and Muppet penguins. |
| 27 | * AccidentalAesop[[invoked]]: John played a portion of ''WesternAnimation/CartoonAllStarsToTheRescue'' (as a depiction of how much of an Anti-Drug fervor we were in the 80s and 90s) before mentioning this: |
| 28 | -->'''John:''' [''Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue''] had a clear message to kids: "[[ComicallyMissingThePoint If you do drugs, all your favorite cartoon characters will show up and talk to you.]]" Is that what you want? Is that what you want?" |
| 29 | * ActorAllusion: Once referred to his show as "Sad [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing2019 Zazu's]] Mildly Interesting Explain Train." |
| 30 | * ActorRoleConfusion: |
| 31 | ** Parodied in [[https://youtu.be/7VG_s2PCH_c?t=512 the Vaccine episode]]. |
| 32 | --->'''John:''' Let's not sully the good name of Film/DeuceBigalow just because of something his portrayer Creator/RobSchneider said. That's like implying [[{{Film/Braveheart}} William Wallace]] doesn't trust Jews, or [[Film/TheNakedGun Officer Nordberg]] is a murderer. So, no, try and separate the two. |
| 33 | ** John called out Fox News for this during a segment on the February 2023 [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Ohio_train_derailment East Palestine rail disaster]], when a train full of toxic chemicals derailed in the Ohio town. After Rachel Campos-Duffy called it "an Erin Brockovich moment" and cited [[Film/ErinBrockovich the 2000 film]], Jesse Watters pointed out that Erin Brockovich herself (i.e. the real person) was currently in the town. Campos-Duffy's response was to question where Creator/JuliaRoberts was. |
| 34 | --->'''John''': [[BigWhat What?!]] What are you ''talking'' about? You realize Julia Roberts is an ''actor'', right? She was pretending, she's not actually Erin Brockovich! Also, I can't believe I'm the one that has to break this to you, she didn't actually [[Film/MyBestFriendsWedding ruin her best friend's wedding]], she's not [[Film/PrettyWoman a sex worker]], and she did not [[Film/SteelMagnolias die in a small Louisiana town in 1989]]. What the ''fuck'' is wrong with you? |
| 35 | * ActuallyPrettyFunny: |
| 36 | ** After criticizing Pom Wonderful's product in his series premiere, the company [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bml8KwCmob8 sent him a mini-fridge full of the stuff]] along [[http://consumerist.com/2014/05/06/pom-wonderful-sends-john-oliver-case-of-dog-juice-to-shove-up-his-arse/ with a letter]], concluding with the statement that they would take his suggestion of a pomegranate enema under advisement and that "what you do with the cooler full of Pom is your business." |
| 37 | --->'''John:''' …I seriously cannot think of [[SophisticatedAsHell a more elegant way to say]] "Here's a crate of our product -- go ahead and [[AssShove shove it up your ass]]." |
| 38 | ** Invoked by John when he admitted that Donald Trump was funny when comparing a bottle of water he was emptying to Marco Rubio's sweat and in a tweet where Trump wished the best for his haters [[CrossesTheLineTwice on 9/11]]. |
| 39 | ** He finds that the name of Mike Pence's pet rabbit, [[PunnyName Marlon Bundo]], is actually a pretty clever name for a rabbit. |
| 40 | ** After the show did a bit about buying stuff from Creator/RussellCrowe's divorce auction, Crowe responded by donating the money to an Australian zoo's Koala Chlamydia ward … on the condition that they name it after Oliver. The show added an entire segment in the next episode just to appreciate that joke. |
| 41 | * AdamWesting: {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in his segment of the Green New Deal and global warming, where John brings in Series/{{Bill Nye|TheScienceGuy}} and asks the latter to explain global warming using whimsical special effects in a manner similar to Nye's old show. Nye then goes into a [[PrecisionFStrike foul-mouthed tirade]] against the adults who grew up watching his show (including John) and fail to take his warnings on global warming seriously, much to John's displeasure. |
| 42 | * AdjacentToThisCompleteBreakfast: John compares the ineffectiveness of "FDA Cleared" certification to this trope, saying that even heroin can be part of a balanced breakfast if you put it with enough healthy foodstuffs. |
| 43 | * AdvertisingDisguisedAsNews: The subject of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_F5GxCwizc August 3, 2015 episode]]'s main story. The show humorously reverses it by having an actor advertising Diet Coke mention some then-current news items within the commercial. |
| 44 | ** A whole segment was dedicated to this trope, known as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIi_QS1tdFM&t=1s Sponsored Content]], which takes a look at this trope. He even makes a fake product called ''Venus Veil'', a blanket which promoted sexual activity and had it promoted on local news. One thing that should have tipped off anyone off in doing just quick research is "cutting-edge technology developed in Germany about 80 years ago" which was during ''Nazi Germany''. Oliver estimated the total cost of achieving everything at just $7,200. |
| 45 | * AnAesop: The segment on Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner explicitly concludes with one. John, et al examine the oft-repeated notion that Ivanka and Jared function as a sort of [[MoralityPet moderating influence]] on Donald Trump. After fifteen minutes of his usual snark, John implores the audience ''not'' to confuse the segment for an attack on Ivanka and Jared: he admits that even after thoroughly investigating them, he still doesn't feel he knows enough about either of them or their relationship to Donald to justify being critical, but asserts that that lack of good data on the subject means that Jared and Ivanka's defenders are ''also'' unjustified in blindly putting their faith in the idea that Ivanka and Jared can humanize Donald. There just wasn't enough proof yet either way. |
| 46 | * TheAllegedExpert: Discussed in the episode on lethal injections. Since doctors aren't involved in executions [[TheFettered for moral reasons]], people with little to no experience in how the drugs work are used instead (despite their claims to the contrary), with [[CruelAndUnusualDeath horrifying results]]. |
| 47 | * AmbiguousSyntax: {{Discussed|Trope}} when covering Chief Justice John Roberts' comments on Obamacare in the Supreme Court case challenging the legality of federal subsidies intended to allow lower-income residents to purchase health insurance at a discount rate. Using an example of the "inartful drafting" of the law's language[[note]]The case was brought to the Supreme Court because of confusion over the inclusion of the sentence, "established by the State," determined to be a reference to the government.[[/note]] that Roberts mentioned to point out that such snafus in language occur often, John shows an image of a banner used to support the [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball England women's soccer team]] in the 2015 Women's World Cup -- "Come On Our Girls!" -- pointing out that [[WantonCrueltyToTheCommonComma it really could have used a comma]]. |
| 48 | * AngerIsHealthyAesop: In an episode about North Dakota, John encouraged North Dakotans to be angry after discovering how much damage is being done to them by the oil industry. To encourage their anger, John produced a video encouraging North Dakotans to get angry at the oil industry instead of welcoming them. He even had a billboard put up telling them "Be Angry. (Please.)" |
| 49 | * AnimalAthleteLoophole: Cites this trope in his segment on the Italian election -- just like there's no rule that says a dog can't play basketball, there's no law that says he can't run for Prime Minister. |
| 50 | * AnimalMotifs: Both John himself and others [[note]]For example, in the "Fan Mail" videos and the "John is a rat-faced bastard" RunningGag.[[/note]] have frequently compared his appearance to that of a rat or a bird (particularly [[GagNose big-billed]] birds like puffins, parrots and toucans). |
| 51 | * AnswersToTheNameOfGod: Played for laughs in the "How Is This Still a Thing?" segment on Creator/AynRand; after pointing out that conservatives love to quote her work, it's noted that she [[HollywoodAtheist doesn't share their views]] on {{God}}. And not just that God, the [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan other (conservative) god]]. |
| 52 | * AnthropomorphicPersonification: He goes in-depth regarding "Lumpy" [[https://youtu.be/aw6RsUhw1Q8?t=3m26s during his segment on coal]], finishing off with this. |
| 53 | -->'''John:''' ''This'' is why we don't name them, because then we get attached! |
| 54 | * AnthropomorphicVice: His segment on tobacco features Jeff the Diseased Lung in a Cowboy Hat as an ironic mascot of Marlboro "compromising" between their desire to have mascots and countries' desire to have anti-smoking advertisement. |
| 55 | * AppealToObscurity: In his web video on going back to school, John compares the coverage of Asia and Africa in the curriculum to his knowledge of actor Creator/PennBadgley. You can describe the general shape, but that's about it. |
| 56 | * ArchEnemy: Jack Warner, the disgraced FIFA Vice President, became this to John Oliver, trading barbs at each other over UsefulNotes/{{Trinidad|AndTobago}}ian television station [=TV6=] with increasingly good production values. |
| 57 | ** Coal mining magnate Bob Murray seems to have usurped Warner's position as John's nemesis, Murray troubling HBO with a lawsuit after John did a segment on him. Come 2019 and John fired back ''spectacularly''. |
| 58 | * ArsonMurderAndAdmiration: In a segment on tobacco, John notes that the LoopholeAbuse used by a tobacco company's legal team to make it possible for them to sue the country of Australia was so ingenious that you want to give those lawyers a pat on the back. [[AmoralAttorney Followed by a punch to the face,]] of course, but still … |
| 59 | * ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: |
| 60 | ** In a segment on a proposed Internet tax in the eastern European nation, John notes several troubling things about UsefulNotes/{{Hungar|y}}ian prime minister [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgxglVm_2OY Viktor Orbán]]: he wants to end liberal democracy (admitting to attempting to shift the government toward an authoritarian-style illiberal democracy), he's a friend of UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin (himself the head of an [[UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} illiberal democracy]]), and he likes the way UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} and UsefulNotes/{{China}} (which both have repressive illiberal governments) do things. John then adds that if Orbán were to like the smell at Hollister's, they could just go ahead and declare him a war criminal. |
| 61 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boI4D1FlIVs Home improvement stores]] are a lethal combination of everything that can ruin a relationship: spending money, reconciling tastes, long-term planning, and fluorescent lighting. |
| 62 | ** John lists several examples of television programs that have acclimated the public to same-sex marriage: ''Series/WillAndGrace'', ''Series/{{Ellen}}'', ''Series/{{Queer as Folk|UK}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' ([=SpongeBob=] and Patrick). |
| 63 | --->'''John:''' Oh, please; they hang out in a pineapple under the sea. Read between the lines! |
| 64 | ** John describes UsefulNotes/ThePope's itinerary while visiting UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates in September 2015: |
| 65 | --->'''John:''' The Pope was in the United States this week: speaking before Congress, visiting the [[UsefulNotes/UnitedNations UN]], riding through Central Park, going to UsefulNotes/{{Phil|adelphia}}ly for no clear reason, and encountering adoring crowds everywhere. |
| 66 | ** John's criticisms of [[UsefulNotes/CanadianPolitics Canadian Prime Minister]] Stephen Harper include rolling back environmental regulations, screening Syrian refugee applications to admit Christians only, and playing keyboard in his band and singing a terrible rendition of Music/NeilDiamond's "Sweet Caroline". |
| 67 | ** John justifies why the U.S. Treasury Department should get rid of the penny. |
| 68 | --->'''John:''' …but because there are certain things we know are impossible to get rid of: terrorism, herpes, and Guy Fieri. |
| 69 | ** During his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3saU5racsGE special districts]] segment, John says the only people who should have to pay $1,000 more than their neighbors across the street are people who blanket their houses with Christmas decorations. "They should be taxed, and then they should be imprisoned. And then they should be told their lights were better last year, [[LampshadeHanging because it's that one that would hurt them the most. That's the one that would sting.]]" |
| 70 | ** In the journalism segment, John noted how the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestPicture win for ''Film/{{Spotlight}}'' finally gave newspapers the recognition that is normally reserved for important subjects like [[Film/{{Argo}} the incredible bravery of real-life Hollywood filmmakers,]] [[Film/TheArtist the incredible bravery of fictional Hollywood filmmakers,]] [[Film/AmericanBeauty and the incredible bravery of wanting to fuck your daughter's friend.]] |
| 71 | ** During "Eat Shit Bob: The Musical," John and company insult Robert Murray (see BringIt below) in as many absurd and ridiculous ways as possible, knowing that satire is legally protected. Of the many awful things Bob Murray is accused of (including staring World War I, masturbating to ''Film/SchindlersList'', and having sex with squirrels) are "He wrote the Macarena and dots his i's with hearts," and "He doesn't like Creator/TomHanks." |
| 72 | ** In the segment on the bidding for the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics between Beijing and Kazakhstan, John points out the problems in choosing either of them: Both have appalling human rights records, Beijing doesn’t have a mountain for skiing within 50 miles, and the world will be subjected to two weeks of America’s foremost douchebags doing Film/{{Borat}} impressions if Kazakhstan wins out. |
| 73 | * ArtifactTitle: ''Last Week Tonight'' was clearly intended to be a weekly version of ''Series/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart'' when it was created and named. The parallel name suggests Oliver's weekly show was, like its daily predecessor, to feature humorous discussions of current news first and foremost. However, Oliver's episodes are now mostly dedicated to deep-dives on topics of interest that usually (but not always) fall outside the week's news, with current events relegated to quick recaps at the start of the show. John lampshades this from time to time, such as in the episode about both the 2020 Republican National Convention and unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin: |
| 74 | -->'''John:''' We're actually going to dive straight in with our main story this week, which, unusually for us, concerns the week that we just had. It's one of the rare times we're actually living up to our show's title, unlike what should probably be called "[[SelfDeprecation 28 Minutes on the Corn Tax or Whatever the Fuck with John Oliver]]". |
| 75 | * ArtisticLicenseEconomics: |
| 76 | ** John demonstrates how Donald Trump's much-vaunted border wall is built primarily of this trope, first by showing video clips of how Trump's own estimation of the cost of the wall tripled over time, then demonstrating how even that figure wouldn't cover the cost of engineering, construction, and maintenance. And even that figure would need to be increased, due to the border passing through large tracts of uninhabited desert, so a whole network of access roads would have to be built first. Then he takes on Trump's claim that the project could be paid for out of the US trade deficit with Mexico, which Oliver describes as "literally not how anything works". |
| 77 | ** Trump's questionable grasp on economics returns in an episode which discusses his obsession with the trade deficit in China. Oliver shows Trump talking about how the trade deficit means that ''not'' trading with China at all would save money.[[note]]Trade deficit simply means you are buying more from a country than you are selling to them. Whatever one may think about trade deficits, it is flat out wrong to claim it is throwing money away ''when you obtain goods in exchange for the money''.[[/note]] The guy spearheading the issue in the administration seems to be Peter Navarro. When an interviewer asked him to name any economists who agree with his views about international trade, he gave two names. One was a professor who said there is no evidence to support Navarro's claims, the other was a blogger whose response was that he has no degree in economics. |
| 78 | * ArtisticLicenseGeography: Invokes this trope in a RunningGag in which he mentions a country, saying "a country you think about so little…", and then revealing that the map graphic he's using is highlighting the wrong country (exposing the viewers' unfamiliarity with such countries). |
| 79 | ** It started with his segment on smoking, in which John brings up a graphic of South America with UsefulNotes/{{Uruguay}} highlighted. He then points out that most of his viewers know so little about the country, they didn't realize he's actually highlighted UsefulNotes/{{Paraguay}}, at which point the highlight switches to the correct country. |
| 80 | ** The joke is repeated with UsefulNotes/{{Bolivia}} in the next week's segment on judicial elections, highlighting two wrong countries before moving to the right one and lampshading that it will always be funny. Perhaps because they reused the same graphic and didn't think to adjust it, the background flag is that of ''Uruguay''. |
| 81 | ** And repeated again with UsefulNotes/{{Venezuela}} in a segment about embattled President Nicolás Maduro being sent mangoes written with demands for him to provide services, this time highlighting two wrong countries (Bolivia and Uruguay) before revealing that he had it right the ''first'' time, but now that the viewers know the joke, they didn't realize it. |
| 82 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_jqALy1Gu8 Done again with Nebraska.]] In a segment on the abolition of the death penalty in that state, he first highlights the neighboring state of South Dakota before switching to the correct state. John then scolds the audience for not knowing the geography of their own country. |
| 83 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTBIcdtTuaY Repeated once again with Azerbaijan]] in a segment on the Olympics-analog European Games. This time, the false UsefulNotes/{{Azerbaijan}} he initially highlighted wasn't even a land mass but a ''body of water to the east of it'', the Caspian Sea, upping the element of surprise. |
| 84 | ** The joke is done again in a non-geographic context with the [[https://youtu.be/s3Nv2zW-4BY?t=2m57s US Secretary of Transportation]], using a made-up name and a stock photo. |
| 85 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHovZr5itPU Repeated yet again with]] UsefulNotes/{{Guatemala}} in a segment on that country's elections in 2015. This time he just shows a map of Central America with ''nothing highlighted at all'', and tells us just to look it up for ourselves if we want to know which country Guatemala is. |
| 86 | ** When discussing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V5ckcTSYu8 the 2015 Canadian federal election]], the joke is subverted, as instead of showing a map, John refers to UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} as "the country you think about so little, [[TakeThat that's it. End of sentence.]]" |
| 87 | ** In the introduction of the segment about the release of the [[https://youtu.be/9Ia8UALfBA4 Panama Papers]],[[note]]Documents that revealed prominent individuals with offshore accounts in the Central American nation.[[/note]] the false UsefulNotes/{{Panama}} shown is a rough outline of a Scottish terrier, which the actual country shown afterward strangely resembles. |
| 88 | ** [[https://youtu.be/3saU5racsGE?t=14m32s In his student film on special districts,]] he has the kids pull this with the Nile in UsefulNotes/{{Egypt}}. |
| 89 | ** The Season 4 premiere goes completely meta with the gag, as he brings up various disappointing topics the show can cover that year, including special tax districts, "a topic so boring you didn't remember we actually did an episode on it last year." |
| 90 | ** When he actually returns to the map version of the gag at the start of his segment about the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cQpdb8tclM Bolivian "Zebras for Road Safety" program]], he does a particularly elaborate version of it: |
| 91 | --->'''John:''' Bolivia. A country you think about so little, you don't even realize that's not Bolivia, that's UsefulNotes/{{Colombia}}. Except it isn't, that's Venezuela, ''that'' is Colombia; except it isn't, that's Bolivia, which is the one we were looking for in the first place. Which one's Colombia? There is simply no way to know! |
| 92 | ** Another variant of this gag is done for which member of Music/TheBeeGees is still alive in the segment on the American Health Care Act. |
| 93 | ** Another variant is during his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voxfqkrO5ww endorsement web-exclusive]], where he brings up how Creator/StephenBaldwin endorsed Trump for president in 2016, showing Stephen's brother Creator/{{William|Baldwin}}. |
| 94 | ** In his story about Website/{{Facebook}} usage in [[UsefulNotes/ThatSoutheastAsianCountry Myanmar]], John reveals that the graphic he's using for the country is UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev's birthmark. |
| 95 | ** Averted when he talks about UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} following UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}'s invasion of the country in 2022; since it was in the news a lot, he refers to Ukraine as, "A country you know so much about". |
| 96 | ** When he [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27FpoRiStgk covered]] UsefulNotes/{{Belarus}}, he started with the game and [[TakeThatAudience a mini-rant about how it was meant to encourage people to learn more about geography]], not [[invoked]][[MisaimedFandom an exercise in ongoing humiliation]]. It was then double-subverted when he revealed he had highlighted the wrong country, playing the game all along ("Happy now, you freaks?"), though he didn't identify it as UsefulNotes/{{Lithuania}}. |
| 97 | ** When discussing student debt, he noted that the total amount of it in the US was more than the GDP of UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}, "one of the countries you actually know!" He then pointed out how sometimes, to make a point, he has to bring up a small country like UsefulNotes/{{Estonia}}, and the audience has to tell what that means from his tone. This was accompanied by a Baltic country being highlighted on a map, and he declared that [[RunningGag given the show's track record]], the audience had no way of knowing if that ''was'' actually Estonia or not. (It wasn't; he'd highlighted UsefulNotes/{{Latvia}} instead.) |
| 98 | * ArtisticLicenseLaw: |
| 99 | ** John puts up a grandiose display, complete with $5,000 in cash, with Creator/MikeMyers to supposedly break a Canadian law which states that foreigners cannot induce Canadians to influence their vote. The next day, the regulatory body for federal elections, Elections Canada, explained that John was in no trouble in any way, since "inducement" must involve offering some kind of material good like money to voters. By contrast, all John and Mike did with their stunt was to express an opinion, which is perfectly allowed under the law. Though it has still been noted that the wording was vague enough that it could indeed be taken as what he claimed, something even many Canadians were unaware of. |
| 100 | ** The September 11, 2022 segment is devoted to, of all things, ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' and its use of this trope, particularly in its depiction of the police. Namely, John deconstructs how ''Law and Order'' has, [[LongRunners for decades]], shaped the American public's understanding of how the criminal justice system works. Namely, John criticizes the franchise for side-stepping many of the realities that law enforcement has struggled with (e.g., police conduct towards people of color, rather low conviction rates, etc.), even if such artistic license would be necessary for the PoliceProcedural format. John also points out that, if a MedicalDrama such as ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' had adopted a similar course of action regarding its subject matter, the conversation would be quite different. |
| 101 | ** While recounting the Murray Energy lawsuit, Oliver states that "all four Justices" of the West Virginia Supreme Court were impeached in a scandal over inappropriate spending. While four Justices were indeed impeached, there are actually five positions on the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia; the fifth one, Justice Stenis Ketchum, retired before impeachment proceedings could take place against him. Of the four impeached, two continued serving on the West Virginia Supreme Court, Justice Beth Walker, whom the Senate voted not to remove, and Justice Margaret Workman, whose trial was halted following an injunction from the Supreme Court. In fact, Justice Allen Loughry, the main justice whom Oliver refers to in his recap, was the only Justice to be removed and convicted due to this scandal. |
| 102 | * ArtisticLicenseReligion: When reporting on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkady_Babchenko#Staged_death Arkady Babchenko's faked death]], Oliver compared the subsequent anger from his coworkers over being put through emotional turmoil to the Apostle Paul being peeved upon seeing UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} at the resurrection. However, Paul never met Jesus in person during the latter's lifetime, was not at the resurrection, and wasn't an apostle yet. According to [[Literature/ActsOfTheApostles The Book of Acts]], Paul's only encounter with Jesus was a divine vision that took place well after Christ had resurrected and returned to heaven, and during which Paul was an enemy of Christians. |
| 103 | * AssPull: {{Invoked|Trope}} intentionally when John shows a fake, non-canon episode of ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'' that they did in which it's "revealed" that [[spoiler:EJ came back to life by his corpse being taken by his father and brought back to life by witch doctors]]. |
| 104 | * AstroTurf: Oliver dedicated the August 12, 2018 episode to this. Oliver states that large corporations fund groups that look like grassroots organizations to counter actual grassroots movements that seek to bring attention to issues that affect society (global climate change, environmental protection, gun violence, etc.). |
| 105 | * AttackOfThePoliticalAd: |
| 106 | ** After criticizing the attack ads in the 2014 Senate race in Kentucky between incumbent Republican congressman/Senate Majority Leader Mitch [=McConnell=] and Democrat Allison Lundergan Grimes, John declares "there is no way things are going to get better until we collectively hit rock bottom" -- so he decides to make the worst attack ads imaginable, using the full creative license that a premium cable network like HBO provides him. In the ad for [=McConnell=], Grimes is shown slaughtering coal miners with a chainsaw; in the ad for Grimes, [=McConnell=] is represented by [[FanDisservice an old, white, wrinkled]] [[MaleFrontalNudity penis]]. |
| 107 | ** Later discussed in the segment on judicial elections, by showing an actual 2010 attack ad against Illinois Supreme Court justice Thomas Kilbride; the ad used three "evil shadows" representing violent killers that Kilbride supposedly sided with in their appeals, but -- as John points out -- Kilbride did not actually release them, but merely questioned procedural points in their trials. |
| 108 | --->'''John:''' But there's no room in campaigns for nuance. That's why you don't see bumper stickers reading: "Justice is complicated, requiring the sublimation of our baser instincts, which -- though difficult -- is the only thing that separates us from the anarchy of the beasts, Kilbride 2015!" |
| 109 | * AudienceAlienatingPremise: Invoked. John knows when certain topics will drive viewers away. He promises more adorable things following the segment twice (in the death penalty segment, as compensation; in the abortion one, for those against the topic to return). One time, he simulates a viewer doing a picture-in-picture to the ''Film/{{Entourage}}'' movie rather than watch a discussion on Economic Development Incentives, only for them to return following an awful one-liner. |
| 110 | * AwesomeMcCoolName: Argues that a major part of Donald Trump's success as a businessman and as a politician is connected to the inherently "rich", successful-sounding name "Trump" ("''Trump!'' -- It's the sound produced when a mouthy servant is slapped across the face with a wad of $1,000 bills!"), and upon learning about his family history, as what became [=#MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain=], tries to reintroduce viewers to the man and his known negative qualities under the name "Donald Drumpf". |
| 111 | * BackhandedApology: Done for laughs when John [[https://youtu.be/fPloDzu_wcI "apologized"]] for being snarky about ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey''. |
| 112 | -->'''John:''' In the grand tradition of television personalities who've made mistakes, I would like to offer a condescending, half-hearted apology that I don't really mean. |
| 113 | * BaitAndSwitch: |
| 114 | ** In his segment on chickens, John lampshades that the viewers expect it will be about animal cruelty. But there's enough of that in the news, so he reveals it's actually about chicken farmers, whose story is no less depressing. |
| 115 | ** In his segment on the American Health Care Act, he brings up the image of a man in a thong he used to demonstrate the Affordable Care Act, then says "take it down". Cue the thong being pulled halfway down. |
| 116 | ** One segment is introduced like this: |
| 117 | --->'''John:''' Pornography: some people believe it should be available and accessible without stigma, others believe "well, it's not for me but its fine for other people in certain situations," and a few people believe it should be banned altogether. Oh I'm sorry, did I say pornography, I mean abortion. Our main story tonight is ''abortion''. |
| 118 | ** After showing a Brazilian political ad with a spinning sign with the names of ex-president Lula and his candidate Haddad, John attempts this with a sign with "[[Creator/GaryBusey Busey]]" and "[[Series/ILoveLucy Lucy]]" and states that "one is America's sweetheart and the other married Creator/DesiArnaz". |
| 119 | * BaldOfEvil: |
| 120 | ** While discussing Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts and his attempts to keep the death penalty from being abolished, John refers to him as a "dollar store ComicBook/LexLuthor." |
| 121 | ** In the beginning of [[https://youtu.be/2YXjZXE-WL0 the segment on Amazon's unions]], John compares Jeff Bezos to Lex Luthor. |
| 122 | --->'''John:''' Let's move on to Amazon, a company run by Jeff Bezos, who answers the question "What if Lex Luthor was--" And that's it. Just "What if Lex Luthor ''was''?" He's a bald business maniac with too much money, zero empathy and weird supervillain vehicles. He is ''just'' Lex Luthor. |
| 123 | * BarbershopQuartetsAreFunny: Used to great effect during the musical number to celebrate the case filed against him by Bob Murray being officially dismissed. Accusing a man of being a furry who has sex with squirrels? Strange. Having a barbershop quartet of seven-foot squirrels do it? Hilarious! |
| 124 | * BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: After an incident in which UsefulNotes/NewZealand economic development minister Steven Joyce was hit in the face with a dildo thrown by a woman protesting the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, he tweeted "[[https://twitter.com/stevenljoyce/status/695469349130207233 Someone send the gif over to John Oliver so we can get it over with..]]" The show still had a field day with it, as shown by the top response of that tweet -- from the ''Last Week Tonight'' account, Creator/PeterJackson waving a modified New Zealand flag with an image of Joyce being hit by the sex toy (complete with "HERE'S YOUR GIF"). John notes that before the segment, the show planned to put the brakes on stories about New Zealand until they found out about Joyce's tweet, not only making the flag but also hiring a choir and two guys tethered by wire in dildo costumes. |
| 125 | -->'''John:''' Is this what you wanted, Steven Joyce? ''Is this what you wanted?! CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!'' |
| 126 | * BeleagueredBureaucrat: |
| 127 | ** The segment on the IRS shows the entire agency to be this, thanks to Congress constantly changing the tax code and responding to attention-getting scandals by [[DisproportionateRetribution cutting their budget by 20% over the past five years]]. He includes a clip of IRS commissioner John Koskinen testifying that his agency literally doesn't have enough people to do the job it needs to do. |
| 128 | ** Public defenders are also this. They are so overburdened with cases, that they ''have'' no time to help a client aside from suggesting they take a plea bargain. |
| 129 | ** Members of Congress are also this. Much of their time is taken up by fundraising, which is a dehumanizing, demoralizing process in which you actually have to beg strangers for money, and you spend too much time fundraising that you can't do your job. |
| 130 | * BestialityIsDepraved: One of the ObviouslyEvil fake companies in the credit reports segment, Equifacks (not to be confused with credit reporting company Equifax), "specializes" in taking shelter animals in need of a good home, taking them to people's houses to lick peanut butter off the resident's genitals, then immediately taking them back to the shelter. |
| 131 | * BetterTheDevilYouKnow: Deconstructed in the episode about Medicare for All, as John discusses the reluctance of many Americans, including many American politicians, to retool the American health care system substantially into a universal health care system like the UK's UsefulNotes/NationalHealthService, pointing out how this reluctance only exacerbates the problems with the current system. |
| 132 | -->'''John:''' I get that [[HopeIsScary big change is scary]]. It is human nature to prefer the devil you know over an uncertain alternative. But the devil you know is still a devil. |
| 133 | * BigBad: |
| 134 | ** John claims the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is this to his show, considering that they are directly and indirectly responsible for many of the issues he's covered. He even gives them a shout-out in the credits, as "Associate Producer of Creating Horrifying Things for Us to Talk About," thanking them for giving him so much material. |
| 135 | ** To a lesser extent, FIFA and UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire, both of which he has lamented in the past as "real-life supervillains". |
| 136 | ** From Season 3 onwards, Donald Trump has cemented his position as this. |
| 137 | * TheBigRottenApple: During his bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, John claims the show is filmed in a "small studio in UsefulNotes/{{New York|City}}'s historic carjacking district". |
| 138 | * BinomiumRidiculus: The opening titles contain grids of news-relevant items, each with a fictional binomial name. The most obvious one is Creator/JohnOliver himself, with the label "Hostus Mostus." |
| 139 | * BitingTheHandHumor: |
| 140 | ** John took several shots at the film of fellow HBO series ''Series/{{Entourage}}'', has insulted Time Warner Cable,[[note]]A former unit of HBO parent Time Warner that the larger company spun off in March 2009 and was merged into rival cable provider Charter Communications seven years later.[[/note]] and in the fantasy sports segment noted how Time Warner is a partner of [=FanDuel=]. AT&T's purchase of Time Warner led to some potshots at them as well. The episodes paired with the last season of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' add in some more shots against HBO and how they're gonna be without their biggest show. |
| 141 | ** From "Coronavirus V": John claims that cell phone towers in Britain that had been set on fire by conspiracy theorists is "ridiculous, although, not as ridiculous as the fact that those flaming cell-towers almost certainly still offered better cell coverage than AT&T". |
| 142 | --->Oh, that's right, business-daddy! You thought a pandemic would bring us ''together?'' Of course not! Our feud must be an essential service, 'cause it's ''still in business.'' Seriously, though, BD, I-I do hope you're safe and healthy. I can't wait to talk to you as soon as this is over … and as soon as I can '''''get more than one bar of service.''''' |
| 143 | ** Season 7 episodes have offered potshots directed at Creator/HBOMax (which includes ''Last Week Tonight'' in its roster), with Oliver stating he still has no idea what it is even after its launch. |
| 144 | ** In "Sheriffs", he also heavily criticized Creator/{{Disney}} after learning that their [[Creator/DisneyPlus Hotstar]] streaming service, which carries ''Last Week Tonight'' in India, was censoring content that made light of the company or its characters and aimed to double down on irking them. |
| 145 | ** "Pig Butchering Scams": John asserts that, when something generates a lot of money, "you don't shut it down. You spin it off and pray the magic works a second time", all while sitting next to a poster for ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon''. |
| 146 | * BlatantLies: |
| 147 | ** After being told he's now on the NSA's "list" for being "associated" with Edward Snowden, John insists that he never met him right after conducting a televised interview with him. And while a freeze-frame of said interview is still on the screen. |
| 148 | ** He also compares many lawmaker's suspicious insistence that abortion laws are for protecting women's health is to a computer folder labeled "definitely not porn". In fact, a lot of it actually falls under ArtisticLicenseMedicine such as requiring doctors to claim that abortions can cause breast cancer. |
| 149 | * BobFromAccounting: Recurring character Janice in Accounting, who "doesn't give a fuck." |
| 150 | * BoltOfDivineRetribution: The "Other Countries' Presidents" segment on French President François Hollande notes that he's one of a few world leaders to question the existence of God, then points out how much of a coincidence it is that his plane was struck by lightning ''on the day of his inauguration''. |
| 151 | * BoringButPractical: One of the overarching themes of the show is the fact that many of our problems exist because either the problem itself or the solution is seen as too boring in order to warrant any media scrutiny or political resources. There are many segments (such as the one on bail) where the discussion of possible solutions boils down to BoringButPractical versus RuleOfCool. The "boring" solution (pre-trial services) leads to a much more efficient outcome for most nonviolent crimes, but the "cool" solution (bail bonds and bounty hunters) gives us lots of TV shows. |
| 152 | -->'''John:''' The cable companies have figured out the great truth of America: if you want to do something evil, put it inside something boring. |
| 153 | * BountyHunter: Deconstructed in a segment on bail. Shows like ''Series/DogTheBountyHunter'' have glamorized them, but bounty hunting is a profession that requires no real qualifications, tests, or even background checks, and they often endanger people who for the most part have been accused of victimless crimes. |
| 154 | * Main/{{Bowdlerise}} For the first few seasons, the [=YouTube=] uploads of the segments had the more explicit language (typically the f-word) bleeped out. When HBO started uploading full episodes to [=YouTube=] in 2024, they were fully uncensored. |
| 155 | * BreadEggsMilkSquick: |
| 156 | ** In the "Lead" episode, John reacts to an old clip describing the titular element as "humble" by suggesting some other personalities for metals: "Passionate zinc, whimsical copper, or incredibly racist tin." |
| 157 | ** One "And Now, This" segment featured the narrator giving new names to the dogs who participated in the 2021 Westminster Dog Show. Almost all of them were goofy names based on their appearance or just non-sensical, such as "Beef", "Good Carl", and "Bad Carl", except one of them, "Cuban Exile and CIA Asset [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Veciana Antonio Veciana]] Claimed He Witnessed a High-Ranking CIA Officer Meet with Lee Harvey Oswald in September of 1963." |
| 158 | * BreakingBadNewsGently: |
| 159 | ** President UsefulNotes/BarackObama's admission of the practices that U.S. intelligence agents used to interrogate terror suspects in the CIA torture report is criticized by John for being an unsuccessful attempt at this: |
| 160 | --->'''Obama:''' In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong. We did a whole lot of things that were right … but we tortured some folks.\ |
| 161 | '''John:''' That's a weird way to phrase that. You sound like you're quoting a horrifying [[Series/TheAndyGriffithShow Andy Griffith episode]]. "[[BriefAccentImitation You see Opie]], things got a little out of hand down at the jailhouse, and Barney and I, well, we tortured some folks. We tortured those folks good, Opie!" |
| 162 | ** There's also Commander Lloyd Austin's admission of the overall failure of the U.S. military to train rebels to fight [=ISIS=], by reluctantly admitting the actual number of rebels left to fight after a very expensive program: |
| 163 | --->'''Lloyd Austin:''' It's [[{{Understatement}} a small number]] and the ones that are left … er … we're talking … [[EpicFail four or five]]. |
| 164 | * BreatherEpisode: John occasionally breaks up the serious and heavy topics of the show with something lighter. In particular, the episode on Pennies and their uselessness has him admit that it's ultimately a very minor and low-stakes issue, but it also happens to be one that could actually be solved and without much pushback. (As he points out, even the company that manufactures the zinc for it only spends a paltry $140,000 lobbying for them when their parent company is worth $10 billion) |
| 165 | * BrickJoke: Employed often, as something shown at the beginning of the segment will be brought back for the payoff. |
| 166 | ** {{Invoked|Trope}} in the segment on the problems with the instruction of sex education in American schools, which starts with John showing an old sex ed video staring a young Creator/JonathanBanks in which having a period is shown to make women somehow super good at bowling. The parody sex ed video at the end of the segment ends with Banks showing up and telling the viewer that [[OldShame anyone who says that having a period makes you good at bowling is a fucking idiot.]] |
| 167 | ** UsefulNotes/NorthKorea loves accordions, and John lists Music/WeirdAlYankovic as one of the few people who share this opinion. So the segment ends with Al singing a polka asking North Korea not to nuke the U.S. |
| 168 | ** In the episode about the crisis in Venezuela, John introduces Venezuela as the country that "gave the world oil, seven Miss Universes, six Miss Worlds and one Wilmer Valderrama," and at one point mentions embattled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's infamous claim that his late predecessor UsefulNotes/HugoChavez appeared to him as a bird. So of course a bird appears at the end sending a message to President Maduro, and guess who plays the bird? |
| 169 | *** [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Seven Miss Universes?]] |
| 170 | ** John says that the Brett Kavanaugh hearings are so bad he can't talk about the new Philadelphia Flyers mascot, Gritty, as much as he wishes to due to Gritty's really weird appearance. By the end of the episode-long segment, John decides that Gritty will stand in for Kavanaugh on their animal Supreme Court. |
| 171 | ** At various points during the Trump presidency, whenever he became embroiled in a scandal that seemed to be the end of him, John brought out a button and shouted "We got him!", unfurling a banner and triggering a celebration. When Trump lost the 2020 election, the CouchGag of the next episode featured the "WE GOT HIM!" banner. |
| 172 | * BriefAccentImitation: |
| 173 | ** John is very good at accents, and has no problem mimicking them quite successfully -- Australian, Russian, French, etc. His ValleyGirl, however, is absolutely terrible, which, in turn, [[StylisticSuck just makes it funnier]]. His SurferDude impression is also unspeakably awful, sounding more like an old man than a surfer. |
| 174 | ** John himself parodies this in the segment on UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}}'s ballot referendum for independence from the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom, when he refers to Scottish as "that accent you think you can do, but really can't." |
| 175 | * BringIt: |
| 176 | ** While discussing the 2015 Canadian federal election, John mentions that there are stiff penalties for non-Canadians who make statements that might influence their politics, such as fines and even prison time. To which he laid down some money, saying he was willing to risk it in urging people to vote out incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper. |
| 177 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glxh9ZgP7kc Part of his]] [[ClusterFBomb profanity-filled tirade]] after the Paris terrorist attacks: |
| 178 | --->'''John:''' It is important to remember: nothing about what these arseholes are trying to do is going to work. UsefulNotes/{{France}} is going to endure, and I'll tell you why: if you're in a war of culture and lifestyle with France, ''good fucking luck!'' Because go ahead! Go ahead! Bring your bankrupt ideology. They'll bring Creator/JeanPaulSartre, Creator/EdithPiaf, fine wine, Gauloises cigarettes, [[Creator/AlbertCamus Camus]], Camembert, madeleines, macarons, Creator/MarcelProust, and the fucking croquembouche! The croquembouche! You just brought a philosophy of rigorous self-abnegation to a pastry fight, my friend! You are fucked! ''[pointing to an image of a croquembouche]'' That is a French freedom tower! |
| 179 | ** When talking about coal, he specifically went after Robert Murray, who had warned the show not to badmouth him or his company, Murray Energy, on the grounds that if he did, he would sue. John deliberately defied the order, and talked about how Murray Energy had been cited for its lax enforcement of safety regulations, specifically how a mine collapse in Utah left six miners, and three rescuers dead. He also mentioned how employees were offered an optional meager overtime instead of benefits, with one employee giving back his check with the sentence "Eat Shit Bob". John also talked about how Murray is an ardent supporter of Donald Trump, since Trump has promised to reinvigorate the coal industry, never mind that it has been in steep decline in recent decades, and because Trump promised to decrease environmental regulations. He also mentions that an insider stated that Murray got the idea to create his company after a squirrel told him to. The episode ends with "Mr. Nutter Butter", a guy in a giant squirrel costume, holding a GiantNoveltyCheck with the phrase "Eat Shit Bob" written on it. [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/22/john-oliver-a-giant-squirrel-and-a-defamation-lawsuit-by-a-coal-industry-titan/ Not surprisingly, Murray filed a defamation suit on John and Time Warner citing "character assassination," something he had done in the past against media outlets that criticized him and his company.]] Months later, [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/john-oliver-hbo-beat-coal-executives-defamation-lawsuit-1088133 the suit was thrown out of court,]] because the West Virginia State Supreme Court, where the case was filed, ruled that Murray had no basis to sue on the grounds that John's comments were satire, which is protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution, and the segment criticizing Murray Energy's safety track record was based on public record. |
| 180 | * BritishStuffiness: |
| 181 | ** Occasionally parodied, along with StiffUpperLip. For instance, after the 2015 UK national election: |
| 182 | --->'''Newsreader:''' Hmmm … total shock, really, from where we started in the evening.\ |
| 183 | '''John:''' Now, to be fair, that is about as emotional as a British newsreader is capable of being. The American equivalent of what you just saw would be Wolf Blitzer [[FanDisservice stripping naked]] and setting fire to his own beard. |
| 184 | ** Lampshaded but ultimately subverted in his IRS segment, when he says that the IRS deserves a supportive gesture but claims that he's ill-suited to performing such an emotional display seeing as how he's British. Despite that, he shows considerable enthusiasm during the ensuing musical number by Music/MichaelBolton. |
| 185 | ** In a segment about alleged wiretapping in Trump Tower: |
| 186 | --->'''John:''' …Now ''that'' is going to piss off the British, and you do not want to piss off the British because if you do, we will say, "Oh, dear", shake our heads, swallow the anger, and carry it around until we ''die.'' |
| 187 | ** The looming Brexit deadline with no deal in place seems to have finally broken it. One MP even defends Prime Minister UsefulNotes/TheresaMay's reworked deal by calling it a "polished turd" ''in Parliament''. Another MP refers to the remaining options as "a pig's ear, a dog's dinner, and a cat's anus." |
| 188 | * BrokenAesop: InUniverse, he considers a Singaporean anti-gambling [[PublicServiceAnnouncement PSA]] about a kid whose father is a gambler released during the 2014 World Cup to be this, since even with the one made after Germany won (which was what the child's father is betting on), it accidentally implied that [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation the father was too good at gambling]] for the family to be at serious financial risk. |
| 189 | * BrokenPedestal: In the episode about the 2018 Mexican presidential elections, one candidate openly stating that he doesn't believe in SantaClaus somehow makes Santa himself appear on the show. John is overjoyed, but soon becomes pretty upset after he finds out that Santa Claus spends all year masturbating. [[FromBadToWorse And this is before he reveals that his yoga classes allow him to blow himself.]] |
| 190 | * BuffySpeak: When introducing the Stand Your Ground Law segment, John describes guns as "big pew-pew sticks that go boom-boom". |
| 191 | * BullyHunter: John is a variation; while he does not actually go out to ''hunt down'' the corrupt, he is more than capable of ''humiliating'' said social-villains by exposing their cruelty and turning public opinion against them through his wicked wit and biting sense of humor. |
| 192 | * ButtMonkey: |
| 193 | ** [[https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/19-02-2019/politics-john-key-on-the-john-oliver-show-the-complete-nz-works-so-far New Zealand]], and by extension its prime minister (2008-2016) John Key. Also the state of Florida. |
| 194 | ** John himself sometimes takes his SelfDeprecation to this level. One example being the 2018 UsefulNotes/{{Ital|y}}ian election episode, where, after noting that one of the candidates for prime minister appeared on an Italian game show and lost (a received some harsh mockery from the host), he shows himself losing an old Italian game show and receiving similar harsh mockery. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-8ppyoWVSI&lc=z23vstqwcxucuvcgg04t1aokghspzfnwmypyluputidrbk0h00410 Look at how traumatized he appears]]. |
| 195 | * ByNoIMeanYes: When Russell Crowe auctioned off his many props to pay for his divorce, there was a lot of open speculation that John Oliver, who'd covered it on his show, was the mystery bidder who paid $7000 for his jockstrap. Addressing the rumors, Oliver said, "The bad news is, we didn't buy it." Then, after a long pause, added, "…We did though." |
| 196 | * TheCaligula: In his segment on monarchies, John discussed this trope by arguing that one of the flaws to having a system of inherited power is the possibility that the country would be stuck with the person who, in any other family, would be the BlackSheep. To provide an example, John presented a [[UsefulNotes/UnitedArabEmirates Emirati]] sheikh who was convicted of ''torturing a man''. |
| 197 | * CallBack: |
| 198 | ** In a discussion on net neutrality, John likens having Tom Wheeler, a lobbyist for the cable industry, as the chairman of the FCC to hiring a dingo as a babysitter. In a discussion on payday lenders, he explains that the vice president of a payday loan company is the head of the Texas finance commission overseeing that very industry. |
| 199 | --->'''John:''' I call dingo! |
| 200 | ** As part of a segment on the negative impact of the World Cup, there was a clip of FIFA official Jérôme Valcke asserting that, in spite of safety regulations, beer would be served at the games because one of FIFA's sponsors is a beer company; inevitably, as John himself predicted, there were a fair number of injuries and brawls. When Valcke later expressed rather insincere and hypocritical concern about the alcohol intake and disorderly nature of intoxicated fans, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfTiYun47rg there was an entire follow-up segment devoted to the matter]], entitled [[BrutalHonesty "Fuck That Guy"]]. |
| 201 | ** Calls back to nearly every serious issue his show has covered when mentioning that ALEC is partially responsible for all of them. |
| 202 | ** The [[http://imgur.com/a/hGnm0 Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption letter to donors]] calls back on the flyers Robert Tilton sent John asking for [[strike:blessing]] money. |
| 203 | ** The prisoner re-entry episode starts by bringing back all topics related to incarceration the show discussed. |
| 204 | ** During the October 2, 2016 segment on Police Accountability, John mentions that criminal justice that the show's signature bit. On the over-the-shoulder graphic box are the title screens for the segments on Civil Forfeiture, Municipal Violations, Mandatory Minimums and Police Militarization. |
| 205 | ** The episode on [=S.L.A.P.P.=] (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) Suits, explains that these lawsuits rarely ever make it to court, with both parties either settling outside of the courtroom, or, more frequently, with the defendant deciding not to pursuit the matter any further, because the plaintiff is usually [[MegaCorp a large corporation]] with an ArmyOfLawyers and [[ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount near unlimited cash supply]]. Oliver mentions that the [=S.L.A.P.P.=] suit filed by Robert Murray (who was covered in the episode about Coal) was dropped because Oliver's segment was ruled to be protected speech, and the claims he made against Murray were taken from the public record. |
| 206 | ** In the Season 3 finale, John [[StuffBlowingUp detonated]] a sign saying 2016, claiming it to be a bad year. In the [[https://youtu.be/EzlCOg-37hI?t=520 Season 7 finale]], John did it again with 2020, claiming it to be an even worse year. |
| 207 | * TheCameo: |
| 208 | ** To demonstrate pandering in the segment on Dr. Oz and his shilling of nutritional supplements, Creator/GeorgeRRMartin and a [[ItMakesSenseInContext tap-dancing]] Creator/SteveBuscemi drop by. |
| 209 | ** ''Law and Order: Civil Asset Forfeiture Unit'' features more than a few cameos from the cast of ''[[Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent Criminal Intent]]'', along with a great appearance by Creator/JeffGoldblum. |
| 210 | ** Oh, so many in the season one finale from 2014, including Creator/JonStewart, Creator/StephenColbert, [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]], Creator/JJAbrams and [[Franchise/StarWars R2-D2]] on the set of ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', Creator/TomHanks, Creator/SethMeyers, Creator/AndersonCooper, Creator/RachaelRay, [[Series/SportsNation Michelle Beadle]], [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation Dwight Howard]]… |
| 211 | ** Creator/EdwardNorton in the fake movie trailer for ''Infrastructure'', along with host of other actors including Creator/VincentDOnofrio, [[Film/AmericanSplendor Hope Davis]], and again, Creator/SteveBuscemi. |
| 212 | ** Creator/NickOfferman appears as a Home Depot sales associate trying to defuse a marital argument before it starts. Creator/HJonBenjamin is the husband in the couple. |
| 213 | *** Creator/HJonBenjamin later appears in the "Tot Bench" sketch of the Immigration Courts segment. And he also provides the voice of "The Void" during the pandemic-era episodes. |
| 214 | ** A segment featuring mascots created by Japanese government departments is followed by John bringing out mascots for several US Federal departments. The mascot for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is Creator/BobBalaban … that is, the real Bob Balaban, standing there in a jacket and tie, looking awfully confused. |
| 215 | ** Creator/RachelDratch thrice appeared as "Wanda Jo", wife/co-owner of the Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption. |
| 216 | ** In the season 2 finale, the opening theme was performed by its band, Valley Lodge. |
| 217 | ** Celebrating how New Zealand economic development minister Steven Joyce had a dildo thrown in his face, John sent a version of the NZ flag featuring that image to famed Kiwi Creator/PeterJackson, who was then shown waving said flag. |
| 218 | ** After the Panama Papers revealed a cellist that was close to Vladimir Putin controlled an enormous amount of wealth in some of those shell corporations, John pondered what a cellist was doing running an investment program … and followed that with a purported message from an investment phone line run by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo-Yo_Ma Yo-Yo Ma]] … who urges the caller to invest in a cello, "because with many years of practice, you'll be able to do [[TheCastShowOff this]]". |
| 219 | ** In the segment discussing UsefulNotes/PuertoRico's economic crisis, John mentions a number of important Puerto Ricans, pausing briefly to gush about Creator/LinManuelMiranda and ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}''. Sure enough, at the end of the episode he states that he isn't really the right person to advocate on Puerto Rico's behalf, and introduces Lin-Manuel to do an original rap on the subject. |
| 220 | ** In the episode that discussed how companies that engage in multilevel marketing are basically {{Ponzi}} schemes in all but name, he centers his criticism on Herbalife, which frequently targets the Latino community with its Spanish advertising. To demonstrate it, he shows a clip from the UsefulNotes/{{Mexic|o}}an ''telenovela'', ''La fea más bella'' (a {{Remake}} of Colombia's ''Series/YoSoyBettyLaFea'', the same ''telenovela'' that was the basis for ''Series/UglyBetty'') where some characters talk about [[ProductPlacement the benefits of Herbalife]]. At the end of the episode, he creates his own recruitment video to warn people about multilevel marketing, with Jaime Camil, star of ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'' and the male romantic lead of ''La fea más bella'', recording a similar video in Spanish. |
| 221 | ** While discussing the topic of statues honoring the Confederacy, John shows some suggestions of what various locations could honor instead, including famous people and even mascots from those locations. When he gets to Charleston, South Carolina, he removes the tarp from the last monument, to reveal the real-life Creator/StephenColbert. |
| 222 | ** During his piece on North Korea, John decides the best way to try and convince them not to nuke the US is by exploiting their love of the accordion. However, while he doesn’t play accordion, Music/WeirdAlYankovic does. |
| 223 | ** John made one in the last episode of ''The Who Was Show'', when UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar took over his show. |
| 224 | ** Whenever John shows footage that can't be shown in England (typically due to censorship laws around Parliament) they are treated instead to Creator/GilbertGottfried reading Brexit clauses or Bigfoot erotica. |
| 225 | ** When discussing Richard Sackler, John noted that there is hardly any video or audio of him available, so he brought in several actors to do dramatic readings of his testimonies: Creator/MichaelKeaton, Creator/BryanCranston, [[Series/TheWire Michael K. Williams]] and finally (when realizing the other three are too cool to really stand in for Sackler) [[Series/SpinCity Richard Kind]]. |
| 226 | * CanisLatinicus: The opening has plenty of it, aside from the occasional [[GratuitousLatin right Latin]] (over time there's "Tempus Fugit" -- 'time flees'). |
| 227 | * CargoShip:[[invoked]] |
| 228 | ** Upon seeing The Beau Rivage Palace, where negotiations with Iran were hosted, John says he wants to have sex with it. Not in it, ''with it''. |
| 229 | ** After playing several clips of Donald Trump bragging about how wonderful and even beautiful his proposed border wall will be, John posits that Trump is sexually fantasizing about the wall. |
| 230 | * CatchPhrase: |
| 231 | ** John starts every show with "Welcome, welcome, welcome!" |
| 232 | ** "Holy shit!", said with bewilderment by John at least OncePerEpisode following a surprising statement in the preceding clip. |
| 233 | ** "What are you doing?!", said whenever the subject of a clip makes a statement that exposes the person's inability to see the issue with it. |
| 234 | ** "Cool", said sarcastically whenever the previous clip features a statement indicating the subject is [[TotallyRadical trying too hard to be cool]]. |
| 235 | ** "Praise be!" said whenever [[ParodyReligion Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption]] is brought up. |
| 236 | ** "…Hashtag #Feminism", a somewhat tongue-in-cheek note of female inclusion and equality even in the most ridiculous circumstances. |
| 237 | ** "What are you talking about?!" whenever someone, usually Donald Trump, says something nonsensical or contradictory. |
| 238 | ** "…and this ''is'' true," said before statements that are true in nearly all cases, but also some that [[MetaphoricallyTrue might be]] or [[BlatantLies are anything but]]. |
| 239 | ** When the show moved out of their normal studio due to the COVID-19 pandemic, John opened nearly every show with some variation of "Hi there, welcome to the show. Still taking place in this {{white void|Room}}…", followed by a joke on the depressing look of the new set. |
| 240 | ** Seguing into a different segment, he always says: "And now, this." |
| 241 | * CatharsisFactor: Invoked when doing a piece on Wrestling/{{WWE}} and the practices of Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, where they showed various clips of the sketched abuse he received. John admitted that while certain things could be faked, you couldn't fake having your face [[AssShove pressed against a wrestler's ass.]] |
| 242 | * CelebrityResemblance: |
| 243 | ** John often calls Steve Mnuchin handsome before tearing into him, after media reports noted a resemblance between Mnuchin and John. |
| 244 | ** John is good in spotting and describing those in general. For example he refers to UK Conservative leadership candidate candidate [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Stewart#/media/File:Rory_Stewart_MP_(cropped).jpg Rory Stewart]] as looking like "Creator/WillemDafoe fucked Creator/EddieRedmayne in a ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit'' cartoon." |
| 245 | * CharacterDevelopment: [[https://youtu.be/gvZSpET11ZY?t=13m56s Seeing how absurd HBO's retirement plan was]] caused Janice in Accounting to give a fuck and become a changed person, to the point of baking cupcakes for her co-workers and adopting a kitten. |
| 246 | * ChariotPulledByCats: The idea that someone might try to pull off driving a sleigh pulled by 400 hamsters in real life is used as a gag in the episode on climate change. |
| 247 | -->'''John Oliver:''' We've universally agreed that polluting is bad and yet, it’s free to do it. When you litter, you pay a fine. When you drive above the speed limit, you pay a fine. When you steal 400 hamsters from [=PetSmart=], tie them to a sled and race through the streets on a hamster sleigh, you pay a fine. Is that fine worth it? Of course it is! But you do pay it. |
| 248 | * ChewingTheScenery: The segment on cryptocurrency features a clip of Carlos Matos at a conference of the company Bitconnect giving a presentation ''brimming'' with this. That clip was parodied at the end of the episode, with Creator/KeeganMichaelKey playing Matos with the same level of over the top enthusiasm. |
| 249 | * ChildHater: Zig-zagged: While John's onstage personality ''frequently'' mocks children as spoiled, stupid and entitled brats and rants how they have nothing to say worth an adult's time listening, the ''sure fire'' way to get his character '''[[BerserkButton enraged]]''' is to harm innocent/decent children; such as when he angrily chews out the dancing monkey mascot of Standardized Tests for fooling a talented 14-year-old girl into having faith in a system that destroyed her dreams of higher education and drove her into tears of despair. The apparent disdain for children is likely an act, as John is a father in real life. |
| 250 | * ChurchOfHappyology: John explicitly compares multilevel marketing companies to the {{Trope Namer|s}}. The parallels are pretty chilling, including strangely named levels which can be obtained (such as Double Black Diamond) as well as almost fanatical entrances of the leaders of the [=MLMs=] at corporate events. |
| 251 | * CityOfEverywhere: The city in the background is a composite, containing landmarks from New York, D.C., London, and many other cities, with what may be the tip of a pyramid looming in the background. In early episodes, the background also contained "Castle Dragonstone" from ''Series/GameOfThrones''.[[https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/john-oliver-set-game-of-thrones-castle-easter-egg_n_5267628 (Link.)]] |
| 252 | * ClickbaitGag: The segment on journalism ends with a spoof of ''Film/{{Spotlight}}'' where the cunning investigator finds opposition in his click-bait-minded management, which wants him to focus on click-attractive topics like cats who look like raccoons. |
| 253 | * CloudCuckoolander: John sometimes comes off as one, with his insistence that there's only one Olsen twin, his love of penguins, and various other eccentricities that pop up while he's giving the news. All in-character, of course, and it works really well; it's funny as hell, and it provides some levity to otherwise horrifying topics. |
| 254 | * ClusterFBomb: John decides to respond to the ISIS attack on Paris with the sort of profanity HBO allows him. |
| 255 | ** After the escape of ISIS fighters from prison, he boasts that they know exactly where they are and directs everyone's attention to "THE ISIS FIGHTERS!", at which point the curtains open on an empty cell. His reaction is being reduced to swearing and "Why did we give them ''shovels''?!" |
| 256 | * ComicallyMissingThePoint: |
| 257 | ** The NY/NJ Port Authority claims that the small commemorative plates featuring the New York City skyline being sold by local kitchenware chain Fishs Eddy are potentially damaging to its control of its own public image, while ignoring the WretchedHive that is the Port Authority Bus Terminal, which multiple people interviewed on the street describe as "scuzzy", "fucking disgusting", and "kind of like a dumpy shithole from TheEighties". |
| 258 | ** John details a school field trip in New Hampshire to the state legislature, where they introduced a bill to make the red-tailed hawk the official state raptor. Rather than just humor the kids and pass what was essentially a meaningless bit of fluff, the merit of even reviewing another bill was debated at length, with State Rep. John Burt sarcastically remarking "Bottom line, if we keep bringing more of these bills [forward] … we'll be picking a state hot dog next", and Rep. Warren Groen even using the characteristics of said hawk as an [[OneTractMind out-of-left-field swipe at Planned Parenthood]]. The bill was ultimately defeated by a narrow margin; worse, as John notes, it all took place ''with that same class of children in attendance''. |
| 259 | ** In his short segment on International Women's Day 2016, John takes the time to highlight various figures who just don't quite get it. Russian President Vladimir Putin unintentionally brings up the DoubleStandard of women having to control their emotions in the workplace. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says that he thinks women are mothers above all else, and that economic independence is bad for them. In China, a shopping mall offers discounts to women, but only those deemed sufficiently attractive by a facial scanner. Finally, Fox News commentator Greta Van Susteren decides to congratulate ''men'' for being better than the Taliban (or, as John puts it, giving them credit for "doing basically nothing"). |
| 260 | * TheComicallySerious: |
| 261 | ** C-SPAN's Steve Scully, "the most patient man on television." There's an entire series of "And Now…" compilation segments which gets laughs out of his unflinching reactions to bizarre callers. |
| 262 | ** ''Edward Snowden'', of all people; this is best shown when John asks him questions to gauge American loyalty. |
| 263 | ** Creator/DavidKaye's announcer. Whether it's a single sentence, such as in the "And Now…", or extensive voiceovers, the text is often ridiculous, and the deadpan delivery only makes them funnier. |
| 264 | * ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch: John calls out Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) for their press remarks condemning President Obama's announcement of a deal with UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} regarding suspension of the latter's nuclear research and development program, even though, in those same remarks, both congressmen admit that they haven't actually read the agreement, and don't know exactly what it contains, but [[invoked]][[{{Hatedom}} they know that Obama definitely made a bad deal!]] |
| 265 | * ContinuityCavalcade: The first two season finales had brief recaps of notable moments, and the return of some notable characters (Season 1: a breakdancing UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, a pageant contestant, the Supreme Court dogs, the ''Series/SesameStreet'' knockoffs and costumed characters such as a unicorn; Season 2: the Bud Light Lime waiters, Wanda Jo, Jeff the Diseased Lung in a Cowboy Hat, three of the mascots for government departments, and Janice in Accounting). |
| 266 | * CoolAndUnusualPunishment: In his main segments, John will occasionally respond to the issue by crafting a hilarious response meant to shame the offender. For example, Phillip Morris International was given a new cartoon mascot to accurately represent their product while also allowing them to have brand recognition: Jeff, the Diseased Lung in a Cowboy Hat. |
| 267 | * CoolOldLady: Jane Goodall, famed primatologist. In her interview with John, she is unfazed throughout by his ridiculous queries, yet cracks some great jokes of her own (such as suggesting the chimp name "[[UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson Poothrow Wilson]]" become "[[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Poothrow Hitler]]"), and chomps on a banana at the end through the skin like a chimp would, while John gags trying to do the same. |
| 268 | * CoolVsAwesome: The {{Robot|War}}/{{Bear|sAreBadNews}} war (a reference to [[RottenRoboticReplacement less-than-cool robots]] puncturing cans of bear spray and sickening Amazon warehouse workers). |
| 269 | * CorruptChurch: He brings this up in his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y1xJAVZxXg segment on televangelism]] with how there are an unsettling amount of churches out there who are trying to convince people to give them money. He even, in what is one of the more outrageous end-of-segment mock jokes he's done, created his own ''entirely legal'' church based on the idea of mocking predatory televangelism and jokingly endorsed people to pay him for it, emphasizing that yes, all of this was ''actually legal'' and totally tax-exempt (all donations he received were given to Doctors Without Borders once he shuttered his church--at least, those donations with monetary value; they kept the giant wooden dildo statue they were sent). |
| 270 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: |
| 271 | ** The show portrayed several real people as Corrupt Corporate Executives, but a special dishonorable mention goes to Bob Murray. His disregard for safety standards caused a mine to collapse (which he also claimed to have been caused by an earthquake). He also [[KickTheDog yelled at distraught families of the victims]] who asked for answers and sends {{Frivolous Lawsuit}}s to anyone who criticizes him, including ''Last Week Tonight'' after the segment on him aired. All the while claiming that he just wants the best for miners. |
| 272 | ** In the beginning of [[https://youtu.be/2YXjZXE-WL0 the segment on Amazon's unions]], John compares Jeff Bezos to Lex Luthor. |
| 273 | --->'''John:''' Let's move on to Amazon, a company run by Jeff Bezos, who answers the question "What if ComicBook/LexLuthor was-" And that's it. Just "What if Lex Luthor was?" He's a bald business maniac with too much money, zero empathy and weird supervillain vehicles. He is ''just'' Lex Luthor. |
| 274 | * CouchGag: [[http://genius.com/Last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver-opening-sequence-annotated The last card of the opening credits montage]] usually has a reference to one of the previous week's big events (for example, the card on the August 11, 2014 episode, which aired just after the 40th anniversary of the conclusion of Watergate, was of President UsefulNotes/RichardNixon). |
| 275 | * CouldSayItBut: |
| 276 | ** John ''could'' get angry and call tobacco companies "assholes", "monsters", or "open sores on Satan's dick", but he won't do that. |
| 277 | ** John merely mentions that the slang term for political sabotage or dirty tricks, particularly pertaining to election interference is "ratfucking" while showing furry art of the more literal meaning and displaying the email where the GOP wants evidence of alleged election fraud sent. What the viewers choose to do with that information is up to them. |
| 278 | * CrazyPrepared: As John notes, standardized tests are so stressful that they have guidelines for if a student vomits on the test. He then says that, if students vomiting is so common that you've prepared an eventuality for it, then perhaps you need to consider that the test itself is the problem. |
| 279 | * CreepyDoll: |
| 280 | ** In his segment on nuclear waste, John keeps cutting to a shot of a doll collection in which one doll, Felicity, keeps moving around on the shelf. The third time, she's disappeared from the picture entirely, only for the camera to pan and reveal she's somehow moved to John's desk. |
| 281 | ** In between seasons 9 and 10, there's a couple of short web exclusives relating to the creepy dolls that keep washing up on South Texas beaches, some of which are auctioned off by the Mission-Aransas Reserve as fundraising for their sea turtle preservation efforts. John finds them so viscerally creepy that he decides he ''must'' destroy them (although he was probably planning to make the donation anyway), so he gives the Reserve ten thousand dollars in exchange for all the dolls they currently have, so that he can destroy them. Eventually the dolls meet their end in the singing trash cans of Malmo. |
| 282 | * CringeComedy: Most, if not all, of the "And Now, This" segments consist basically of this: |
| 283 | ** "And Now, CNN Weatherman Chad Myers Hates His Job, His Life, and Everyone Around Him". |
| 284 | ** "And Now, Excruciatingly Awkward Silences Caused by Technical Difficulties". |
| 285 | ** "And Now, CBS This Morning's Awkward Sex Talk", followed by "And Now, More of CBS This Morning's Awkward Sex Talk" and "Seriously, the Sexual Tension on CBS This Morning Is Through the Fucking Roof".[[note]]This became much [[invoked]]HarsherInHindsight after Charlie Rose was fired following a long pattern of inappropriate behavior.[[/note]] |
| 286 | ** "And Now, the Inevitable, Sad Consequences of Morning Show Anchors Celebrating Halloween", which is followed by "And Now, Oh Sweet Jesus, They Put the Weather Forecasters in Costumes Too". |
| 287 | ** One of these has even produced enough material to become a recurring segment, as C-SPAN host Steve Scully -- dubbed "The Most Patient Man in Television" -- endures calls from rambling, inarticulate malcontents; paranoid, elderly racists; and the occasional Howard Stern fan, and yet never loses his composure. |
| 288 | * CruelAndUnusualDeath: The segment about Lethal Injections is full of these. |
| 289 | ** For starters, the worst case scenario with the titular injections will result in you being paralyzed but still conscious, while your veins are filled with a chemical cocktail … and if the painkiller doesn't kick in, your final moments will consist of feeling ''incredible'' pain, still completely paralyzed. |
| 290 | ** When John describes other ways people have tried to execute prisoners, he mentions overdosing them with opioids, an idea which was abandoned because when tried, it took 2 hours during which the prisoner kept violently reacting to the drug. The trophy however goes to cyanide gas, which was so bad that the man tasked with the execution ''threatened to resign'' if the usage of gas wasn't abandoned. |
| 291 | * CutenessProximity: Reasoning that, if the visual appeal of Keyboard Cat can make a bad Casio tune entertaining, the basic principle will hold true for anything, John stages an entire room of animals with costumes and fake paws to accompany audio from a Supreme Court hearing. [[CrazyEnoughToWork It's a success.]] |
| 292 | * DamnedByFaintPraise[=/=]OverlyNarrowSuperlative: John agrees that Alexander Lukashenko is the best president in this history of independent Belarus, but only because he's the only one. |
| 293 | * DareToBeBadass: He hijacks Phillip Morris' own slogan to encourage people to get the show's anti-cigarette mascot Jeff the Diseased Lung in a Cowboy Hat trending worldwide: "Don't be a maybe about this!" |
| 294 | * DarkerAndEdgier: Season 7 started taking this turn since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Public safety concerns forced the show to move into a WhiteVoidRoom in John's home. This meant that the energy from the studio audience and the elaborate stunts/parodies (that often help take the edge of off serious topics) fell away. On top of that, many episodes dealt with particularly raw current issues.[[note]]Such as several high profile cases of PoliceBrutality, which heightened existing social/political tensions and led to widespread protests, as well as the massive impact of the pandemic on society, politics and the economy.[[/note]] Instances of John [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness dropping the jokes and becoming visibly angry and/or upset over the issues he discusses]] became a lot more common. Unfortunately, the same could be said for much of Season 8, despite having a BreatherEpisode in the beginning, as due to the pandemic still continuing for the time being, John was forced to remain in the "void.". At least until September 12, 2021, when he returned to the regular studio for the first time since March 2020. |
| 295 | * DeathOfAChild: In the episode on coal, John shows a kid presenting during a coal fair about a piece of coal named Lumpy and what it will do when it "grows up" (with the air-quotes being added by said kid himself). John remarks that the quotes around "grow up" are well-placed, since Lumpy will inevitably not grow up but be [[PoweredByAForsakenChild burned to death along with his family in a ritual to produce energy.]] |
| 296 | * DefiantToTheEnd: The "Doomsday Video" section. When the news of Ted Turner's CrazyPrepared idea for CNN's last broadcast in the event of an apocalypse was revealed, many commentators (John included) faulted it for being so mournful and depressing. Instead, John calls Creator/MartinSheen to prepare a new broadcast where the attitude is that even if the world is ending, humanity should value what it did, good and bad, instead of feeling sorry. |
| 297 | * DeliberateValuesDissonance: Many of the issues John explores are often the product of the attitudes of different eras. In his segment on the U.S. Territories, John explains that their lack of national voting rights is due to the Insular Cases, which declared the residents of these territories to be "alien races" in 1901. The guy who wrote them? Henry Billings Brown, the man who wrote the majority opinion in ''Plessy v. Ferguson''[[labelnote:*]]The ruling that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities under what came to be infamously known as the "separate but equal" doctrine, and is widely regarded as one of the worst decisions in U.S. Supreme Court history.[[/labelnote]] -- and even ''he'' only intended for the Cases to be a temporary measure, while they're still in effect 115 years later. |
| 298 | * DidntSeeThatComing: In his second segment on FIFA, John offered to sample the various products of FIFA's sponsors -- most notably, [[FauxHorrific a Bud Light Lime]] -- if they would pressure Sepp Blatter into resigning. When Blatter actually did resign, John admits he never thought it would happen. |
| 299 | * DiscouragingConcealment: In an episode on encryption, John describes two ways of making sure no one reads your email: Encrypting it, or titling it "Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Hilarious Joke From Uncle Walter". |
| 300 | * DisproportionateRetribution: Conversed when talking about mandatory minimum sentencing laws. As an example, John talks about a man who, on his nonviolent first offense, got 55 years in prison without parole for a minor drug charge. He then shows an interview clip with the judge who passed that verdict and now [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone deeply regrets doing so]]. In the interview, the judge lists several heinous crimes that would have gotten him lesser sentences (specifically 24 years for hijacking an aircraft, 20 years for terrorism, and 11 years for child rape), causing John to point out that, by combining them, this man would have gotten the exact same sentence as a hypothetical "plane-hijacking, child-raping terrorist, a person so evil I legitimately don't know if one has ever existed." |
| 301 | ** John has jokingly claimed that in the UK, [[BritishStuffiness crying in public is punishable by exile from the country.]] |
| 302 | * DistinctionWithoutADifference: The segment about infrastructure features a clip from a ''Series/SixtyMinutes'' segment including a comment from the former U.S. Secretary of Transportation regarding "structurally deficient" bridges: "I don't want to say they're unsafe, but, they're dangerous." |
| 303 | -->'''John:''' What?! Hold on, hold on, hold on. When we're at a point where the Secretary of Transportation is struggling between using the word "unsafe" and the word "dangerous", we might have a problem worth fixing. |
| 304 | * DistractedByTheSexy: During his segment on the Indian election. |
| 305 | -->'''John:''' Rahul Gandhi, however, is-- ''[[EvenTheGuysWantHim WOW, that guy is handsome.]]'' Look at that vest! He's like an Indian Han Solo. |
| 306 | * DoNotDoThisCoolThing: {{Invoked|Trope}} and {{discussed|Trope}} in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKMNKS-9ugY segment]] about an anti-gambling advert produced by the National Council on Problem Gambling in Singapore at the beginning of the 2014 World Cup. In it, a young boy bemoans that his father has stolen his life savings and bet them all on one particular country to win. It sounds like a good idea for an anti-gambling campaign in theory … if it wasn't for the fact that the advert's producers chose Germany, whose team ended up winning the World Cup, to be the country that the kid's father bet on. This, as John points out, makes the kid's father look less like a reckless addict ruining his son's future and more like an incredibly lucky gambler with a knack for picking a winner while on a hot streak. When the fact that [[AuthorsSavingThrow Singapore later produced a follow-up ad to save face]] comes up (apparently, the kid's father is still going to gamble away the money he earned on the win), John then screens a series of parodies that show the father making increasingly outlandish and specific bets and the family growing ever richer. The kid's friends eventually lose pity and tell him to shut up, and then when the final absurd bet (the July 2014 announcement that Creator/RyanGosling and Creator/EvaMendes were expecting their first child) comes true, money starts raining from the sky and the two other kids say "Your dad is the best!" and "Gambling is awesome!" |
| 307 | * DoWrongRight: |
| 308 | ** When Vice Admiral Tim Giardina -- who until that point was in charge of America's nuclear weapons stockpile -- was caught using fake poker chips, John's first comment was, ethical issues aside, if he were remotely competent for his position, he would ''never have been caught''. |
| 309 | --->'''John:''' I'm sorry, but a Vice Admiral ''has'' to have the mental fortitude to fool an Iowa pit boss. You ''have'' to! |
| 310 | ** Revisited when the Secret Service leaked Jason Chaffetz's failed application. Which is worse: that they acted like a [[GirlPosse table of high school mean girls]], or that they didn't bother to learn he regularly embarrasses ''himself'' without outside help? |
| 311 | ** In the episode on farmworkers, a news clip is shown of a farm-owning couple is confronted with video of their son calling one of their workers the N-word. All either of them have to say is that their employees are Mexican, not Black, so they don't know why he used that word. John thoroughly mocks this response: |
| 312 | --->'''John (as the mother)''': I raised my son better than to use slurs incorrectly! |
| 313 | * TheDogBitesBack: |
| 314 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FCioWz7aps When the American electronics chain Radioshack went out of business after 94 years]] (in actuality, its stores were folded into Sprint as extensions of its existing store chain), John offered the company use of a farewell video that consisted of about a minute and a half of [[Creator/DavidKaye the announcer]] giving a ClusterFBomb to America for making Radioshack's slow demise into a punchline. |
| 315 | ** One of the judges in Bob Murray's case against John turns out to be someone he mocked on his segment on elections for judges. [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] when he and the other judges [[DeusExMachina all get impeached for an unrelated scandal.]] |
| 316 | * DoubleEntendre: |
| 317 | ** At the beginning of the first FIFA segment, John, a self-professed association football fan, explained his conflicted feelings about it thus: |
| 318 | --->'''John:''' The Sausage Principle is where, if you love something, you never want to find out how it's made. Tonight, I'm going to show you my sausage… |
| 319 | ** The entire "#[=ShowUsYourPeanuts=]" speech. It starts off as a simple crude pun, then whips into a frenzied HurricaneOfEuphemisms. |
| 320 | ** At the end of his segment on televangelism scammers, "Wanda Jo", a parody of the archetypal televangelist wife, urges viewers to plant their seeds (that is, send money), enthusiastically veering into the ''other'' meaning of seed. |
| 321 | --->'''Wanda Jo:''' Plant your seed in his mouth! Plant it all over his face! |
| 322 | * DownerEnding: John called for humanity to unite behind saving a lost group of geckos on a Russian satellite, then made a web exclusive sketch when contact with the satellite was reestablished. Unfortunately, when it was brought back down it turned out the geckos had frozen to death. |
| 323 | * {{Eagleland}}: Mixed Flavor: John often remarks on how much he loves America and how glad he is to live there, while still making fun of it from an immigrant's perspective. |
| 324 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: |
| 325 | ** Up until late 2016, any instances of the word "fuck" had a SoundEffectBleep on the show's Website/YouTube channel, which can be a bit surprising for viewers on [=YouTube=] to hear if they're used to John saying it uncensored in the present day. |
| 326 | ** The early seasons functioned much like ''Series/TheDailyShow'', with John having interview segments with people. |
| 327 | ** The main segments of episodes in earlier seasons often had a connection to events that had occurred in the previous week. In later seasons, the main segments tend not to have any connection to current events. |
| 328 | * ElSpanishO: In his segment on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kEpZWGgJks civil forfeiture]], John plays a clip of a cop trying -- and we use that word charitably -- to ask a truck driver if he has a large amount of money in his truck. His attempt, "Tenny mucho mucho denero in su trucky-trailer" (though John mishears denero as [[Creator/RobertDeNiro De Niro]]), is so comically wrong that John loves it for just how terrible it is, even noting the sentence's mispronunciations and impromptu shift from Spanish to English. What the cop is ''trying'' to say is "Tiene mucho dinero en su truck y trailer?" ("Do you have much money in your truck and trailer?"). |
| 329 | * EmbarrassingOldPhoto: |
| 330 | ** Actively invoked this on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-ERajkMXw0 his segment]] on the so-called "Right to be Forgotten" (i.e. the argument that people should be able to take embarrassing pictures or stories about them off the internet, which, he points out, is [[StreisandEffect pretty much impossible]]). He set up a campaign called "Mutually Assured Humiliation," asking everyone to post the most embarrassing pictures of themselves so that they would not be hidden or revealed against one's will. He even includes a couple of himself -- one as a child with a sweater with his own name on it (which he says isn't an example, because he actually kind of likes it), and one of him as an incredibly dorky teenager. |
| 331 | -->'''John:''' You '''better''' have fucking done that or I've made a horrible mistake. And I think I've just made a horrible mistake. |
| 332 | ** John's dorky high school photo is a RunningGag on the show, as he often uses it as a form of SelfDeprecation or to explain why high school was terrifying for him. It even appeared in some promotional campaigns for the show. |
| 333 | * EnemyMine: In his second story about net neutrality, John calls on all the diverse groups of Internet dwellers, even the trolls at Website/FourChan and Website/{{Reddit}} who hate him, to come together and support net neutrality, since it's the one thing they can all agree on. |
| 334 | * EscalatingWar: After Jack Warner bought five minutes of airtime on Trinidadian television station [=TV6=] to defend his horrible abuse of power at FIFA, John bought the same amount to produce a segment encouraging Warner to spill all the dirt on the rest of FIFA's illegal dealings. Warner replied with another video that he didn't need a "comedian fool" telling him what to do, scored with absurdly epic music. At this point John actively tried to keep it going by challenging Warner to respond to every one of his own videos in an increasingly epic way, using the same music plus flame jets. Unfortunately, Warner didn't respond and the incident has yet to be referenced again, not even by the show itself to celebrate John's victory. |
| 335 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: |
| 336 | ** From his bit on Roger Goodell and the NFL domestic violence scandal, when Roger gets owned by an indignant reporter for [[TabloidMelodrama TMZ]]: |
| 337 | --->'''John:''' You know that things are not going well when you lose the moral high ground to a ''TMZ reporter''. |
| 338 | ** He then offers a bit of redemption for Goodell (or twists the knife) in a spot on the NFL player protests, and Donald Trump's reaction to them. |
| 339 | --->'''John:''' When you've lost the moral high ground to ''Roger fucking Goodell'', something has gone seriously wrong. |
| 340 | ** When discussing how badly the WWE cares for its former wrestlers, John compares the company to the NFL, saying how the NFL at least has some forms of financial compensation for older players facing healthcare costs. He then goes on to say that if you've lost the moral high-ground to the NFL, you are 'morally subterranean'. |
| 341 | * EveryoneHasStandards: |
| 342 | ** In his segment on POM Wonderful and misleading food labels, John had this to say regarding POM Wonderful's ludicrous health claims about pomegranates: |
| 343 | --->'''John:''' The U.S. government will let you say just about anything about your products, but promising immortality was too much even for them. |
| 344 | ** The Russian army found Major General Michael Carey too drunk [[VodkaDrunkenski for them]]. And what was Carey in charge of? '''[[OhCrap Nuclear missiles]]'''. |
| 345 | ** And then in his segment on North Dakota's oil business, he states that ''even Texas'' bans indemnification clauses (clauses in employee contracts that completely absolves the company of any legal fault or obligation to pay settlements in the event of said employee's injury or death) in the oil industry, and to emphasize the point, he jokingly states that Texas is so loosely regulated that "their speed limit is 'let 'er rip', and their age of consent is just a drawing of a wink!" And then later when their announcer guy does a speech to North Dakota, they say "in some ways, you're less regulated than ''Texas''! ''Fucking Texas!''! You're less regulated than … [shows a black and white film clip of a guy in an old west town forced to dance while his feet are being shot at] whatever ''this'' is!" This isn't the only time Texas made progressive legislation either, they show up again in the Forensic Science episode as the source of a bill where convicts can request a retrial if they feel the science doesn't add up. |
| 346 | ** In yet another instance, he pointed out the very telling irony that now-former British prime minister UsefulNotes/DavidCameron's tax credit reform legislation -- which many financial experts said would unfairly hurt the working class and especially single-parent households -- was struck down by the ''House of Lords'', the most hilariously, ridiculously "privileged rich British" organization imaginable, because even ''they'' felt it was too hard on low-income individuals. |
| 347 | ** When discussing the sexual misconduct allegations hitting Congressman Matt Gaetz, John plays a clip of an interview Gaetz did with Tucker Carlson where he tries to defend himself by citing a dinner he and an acquaintance had with Carlson and his wife, only for Carlson to refuse to back him up by saying that he had no recollection of said dinner. This leads to John describing Gaetz as "the one White man Tucker Carlson ''won't'' defend." |
| 348 | ** In one segment, John shows an interview in which John Stossel mentions the word "pirate" in front of a guy with an ''eyepatch''. While John is a shameless troll, he finds this a bit unfair and underhanded. |
| 349 | ** An example for the show itself happened on the October 15th, 2023. Before the opening title screen plays for the episode, John sat down and explained that [[SincerityMode the episode would not discuss the conflict currently happening between Israel and Palestine in any way]]. Not only was it [[DudeNotFunny far too horrific for John to make jokes about]], but with how fast the story was moving, trying to do journalistic analysis of it would likely date the entire story in less than a few hours. John also refused to inject himself in how both sides should make peace due to his British background, subtly [[TakeThat criticizing the British Empire]] for causing the Israel-Palestine conflict in the first place.[[note]]For historical context, John could have been referring to the UsefulNotes/WorldWarI-era Hussein-[=McMahon=] Correspondences (in which the British government promised Arab nationalists support for an independent Arab state carved from then-Ottoman Arabia), Sykes-Picot Agreement (in which the United Kingdom (and France) divided up the Asian portions of the then-Ottoman Empire, which included Palestine) and [=/=] or the Balfour Declaration of 1917 (which promised a Jewish homeland in then-Ottoman Palestine)[[/note]] |
| 350 | * EvenTheRatsWontTouchIt: During the "Dollar Stores" segment in 2023, John plays a clip of a woman in a dollar store offering a rodent inside of a dollar store a Pringle, who doesn't even move from its spot even after she backs away and leaves the chip for it. John is quick to make fun of this after the clip ends, imagining a hypothetical sequel to ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'' depicting this overly picky rat as an "Absolute Food Bitch". |
| 351 | * EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes: John feigns love for bagpipe music while trying to woo Scotland into remaining part of the United Kingdom in his segment about the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. |
| 352 | * EverythingsPreciousWithPuppies: |
| 353 | ** In order to make Supreme Court hearings more interesting to the general public (as the Supreme Court doesn't allow cameras into the hearings), the show staged a hearing using dogs as the justices and lawyers, dropped the raw footage on Website/YouTube, and then basically sat around to allow the internet to do its thing. |
| 354 | ** In order to [[ItMakesSenseInContext prove to Dr. Oz]] that you can pander without making false claims about products, John brought out an adorable puppy that he literally calls precious. |
| 355 | --->'''John:''' And look! Neither I nor the puppy am making unsubstantiated claims about potentially harmful dietary supplements! [[CutenessProximity You're not doing that, are you, puppy? Look! Because you don't need to, do you, precious?]] |
| 356 | * EvolvingCredits: [[https://genius.com/Last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver-opening-sequence-annotated The opening titles]] were the same for the first two seasons, [[CouchGag last slide aside]]. Then every year some of the cards are either replaced, more often than not with references to past segments, or have the CanisLatinicus description above changed (Vladimir Putin was changed from "Adversarius Maximus" to “POTUS Operandi” during Trump's government, Facebook went from “Mathematiculus Potentissimus” to "Dislikeum") - although in one case it was the text that remained, as before 2017 "Caesar" was Hillary, and then it was Trump. John's card also started having him as he looked at the season's start. |
| 357 | * ExactWords: During a story on corporate tax evasions, John plays a clip from a statement by the CEO of Apple to Congress, where he denies hiding the company's money in "some Caribbean island". John then points out that the money was actually hidden first in Ireland, then the Isle of Jersey, which are islands, but not ''Caribbean'' islands. |
| 358 | ** At the end of his “FIFA II” segment, John makes a plea to the sponsors of FIFA, begging them to use their influence to force then-president Sepp Blatter to resign. John tells Budweiser he will consume a bottle of Bud Light Lime (which he says tastes like “a puddle beneath a Long John Silver’s dumpster”) on camera, and say it was “delicious.” Less than a week later, Blatter resigned. Ever a man of his word, on his next show John did indeed chug a bottle of Bud Light Lime on camera and say “Delicious!”, even though it wasn’t clear Budweiser had anything to do with Blatter leaving. But before John emptied the bottle (at an on-set Bud Light Lime-themed pool party, no less), he had this to say: |
| 359 | --> “However, for the record, I didn’t promise anything about what I would say ''before'' I drank it, which is: that Bud Light Lime tastes like Jolly Green Giant ejaculate, it tastes like The Main/GreatGazoo urinating into a public pool, or, a lime Jolly Rancher fished out of Creator/MickeyRourke’s mouth.” |
| 360 | |
| 361 | * ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: |
| 362 | ** John showing tiny hamsters eating tiny burritos at the end of a segment on capital punishment. He even invokes this trope with the following quote: |
| 363 | --->'''John:''' There was a Website/YouTube video this week of tiny hamsters eating tiny burritos, and it's as magical and as uncomplicated as you think. |
| 364 | ** After getting wrapped up in figuring out exactly which person in a 1993 video of Princes William and Harry playing football is current Prime Minister candidate Rory Stewart, it turns out some staff members have created a "Second Rory Theory." |
| 365 | --->'''John:''' It's far too complicated to go into fully, but basically, we think there's a second Rory. |
| 366 | * TheExile: John jokingly says that crying in public is punishable by banishment in Britain, and states that the only reason he is in the U.S. is because he cried when watching an in-theater preview for ''Film/TheNotebook''. |
| 367 | * {{Eyedscreen}}: Used when John is about to [[StuffBlowingUp detonate]] a sign saying 2020 in [[https://youtu.be/EzlCOg-37hI?t=520 the Season 7 finale]]. |
| 368 | * FanCommunityNicknames: Parodied when John coins the name “Officious Birdwatchers” for the show’s fanbase, taking the phrase from a Fox News clip he's commenting on (where it was used in a completely different context). John is the officious bird, the fans are the watchers. |
| 369 | * FanDisservice: |
| 370 | ** John's hypothetical campaign ad against Mitch [=McConnell=] features nothing but an old man's wrinkled penis. |
| 371 | ** In order to demonstrate the coverage of the Affordable Care Act, John shows a picture of a middle-aged man in a thong, shot from the back: Terrible, but better than nothing. To demonstrate its potential replacement, the American Health Care Act, he has the thong lowered halfway. |
| 372 | * FanFic: ''Literature/ADayInTheLifeOfMarlonBundo'', a TakeThat story about Mike Pence's pet rabbit falling in love with a boy rabbit made in response towards Pence's homophobic views after it was announced that the Pences would release a children's book based on their pet rabbit, Marlon Bundo. |
| 373 | * FascistButInefficient: |
| 374 | ** In collecting money from municipal violations from those who are too poor to pay, the system will often waste an inordinate amount of resources prosecuting them for that inability, including jail time, the overall cost of which far exceeds any money they might recoup from the offender. |
| 375 | ** On a similar note, John explains that, due to the ineptitude of the Florida justice system, a sickly, non-violent offender was imprisoned because he could not cover the cost for a public defender, which contradicts the constituional right to be provided a free, public defender if a person cannot pay for a lawyer on their own. While the state was eventually paid the fee, John notes that it was much less than the money the state paid to imprison him. |
| 376 | * {{Feghoot}}: The segment on the lethal injection is interrupted thrice to compare it to "planning to have sex with your mother". The ending shows that was a build-up to "That was a long way to say that if we choose to continue killing people that way, we're some real motherfuckers!". |
| 377 | * FetishRetardant: Invoked deliberately for comedy, mostly coming from external sources; given that the show is uncensored, it often gets downright ''disgusting''. |
| 378 | ** The fake Mitch [=McConnell=] attack ad uses of footage of an old man's naked, flappy dick. |
| 379 | ** In the ALEC segment, two California state legislators excitedly discussing their fondness for spanking into a hot mic; as John himself puts it, they're simply not very good at telling when things are turned on. |
| 380 | * FreezeFrameBonus: The CanisLatinicus [[http://trollback.com/last-week-tonight/ opening.]] Season 3 even adds [[ContinuityPorn many a]] CallBack to past episodes -- the salmon cannon, the dogs dressed as the Supreme Court; Wanda Jo; Jeff, the Diseased Lung in a Cowboy Hat; and a lot of segment subjects. |
| 381 | * FrenchJerk: When discussing FIFA's request that Brazil change the law in order to allow alcohol in sports stadiums, they played a clip of a French FIFA official, Jérôme Valcke, asking them to do so in a thick French accent, while [[TemptingFate cautioning that he may sound "a bit arrogant" in doing so]]. It's not surprising how John continued by mocking him in a thick French accent:[[note]]Valcke later expressed concern afterwards at the unruly nature of many drunken fans, which inspired a follow-up segment bluntly titled "Fuck That Guy".[[/note]] |
| 382 | -->'''John:''' ''[in French accent]'' Maybe I look a beet arrogahnt, but uh, how you say, ''fuck your laws'', and your pooblic saff-ty. Is zat right? |
| 383 | * FrivolousLawsuit: After John heavily criticized coal CEO Bob Murray in a segment on coal, Murray sued him for defamation, despite all of the information presented on Murray being either factual or clearly satirical. True to this trope, a judge dismissed the case in February 2018 arguing that the plaintiff's side lacked merit. |
| 384 | * FrivolousSummoning: One episode had a running gag about John Oliver being able to summon Creator/GeorgeClooney whenever he wanted and irritating him with pointless summons. |
| 385 | * FullyAutomaticClipShow: Most of the "And Now, This" segments. |
| 386 | * GaiasLament: |
| 387 | ** In his segment on food waste, John is aghast at how excess food production is not only wasting precious water supplies, but all that thrown out food is producing methane, which is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. |
| 388 | ** The North Dakotan oil industry has damaged farmland throughout the state. |
| 389 | * GoldenMeanFallacy: Discussed in his discussion on the idea of "Spreading out" vaccines over a longer period of time, as opposed to immediate vaccination on schedule or no vaccination |
| 390 | -->'''John:''' The problem is, it's the middle ground between ''sense'' and ''nonsense''. It's like saying "It would be crazy to eat that entire bar of soap, so I'll just eat ''half'' of it." |
| 391 | * GoneHorriblyRight: |
| 392 | ** During the inaugural episode's profile of India's election, the country's cable news networks are shown to not only have mimicked the American formula (pointless cross-talk, quickly moving graphics), but taken everything up to eleven in the process. |
| 393 | --->'''John:''' Do you have self-righteous anchors repeating themselves, over and over again?\ |
| 394 | '''Arnab Goswami:''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvYstXzA-J4 How dare you say I take money, simply? How dare you say I take money?]] How dare you say I take money? How dare you say I take money? [[BrokenRecord How dare you say I take money? How dare you say I take money? How dare you say I take money? How dare you say I take money?]] [[MadnessMantra How dare you say I take money? You say this to me, how can you say I take money? You -- how dare you say I take money, Ms. Lekhi?]]\ |
| 395 | '''John:''' Holy shit, they've stolen our formula! |
| 396 | ** Also the adoption of homophobic rhetoric by Ugandan politicians to push for an anti-homosexual agenda, which only came to fruition after a lengthy visit by American pastor Scott Lively. This led to a lot of misinformation about LGBTI practices commonly used by American anti-gay movements spread through Ugandan society, death threats made against LGBTI activists there, and the use of arguments such as "It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve", when 'Adam', 'Eve' and 'Steve' are, as you might have guessed, ''not typical Ugandan names''. |
| 397 | --->'''John:''' All you [Scott Lively] were saying was "Gay people are evil, insidious Nazis … do with that information what you will! Lively out, Lively out!" |
| 398 | ** In undertaking the "Race Together" campaign, Starbucks was hoping to spark a meaningful national debate about racial discrimination in America, and indeed it did -- by hundreds of people pointing out the systematic White male privilege of the company and its executives, to the point where the company's senior vice president of communications Corey duBrowa -- also a White man -- had to delete his Twitter account. |
| 399 | --->'''John:''' ''[cheerfully]'' Hey, how's that conversation on race going, Starbucks? Lots of fun, right? What if this could be EVERY morning? |
| 400 | * GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: The segment on Crisis Pregnancy Centers ([=CPCs=]) mentions that in order to keep the abortion rate low, and eventually non-existent, they set themselves as alternatives to places like Planned Parenthood. John also mentions that although they do provide some worthwhile services like parenting classes and free diapers, the attitude of some of these places is, "once the baby baby is born, the mother and child are on their own, lest they become parasites to our organization." John also mentions that although [=CPCs=] laud themselves for wanting to make sure every woman carries on to full term, they also vehemently oppose contraception, a service available at places like Planned Parenthood, [[MandatoryMotherhood believing that sexual intercourse must lead to pregnancy and birth.]] |
| 401 | * GoshDangItToHeck: The third season finale ends with a montage of comedians and random New Yorkers declaring "Fuck you, 2016!" When it's Music/WeirdAlYankovic's turn, Al, who prefers to keep his material somewhat family friendly, declares that "2016 … falls well below my standards of quality." |
| 402 | * GrandRomanticGesture: Invoked by John in the segment on the Scottish independence referendum. After citing examples from romantic comedies, he tries to convince Scotland to stay in the United Kingdom by eating a bite of haggis, drinking Scotch whisky, bringing out a pantomime unicorn and listening to bagpipe music. The vote ended with the majority of Scots voting against independence, so mission accomplished. |
| 403 | * GratuitousFrench: Invoked in the segment on the 2017 French presidential election. At the end, John launches an appeal to the French people urging them not to vote for Marine Le Pen. In an attempt to make his speech more effective, he does the entire thing in French, while admitting his accent makes it sound like "a Creator/GuyRitchie remake of ''Film/{{Amelie}}''". |
| 404 | * GreedyTelevangelist: An episode in 2015 focused on televangelists and the ways they are exploiting people for monetary gain. At the end of the episode, John Oliver and his wife (played by Creator/RachelDratch) parodied this by using a lot of the same language used by the televangelists they covered to set up a fake religious entity ("Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption") and an associated televangelism website and donation line, adding that any donations would be redirected to Doctors Without Borders. When the church was eventually shut down a few weeks later, Oliver announced that tens of thousands of dollars had been donated and were indeed forwarded to Doctors Without Borders. |
| 405 | * GroinAttack: John's proposed streaming video network Nutflix, where it mostly shows people getting kicked in the balls, which he mentions in his segment about net neutrality. |
| 406 | * GuinnessEpisode: The episode on Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov is a [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] - he discusses how a lot of world records are not made by random people who just want crazy records, but by large corporations or human rights-abusing dictators like Berdimuhamedov, all who are aided by Guinness themselves in picking just the right record to boost publicity. When Guinness refused to help John Oliver get his own, rather hypocritically citing their need to be [[MoralGuardians family-friendly]], John responds by [[spoiler:beating the record for the largest marble cake, without Guinness's help, and puts a picture on it of the time when Berdimuhamedov infamously fell off a horse]] |
| 407 | * GutPunch: John notes how season 2 delivered one after another of those regarding prisoners -- mandatory minimums overcrowd prisons, bail punishes the poor, public defenders are overworked and understaffed, and people get arrested due to minor municipal violations -- and if one binge watches those four segments, [[HeartbreakAndIceCream it's better to go after some ice cream.]] |
| 408 | * InternetJerk: Discussed in-depth during the segment on online harassment. |
| 409 | [[/folder]] |
| 410 | |
| 411 | [[folder:Tropes H to L]] |
| 412 | * HaggisIsHorrible: John feigns love for haggis while trying to woo Scotland back to remaining part of the United Kingdom in his segment talking about the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. |
| 413 | * HarsherInHindsight[[invoked]]: Invoked and PlayedForLaughs in the November 18, 2018 episode. Before reporting on the main story, we see the segment "And Now, This" titled "And Now: News Clips That Haven't Aged Well" and shows clips of Mario Batali, Harvey Weinstein, Jared Fogel, Bill Cosby, and Creator/KevinSpacey being interviewed by reporters from Creator/{{CBS}}, Creator/{{NBC}} among other networks, while talking about their love lives, and using soundbites [[DoubleEntendre that sound like they had a double meaning when talking about other subjects.]] Some clips often showed them being interviewed by Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer, the former of whom ended the segment by asking about a question about sexual harassment. |
| 414 | ** Played for laughs again in the episode on workplace sexual harassment, in response to a clip of Creator/LizaMinnelli’s pro-woman musical number at the 1993 Academy Awards, featuring the lyric "[[UsefulNotes/HillaryClinton Hillary]] will lead the way": |
| 415 | --->'''John:''' ''Ouch.'' The only way that could be any more on the nose is if after they sang "Hillary will lead the way", Donald Trump came on stage, groped the backup dancers, and somehow won Best Picture despite losing the popular vote. |
| 416 | * HashtagForLaughs: John sometimes does this. |
| 417 | ** One of the show's {{Running Gag}}s is to tackle "[=#Feminism=]" to completely unrelated topics as a tongue-in-cheek parody of attempts at female inclusion and equality even in the most ridiculous circumstances. |
| 418 | --->'''John:''' Adolf Hitler, or as I like to call him: Mister Eva Braun. '''[=#FEMINISM #HITLER=]'''" |
| 419 | ** While complaining about corporations making offensive tweets about social issues for advertising purposes, he unveiled the hashtag "[[AC:[=#WeUnderstandThatAsCorporateEntitiesOurPresenceInCertainDiscussionsIsNotAlwaysRequired SoWeWillStriveToLimitOurActivitiesToJustSellingYouShit=]]]." It's even exactly 140 characters long to make sure it's idiot proof.[[note]]This was before Twitter changed the character limit of tweets to 280.[[/note]] |
| 420 | * HeadDesk: The poster for season five shows John with his head on his desk, looking absolutely exhausted. |
| 421 | -->'''Tagline:''' [[ObviouslyNotFine Everything is fine.]] |
| 422 | * HeliumSpeech: On the segment on Execution, after playing a recording of a criminal justice professor trying to demonstrate the supposed painlessness of nitrogen gas execution by playing video of a girl passing out after breathing helium, John reacts by breathing helium himself before delivering his response. He then breathes helium again at the very end of the segment to deliver his closing message on the topic. |
| 423 | * HellholePrison: How John sees Guantanamo Bay. In the October 9, 2016 episode's segment on the Cuban detainment camp, he argued that it would be better for the United States to close the facility due to the conditions and the somewhat shaky legal justifications for its existence. |
| 424 | * HereWeGoAgain: |
| 425 | ** After the 2015 elections in the UK, which occurred less than nine months after the failed referendum on Scottish independence, John is aghast that the Scottish National Party has won nearly ''all'' the Scottish seats in the UK Parliament, meaning ''another'' referendum in the near future is very likely. |
| 426 | ** The montage of [[ItWillNeverCatchOn all the times conservatives said Obamacare would soon be repealed]] ended with one Republican asked whether he'd ''still'' try to repeal it, [[ByNoIMeanYes all but saying that he would]]. |
| 427 | * HitlerAteSugar: |
| 428 | ** Invoked in his segment [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V618uw3q-xE on misleading labels]], where one of the printable banners reads "Contains 2% or less of wheat starch. You know what else contains less than 2% of wheat starch? '''Adolf Hitler'''." |
| 429 | ** A bizarre [[InvertedTrope inversion]] is discussed during the episode on lethal injection. One senator argues that the death penalty is a good thing [[InsaneTrollLogic because Jesus died that way.]] |
| 430 | * Usefulnotes/HollywoodAccounting: Discussed in his segment on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX8BXH3SJn0 The NCAA]], where university athletic departments use this to justify not paying their players. |
| 431 | * HollywoodScience: Discussed in his May 8, 2016 segment on scientific studies seen on daytime network shows. The message of that segment is that the general public frequently misuses science (either [[ArtisticLicense intentionally]] or unintentionally) to draw conclusions that serve their interests and fail to accurately check the research. |
| 432 | * HomeschooledKids: Discussed in his October 8, 2023 segment, as John acknowledges considerable nuance in homeschooling in America. Namely, while he acknowledged some TruthInTelevision of the stereotype of [[MoralGuardians right-wing evangelical parents]] who homeschool their children due to objections over the culture of public education, John also pointed out that there were plenty of ''left-wing'' families across the United States who homeschool their children as well (often due to white-washed cirriculums or lack of resources in accomodating special-needs children). John also acknowleged the little federal oversight over homeschooling, and the negative impacts that this approach has had on some homeschooled children. |
| 433 | * HonorBeforeReason: Discussed in relation with the Mosquito Control District Board of Litchfield, New Hampshire -- an administrative body comprised entirely of two men in a completely empty room, who nonetheless go through all the proper procedure demanded of their jobs, including reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, calling the roll, and opening the floor to input from a non-existent audience. John even mentions that their admirable level of dedication to a thankless job just makes the apathy they face even more heartbreaking. |
| 434 | * HopeSpot: The saga of five geckos stranded on a Russian satellite, as told in three hashtags: [=#GoGetThoseGeckos=], [=#WeGotThoseGeckos=], and [=#GoodbyeGeckos=]. |
| 435 | * HonestJohnsDealership: The segment on auto-lending primarily focuses on these types of dealerships and discusses the major problems they cause. The segment ends with a fake advert for Crazy Johnny's Used Cars, complete with his cousin Crazy Jimmy (Creator/KeeganMichaelKey) and their accountant Crazy Walter (Bob Balaban). |
| 436 | * HotBlooded: Mike Bost [[http://youtu.be/aIMgfBZrrZ8?t=4m54s doesn't quite appreciate]] sifting through all the bills the Illinois General Assembly has to pass every day. After reading the statistics on it,[[note]]The state legislatures passed over ''240 times'' the number of bills as Congress, with Illinois [[http://legiscan.com/IL processing an average of 13,000 proposals per session]][[/note]] John is inclined to agree. |
| 437 | * {{Hypocrite}}: In his segment on voting, John points out that lawmakers who push restrictive voter ID laws in the name of preventing fraud are often guilty of stealing the votes of their fellow lawmakers during legislative sessions, some even using sticks to log in the vote of their fellow legislators while they're not even looking. |
| 438 | * HypocriticalHumor: Deliberately invoked. |
| 439 | ** John mocks Senator Orrin Hatch for being obviously fed lines by an aide during a hearing on the American Health Care Act. He then loses his train of thought and an intern does the same thing for him. |
| 440 | ** John points out how NBA players are being transparently forced to praise China in advertisments, only to follow that make making an equally forced plug for HBO's HBO Max service. |
| 441 | ** When pointing out how Hotstar (a Disney subsidiary in India which distrubutes the show there) made ham-fisted edits to the program to hide parts mocking Disney, John criticizes their editing for being obvious in how it diverges from the show's standard camera angle while deliberately switching to odd angles each time he brings one of the edits up. |
| 442 | * IAmVeryBritish: PlayedForLaughs. Even though John ''is'', of course, British, he will [[BriefAccentImitation sometimes adopt an comically exaggerated upper-class British accent]] when addressing issues related to British culture and/or history. |
| 443 | * ICantBelieveImSayingThis: Said by John as he realizes that, by complying to the Paris Climate accords -- unlike Trump -- "Wal-Mart and Philip Morris are the good guys"! |
| 444 | * IHaveAFamily: When talking about [[UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin Putin]], John says that he was voted the sexiest man alive by a magazine which says in the title that it will say anything Putin wants, because it has a family. |
| 445 | * ImmigrantPatriotism: He'll mock America like no one's business, but he's made it clear he does love living there, and thinks the country has a lot of great things about it. |
| 446 | * ImpressivePyrotechnics: |
| 447 | ** John taunted Jack Warner while pillars of fire rose behind him (he later acknowledged the set nearly burned that day). |
| 448 | ** The "Fuck You 2016" piece in the season three finale [[https://youtu.be/-rSDUsMwakI?t=1656 earned an explosive visual translation]]. |
| 449 | ** The last episode of 2020, an year definitely worse than 2016, [[https://youtu.be/EzlCOg-37hI?t=509 warranted another, possibly bigger, explosion.]] |
| 450 | * InsaneEqualsViolent: |
| 451 | ** Discussed during the segment on mental illness. One of the only times people -- Republican legislators, in particular -- appear to be willing to talk about it is in the aftermath of mass shootings, even though statistics acknowledge that mentally ill people are more likely to be the ''victims'' of violent crimes rather than the perpetrators, and each discussion [[RedHerring comes off as a diversion in debates over gun control]] as ultimately neither problem is resolved. |
| 452 | ** Played straight during the May 22, 2016 segment on Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov (and his lost cat), with John insinuating that Kadyrov is psychotic for his human rights abuses and his authoritarianism. |
| 453 | * TheInternetIsForPorn: In the "How Is This Still a Thing?" segment on the ''Sports Illustrated'' swimsuit issue, which outsells the actual magazine by leagues (an average of 800,000 copies compared to 68,000 for any standard issue during the rest of the year), it's pondered why the magazine has such spectacular sales when a simple Google search will turn up far more actual nudity at the press of a button and with no cost, and further posits that their attempts to stay relevant mean the issue will inevitably lose the swimsuits entirely. |
| 454 | * InsultBackfire: |
| 455 | ** After Jack Warner called him a "comedian fool", John replied that that wasn't an insult so much as his business card. |
| 456 | ** During the Season 3 trailer, John actually agrees with the criticism thrown at him, and he seems less perturbed by the fact that Cher said he had a "wee rat face", and more amazed that Cher acknowledged that he existed! (for context, [[https://twitter.com/cher/status/650884867014590464 she said that]] to finish a ''praising'' tweet, of all things!) |
| 457 | ** In both the Season 3 trailer and subsequent social media covers for the show, there are four negative assessments they had to be proud of -- along with "comedian fool", there was "more unpleasant than a diuretic", "very boring", and [[http://www.wsj.com/articles/l-gordon-crovitz-john-oliver-makes-people-dumb-1410728274 "Makes people dumb"]]. |
| 458 | * InsultToRocks: |
| 459 | ** When a British reporter compares Queen Elizabeth II to a train, in that they both just keep chugging along (she's Britain's longest-serving monarch), John finds the comparison insulting. Trains serve a purpose. |
| 460 | ** When a teacher in Myanmar compares Facebook to a toilet, John considers it an insult to toilets. Toilets are designed to remove waste. Facebook retains it forever, and often brings it back up. |
| 461 | * InternetSafetyAesop: Discussed on the topic of ''Right to be Forgotten'', John ends the segment by telling the audience that nothing on the internet is going away and everyone has something on the internet that they aren't proud of. The best you can do is embrace what happened and accept it. |
| 462 | -->'''John:''' Nothing you are embarrassed of on the internet is ever going away and we all have a horrifying photo from our past that undermines the very person we are now. Professionally and personally and we can all live in fear of that thing ever surfacing or we can all hold hands, jump at the same time and save each other. |
| 463 | * IntimidatingRevenueService: Everybody thinks of IRS employees as easy targets, but John explains that IRS employees are not a bunch of evil {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s who [[TaxmanTakesTheWinnings take all your money]], but an underfunded, understaffed, overworked group of {{Beleaguered Bureaucrat}}s who are JustFollowingOrders -- and not orders from their superiors in the IRS, but [[ShootTheMessenger orders given to them]] by ''Congress''; orders that they are constantly '''[[MovingTheGoalposts changing]].''' He also says that there's something heroic about doing an important job that is that soul-crushingly boring. |
| 464 | * IRejectYourReality: John says that the unintentional message of the 2016 Republican National Convention is that politicians can treat feelings as fact, regardless of how much the actual facts contradict them. |
| 465 | * IsTheAnswerToThisQuestionYes: When interviewing General Keith Alexander of the National Security Agency, John asked if he believes the NSA is suffering from a perception problem with the American people, telling him to keep in mind that the answer is "yes." |
| 466 | * ItMakesSenseInContext: |
| 467 | ** At the beginning of his segment on diplomatic translators, he claims that the segment will end with you getting mad at a donkey. Why? Because the donkey, named Smoke, was able to be processed and sent to America faster than a person after being taken in by an army base in the Middle East, while a translator who aided the military and is now being hunted for it has taken more than three-and-a-half years. Yes, ''a donkey'' was able to get into America in eight months but the translator took over three-and-a-half years. |
| 468 | ** In the season one finale, John plays a bunch of clips of his sillier moments in the show, such as a breakdancing Abe Lincoln. He then reminds viewers that Lincoln actually went hand in hand with a segment on gay rights in Uganda. |
| 469 | ** [[http://danielspenser.com/Last-Week-Tonight-With-John-Oliver Many of the background graphics.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_gRZcI1lto A web video on unused graphics]] instead was John showing those while saying "MakesAsMuchSenseInContext". |
| 470 | * ItsAllAboutMe: |
| 471 | ** John loves mocking people with extreme egos. See Hue Sen, the Cambodian Prime Minister who demanded a rematch between Mayweather and Pacquiao citing "foul play". The thing is that Sen's only concern was that he bet money on Pacquiao, and he's not exactly someone who can complain about being unfair, considering the corruption and repression that has defined his regime. |
| 472 | ** Implied in the COVID segment attached to the ransomware episode: |
| 473 | ---> '''John:''' And the thing is, you can't help thinking that some of the fuss over masks is more about the parents than it is about their kids. In fact, just watch as one basically admits that. |
| 474 | ---> '''Caleb Schoth:''' Well, I mean, honestly it's just crazy, I mean, last time I checked, this is America, and you can't make anyone do anything. I mean, I thought that's what people died for, freedom. Last year, he did have to wear a mask. And, you know, honestly, he thinks it's cool. I'm just, I'm not gonna lie. You know, he thinks he's a ninja. And I say "son, don't say that when they ask you if you like to wear a mask." But, you know, I guess it doesn't really affect him right now. But, you know, he doesn't know what's going on. |
| 475 | * ItsPersonal: John's wife is a combat veteran, so any segment referring to mistreatment of military personnel or veterans is likely to cause him to [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness stop the jokes]] and [[TranquilFury become legitimately angry]]. Similarly, he's a parent, so stories where children are mistreated, especially by those who are supposed to be taking care of them, will get him ''pissed''. |
| 476 | * ItWasWithYouAllAlong: When discussing medical devices: |
| 477 | ---> "All these years, we've been waiting anxiously for the robot apocalypse and it turns out, the robot apocalypse was inside us the whole time" |
| 478 | * JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: |
| 479 | ** Deconstructed in his segment on torture. Despite most people, even Antonin Scalia, an ''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court]]'', thinking [[Series/TwentyFour Jack Bauer's]] methods work in RealLife, studies have proven that torture is not only damaging to America's reputation, but is completely useless at getting out real information from terrorism suspects, as people will say just about anything their tormentors want to make the pain stop, even if it means making stuff up… |
| 480 | ** In a later episode, Jack Bauer himself appears in order to to threaten this on corrupt compound pharmacy executives, in response to them using "Jack Bauer" as one of many names for made-up patients. |
| 481 | * JawDrop: In "Family Separation", after the harrowing scene of son and mother's strained relationship due to Trump's policy, you can briefly see John's mouth wide open in shock and disgust. |
| 482 | * JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife: Several lead stories are about how mostly small offenses can lead to huge problems when low-income people have trouble paying the fines. If someone can't pay the fine off immediately, many additional fines will be added until paying the fine off is all but impossible, at which time they will be jailed for failure to comply; if the defendant attempts to contest the charge in court, they're more often than not issued a court-appointed lawyer who is so overworked they have no time to actually look at a case, and instead prompt their clients to just settle with a plea deal that is usually horribly unfair. There is also the problem that some states require you to pay for these lawyers yourself -- if you can't, you're fined, and the process starts all over again. |
| 483 | * JerkassHasAPoint: |
| 484 | ** John concedes that UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump had every right to be annoyed at the quirks in the political primary system, which awarded more delegates to Ted Cruz in Louisiana even though he lost the state in the popular vote.[[note]]Of course, that became deeply ironic when Trump won the presidency despite losing the popular vote.[[/note]] |
| 485 | ** Earlier on, in the episode about infrastructure, John had to concede to Trump with regards of infrastructure, even if he disagreed with his surly approach to it: |
| 486 | --->'''John:''' Here's how obvious our need is -- just two days ago, even ''a total idiot'' agreed.\ |
| 487 | ''[[[TakeThat cut to Trump at the 2015 CPAC]]]''\ |
| 488 | '''Trump:''' We have to rebuild our infrastructure! Our roads are crumbling; everything's crumbling, and we're rebuilding China!\ |
| 489 | '''John:''' Okay, now, glossing over [[NonSequitur whatever the fuck he was talking about regarding "rebuilding China"]], that upside-down piece of candy corn in a wig made of used medical gauze is ''right!'' |
| 490 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: John's stage persona appears to be a caustically bitter cynic who does not hesitate to tear into human stupidity with misanthropic GallowsHumor and caustic sarcasm; this is however an act to hide the fact he is actually a SadClown whose true '''fury''' is [[BullyHunter reserved for the cruel-selfish-and-corrupt who victimize innocent and decent people.]] |
| 491 | * JobStealingRobot: |
| 492 | ** John bemoans an attempt by Lowe's to replace their sales associates with robots. Not because he inherently disapproves of using robots in place of humans, but because robots are fundamentally incapable of performing the ''real'' job sales associates are there for: keeping couples from ruining their marriages over petty arguments. |
| 493 | ** Done more seriously in his segment on automation, which delves into the practice of automation and its effects on the job market. |
| 494 | * JustLikeMakingLove: "Foreign affairs is like sex. If you loudly announce that you will always come first, you're going to have trouble finding partners." |
| 495 | * KangarooCourt: While John has gone into many dissections of the flaws in America's legal system, he especially views their immigration courts like this. "Immigration Courts" ends with "Tot Bench" a [[ShowWithinAShow parody of American daytime court shows]] where children ran everything. [[DamnedByFaintPraise The narration at the end comments that it makes only slightly less sense than real American immigration courts.]] |
| 496 | * {{Kayfabe}}: In his piece on the Wrestling/{{WWE}}, John admits he likes wrestling and never directly references out loud the scripted nature of wrestling, but makes a brief reference to it when he shows a moment that could not be faked: Wrestling/VinceMcMahon [[AssShove getting his face shoved into the ass of]] Wrestling/{{Rikishi}}. Instead, they focus on the mistreatment of wrestlers. |
| 497 | * KonamiCode: Referenced in the "Nintendo Gay Marriage" segment where he jokes about a "civil union cheat code" which was this except with the "B-A" at the end with "[[{{Pun}} Be Gay]]". |
| 498 | * KnowWhenToFoldEm: John eventually shutters Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption after receiving several bottles of semen, some of which are presumed to be fake and others … not so much. He considers this the point at which any endeavor has met its end. All the (monetary) donations were in turn given to Doctors Without Borders. |
| 499 | * LargeHam: In contrast to TheComicallySerious narrator, a really overblown voiceover is warranted for [[https://youtu.be/xwnH1nVKb3U?t=131 pumpkin spice latte]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EflkEmqbEtw hating peeps]]. |
| 500 | * LaserGuidedKarma: |
| 501 | ** John points out that the same day that Britain voted for the "Brexit" from the European Union, which some supporters, such as the UKIP, praised as "Britain's Independence Day" -- in contradiction to the fact that Britain was already an independent nation, and as John points out, several other countries celebrate the anniversary of their independence from Britain -- London itself got trashed in the [[Film/IndependenceDayResurgence actual sequel]] to ''Film/IndependenceDay''. |
| 502 | ** On a more personal level, your sympathy for a flower vendor whose supply is about to be completely wrecked by Brexit likely evaporates when you find out ''he voted for it'', not considering at all how it might affect his business. |
| 503 | --->'''John:''' Well, you should have done, shouldn't you? Because now you've gone and fucked yourself with a rusty piece of rebar. |
| 504 | * LeFilmArtistique: John's monologue at the end of the French presidential election episode was [[DeliberatelyMonochrome filmed in black and white,]] has him [[GratuitousFrench deliver the closing monologue in French]], [[RandomSmokingScene smoking cigarettes,]] and with an accordion player right beside him, [[EiffelTowerEffect while sitting in a bistro overlooking the Eiffel tower.]] |
| 505 | * LieBackAndThinkOfEngland: John claims that "feelings are supposed to be irrelevant" is printed on every British marriage certificate. |
| 506 | * LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: To celebrate the marriage of Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, the show has the segment "And Now, A Look Back at the Romance Between Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski", which is a series of old clips of them arguing. |
| 507 | * LimeyGoesToHollywood: {{Invoked|Trope}}; a RunningGag in his show is that John frequently {{discuss|edTrope}}es his success in the States when compared to his native UK.[[note]]For comparison, The Other Wiki charts his career in the UK as five appearances (2001-2005) at the Edinburgh Fringe (an arts festival held in August now known as a hotbed for burgeoning comedy talent); only ''once'' appearing in a solo show. After that, he appeared seven times in the first two seasons of ''Series/MockTheWeek'', which took him to the middle of 2006. And ''that's it''. After that, he showed up on ''The Daily Show'' in July 2006 and his career skyrocketed.[[/note]] |
| 508 | -->'''John:''' The United Kingdom, where I am more commonly known as … ''"Who?"'' |
| 509 | * LimitedWardrobe: While John wearing a suit isn't much this (as it's common for late night talk show hosts), it has been noted that for many years, the shirt that's part of his suit is a ''checkered'' shirt. The ''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers Los Angeles Times]]'' [[http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-en-st-envy-awards-20150813-story.html even asked]] if the costume designer is so overwhelmed in the creation of silly costumes that as consequence, John only has a wide array of checkered shirts. |
| 510 | * LiteralMetaphor: Using the same "seed faith" rhetoric as several televangelists, John and Wanda Jo urge viewers to "sow their seeds" by donating to Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, while explicitly stating they want actual money, not seeds. They receive at least two bags of seeds anyway. This also played a part in why the church was eventually shut down: People mailing them ''semen''. |
| 511 | * LongList: |
| 512 | ** After airing a clip of Donald Trump saying American jobs are going to places Americans haven't even heard of, John first notes that he called Nepal "nipple" and Bhutan "button", then rattles off an extremely long list of mispronounced country names of countries "Americans haven't even heard of". Highlights include "Urethra" (Eritrea), "Fat Hamster" (Guinea), "Ballsinya and Hatavagina" (Bosnia and Herzegovina), "Gay Water" (Fiji), "WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}" (India), "[[Film/TheresSomethingAboutMary Hot Girl with Jizz in Her Hair]]" ([[Creator/CameronDiaz Cameroon]]) "[[Film/{{Borat}} MAH WIFE!]]" (Kazakhstan), "Daddy Fat Hamster" (Papua New Guinea), "Jared's [Kushner] Friends" (Saudi Arabia), and "Film/HotelForDogs, no wait, the other one, the one that’s not for dogs, Hotel That One" ([[Film/HotelRwanda Rwanda]]). The only ones he says right are Lesotho and Russia … and then he also uses "Russia" for Ukraine. |
| 513 | ** During the episode on lethal injections, John shows a clip of an interviewer asking [[TheAllegedExpert a supposed expert]] whether he has ever done research into a very long list of drugs that can potentially be used in lethal injections, which he says no to every time. |
| 514 | * LoopholeAbuse: |
| 515 | ** Canadian law prohibits non-Canadians from making statements to influence their national politics. So, to urge Canadians to vote out Prime Minister Stephen Harper, John had Creator/MikeMyers make a statement to viewers. Evidently, it worked, or at least didn't hurt, since the next day, Harper lost his re-election.[[note]]Elections Canada later clarified that the law is against people "inducing" Canadians to vote for a certain candidate, which means offering them something tangible (i.e., bribing them), which the US itself also has laws against. Stating your personal opinion is not considered inducement, and is completely legal.[[/note]] |
| 516 | ** When researching the Italian 2018 election, John discovered that there is no rule saying that a non-Italian national ''cannot'' run for Prime Minister of Italy. So John promptly put himself forward as a candidate for Prime Minister of Italy. |
| 517 | * LoudOfWar: After featuring the Attorney General of Arkansas warbling an off-key rendition of "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy", John ends the show on state attorneys general with two minutes to go at the end, imploring viewers to research their state's AG for the upcoming election, and then invokes this trope with that same song played on [[EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes the bagpipes]], then adding an accordion, [[RuleOfThree then a theremin]], and [[SerialEscalation finally six children playing recorders]]. |
| 518 | * LyricalDissonance: When talking about Ashley Madison — a dating website for adulterers — John plays one of their commercials: a poppy, auto-tuned piano melody … whose lyrics consist of an all-male chorus celebrating how the website helps them cheat on their wives. John calls the ad “the catchiest song about being a complete monster I’ve ever heard since the Monster Mash.” |
| 519 | [[/folder]] |
| 520 | |
| 521 | [[folder:Tropes M to R]] |
| 522 | * MadeFromRealGirlScouts: Comes up during one of John's digs at Guy Fieri. |
| 523 | -->'''John:''' ''[as a hypothetical French guy]'' Ziss 'Donkey Sauce', is it made wiss actual donkey? Why do you do ziss to yourselves? Why? Why? |
| 524 | * MagicFloppyDisk: One of the ''many'' ridiculous things John points out about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y1ya-yF35g America's nuclear weapons]]. As in, the launch computers in nuclear missile silos use them. Oh, and they're not those memorable 3½-inch plastic ones that made a mess of Creator/SandraBullock's life in ''Film/{{The Net|1995}}''. They're the '''8-inch wide ones'''. |
| 525 | -->'''John:''' '''[[OhCrap Holy shit!]]''' Those things barely look powerful enough to run ''[[VideoGame/TheOregonTrail Oregon Trail]]'', much less Earth-ending weaponry! People who work there must watch ''Film/WarGames'' and go, "One day, one day we'll get to play with that stuff." |
| 526 | * MaleFrontalNudity: |
| 527 | ** In the fake attack ad against Mitch [=McConnell=]. |
| 528 | ** In his interview with Edward Snowden, he uses a dick pic as an example of how the NSA could use parts of the PATRIOT Act to snoop on your data even if you have no foreign connections or probable cause. John then hands Snowden a folder containing (so we are told) a picture of John's dick. Snowden's reaction suggests ''John isn't kidding''. |
| 529 | * MandatoryMotherhood: The episode focusing on Crisis Pregnancy Centers ([=CPCs'=]) mentions that they market themselves as alternatives to places like Planned Parenthood to make sure [[GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion women don't get abortions.]] John also mentions that these places offer parenting classes and even free diapers. He then explains that [=CPCs'=] not only oppose abortion, but also don't provide contraceptives, which are provided by places like Planned Parenthood, since the operators of [=CPCs'=] believe that once pregnant everything must be done to make sure a woman must give birth, but once the baby is born, they are on their own since they risk becoming parasites to the [=CPC=]. |
| 530 | * MandelaEffect: Invoked and parodied in the Public Libraries episode; it starts off innocuously enough by pointing out that the title is actually Berenstain Bears, not Berenstein Bears, but throughout the rest of the segment he keeps revisiting this joke by spelling Berenstain in different ways, and even changing the type of animals as well. |
| 531 | * ManipulativeEditing: Invoked and played for laughs in the chicken industry segment. |
| 532 | -->'''John:''' Look, I know this story has been depressing, and you might be wondering, what can you do? […] You could say, 'Well, I'll vote against Congressman Steve Womack', but you won't, because you don't live there, and also, for the last two elections, he's had no major opponent. The only ''small'' satisfaction I can give you is letting Sean Connery voice your feelings.\ |
| 533 | '''[[Film/TheRock John Patrick Mason]]:''' Womack?! Why am I not shurprished, you piece of shit?! |
| 534 | * ManlyTears: |
| 535 | ** PlayedForLaughs in "Olympics Opening Ceremony", in which John claims that this is how he cries. However the way he describes it, as well as the graphic accompanying it (an edited image of John crying in the way a toddler would), is not exactly the dignified manly tears you would expect from this trope. |
| 536 | --->'''John:''' When something goes wrong, I don't cry like a baby. I cry like a grown man. And I'll tell you why: it's louder, it terrifies strangers, and nobody comforts me. It's ''better''. |
| 537 | ** A straight example comes up in "Mandatory Minimums". Jason Hernandez, a [[DisproportionateRetribution low-level offender sentenced to life in prison]], was pardoned by president Obama. A clip shows him struggling to read this announcement because he is so overcome with emotion. When it cuts back to the studio, John [[TryingNotToCry is clearly moved as well.]] |
| 538 | * MathematiciansAnswer: John thirsting over Creator/AdamDriver is a RunningGag season seven. After one spiel, he offers a quick sidenote: |
| 539 | -->'''John:''' A lot of you might well be wondering where I'm going with this bit. If you're anything like my staff, you're asking questions like, "Is this sexual, or is it violent?", and you're then unsatisfied when the answer comes back, "Yes". |
| 540 | * MeaningfulEcho: When Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption was first introduced, Pastor John and Wanda Jo make clear that they don't want actual seeds, they want money. A few weeks later, the church is shut down because they received vials and jars of sperm in the mail, and Wanda Jo and John utter the same statement they made the first time, "We ain't interested in your seeds!". |
| 541 | * MetaphoricallyTrue: |
| 542 | ** Discovered when attempting to debunk the Miss America Pageant's boast of being the largest provider of scholarships for women; despite learning that the organization's monetary claims are severely overinflated and hard to acquire, they nevertheless are technically correct about their base claim, even if the amount is total bunk. John is disappointed by this. |
| 543 | ** In discussing state lotteries, which often claim that the revenue goes to funding education, John points out that most states fail to actually spend more money on education with these programs in place. Rather, the existence of this revenue is used as an excuse to remove other forms of revenue while allowing education to break even. Lower corporate taxes are just one example of a cut going hand in hand with the gain. |
| 544 | ** In his segment on smoking, John brings out a correspondence between the tiny country of Togo and Philip Morris International, in which Togo is warned that they would lose any court case, citing the decision of an Australian judge in a previous legal battle. What they failed to mention is that said judge was the lone dissenting voice on a panel that harshly condemned their business practices, and that PMI actually lost that case. |
| 545 | * MindScrew: One school in the Standardized Testing segment ended up having [[Literature/TheHareAndThePineapple a reading section on their test about a talking pineapple and hare]] that was so surreal that it was taken off the test, especially since it was so bizarre no one was able to understand it. |
| 546 | * MisaimedFandom: |
| 547 | ** Thailand's unhealthy [[AdolfHitlarious to the point of hilarity]] obsession with Hitler. John even suggests entertainer Rip Taylor (a mustached and overtly theatrical guy) as a substitute. [[invoked]] |
| 548 | ** On a more terrifying note, one of the people that believes the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique works in real life is Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. |
| 549 | ** In an episode discussing the aftermath of Parkland, FL school shooting, John showed a clip of an anti-gun control advocate attempting to shift the blame by going on a tangent of complaining that modern pop culture wasn't as wholesome as ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow''. John countered this by showing a clip from said show where the title character explains why he DoesNotLikeGuns, since by carrying a gun his authority as a sheriff would come from fear rather than respect. |
| 550 | * MisBlamed: Invoked in a segment on pennies, when a student was expected to pay a fine he thought was unfair, he paid the entire $110 fine in pennies and watched two people count the fine for three and a half hours. John immediately quips: "Wow, that college kid sure taught those two employees who had nothing to do with the policy he was protesting a lesson". |
| 551 | * MistakenIdentity: |
| 552 | ** In a segment on torture, John recounts how an innocent man, due to being mistaken for a terrorist, was chained to a wall and left to die of hypothermia. |
| 553 | ** In a segment about credit report, is shown that two different women named Judy Thomas were denied credit after wrong reports that mistook each for other Judys with another surname. And it somehow goes FromBadToWorse, as another one was mistaken for a terrorist and another mistaken for not just [[PaedoHunt a sex offender]], but [[MindScrew three at the same time]], and all of them operated at a time when he was barely a toddler. |
| 554 | * MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: As John notes, when Trump ordered the withdrawal of US forces in Syria, he alienated the Kurds, who had been allied with the US during the Iraq War, who subsequently allied with the Syrian and Russian governments. |
| 555 | * MondegreenGag: An "And now … This" segment shows a montage of news anchors saying "[[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic mask debate]]," the point of the joke being that it sounds like "masturbate." |
| 556 | * MoneyDearBoy: Invoked by John when he sometimes makes jokes at the [[{{Pun}} expense]] of Creator/NicolasCage and Creator/RobertDeNiro regarding some of their more recent work. |
| 557 | * MonsterClown: |
| 558 | ** [[UsefulNotes/McDonalds Ronald McDonald]], who apparently blacks out periodically and awakes with his hands covered in human blood. |
| 559 | ** While John refused to apologize to Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa for insulting him, he did apologize to Ecuadorian celebrity clown Tiko Tiko for assuming him to be a generic clown (as any good NonIronicClown, Tiko Tiko was offended when John made MonsterClown jokes), because Tiko Tiko scares the crap of him. |
| 560 | --->'''John:''' …When a ''clown'' calls you [[http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-31424159 'grotesque']], [[InsultToRocks it HURTS]]. |
| 561 | ** When discussing standardized tests, John claims the only other way to inspire such terror in your kids with five letters (referring to the "a" through "e" multiple choice bubbles) is to whisper "clown", complete with appropriate image. |
| 562 | ** After watching a commercial for an auto loan company, John insists that they not approve the clown featured in it, since clowns are genetically programmed for murder. |
| 563 | ** When a Scranton area native accuses John of treating them like clowns for his amusement after he did a segment on the train set used by a local news station, John responds that he wouldn't do that, if only because he doesn't think clowns are amusing: |
| 564 | --->'''John:''' Clowns are for murder threats, attempted murder, and ''actual'' murder. |
| 565 | * MoodWhiplash: The main stories often have a lot of this, going from jokes about how ridiculous the subject is to emphasizing just how terrifying the subject is. |
| 566 | ** In the episode of medical devices, John shows a serious-looking clip of a woman talking about her fears about getting a hip replacement, which ends with [[spoiler:her break dancing with a bunch of other middle-aged women called "Momz N Da Hood"]], and comments on the MoodWhiplash of the video. |
| 567 | * MoralMyopia: John argues this is part of the problem with reforming the primary election process: people generally only care about it when their preferred candidate is losing and don't when their candidate is winning. |
| 568 | * MouthingTheProfanity: In a segment parodying the hypocrisy of Mother's Day coupled with very little rights and benefits given to mothers in the U.S., one mother is seen mouthing (or screaming, made inaudible by the voice-over) an AtomicFBomb in frustration at one point. |
| 569 | * MultipleChoicePast: John in one episode, as a joke, claims he was exiled from England for crying during a screening of ''Film/TheNotebook'', while in a later episode he claims that the only times he has ever cried as a grown man was during [[RousingSpeech the rousing speeches given by coaches in sports movies]]. |
| 570 | * MundaneMadeAwesome: |
| 571 | ** ''Infrastructure'', a movie where if nothing happens, it's a good thing. |
| 572 | ** After discussing the problems of the bail system, he thinks the reason why many communities haven't implemented pre-trial services is because most people think of bounty hunters like ''Series/DogTheBountyHunter'', so John created ''Pre-Trial Services''. |
| 573 | --->'''Announcer:''' It's cost effective, motherfuckers. |
| 574 | * MuppetCameo: It became a RunningGag during the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic that John could summon Creator/GeorgeClooney with a snap of his fingers, and at one point, Clooney gets annoyed with him and reveals that he has a similar power to summon [[Franchise/TheMuppets Kermit the Frog]], but he doesn't abuse it because he ''respects'' Kermit. John convinces him to do it anyway and Kermit is summoned in the middle of tuning his banjo. |
| 575 | * MusicalEpisode: The end of the SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) episode, after Oliver explains that the West Virginia court where Murray was suing him threw out the defamation lawsuit, has Oliver put on a Broadway Musical daring Murray, who is currently facing bankruptcy, to go ahead and sue for defamation again for singing shit about him. |
| 576 | * MustMakeAmends: When looking for a retirement plan for the show's employees, one of the production companies behind the show, Avalon Television, started with John Hancock. But the researchers looked further into the plan and realized how much of their money would be gobbled up in fees. After ditching them and setting up a new retirement plan, the show agreed to cover most of the fees because of how embarrassed they were by the crap they put their employees through. |
| 577 | * MyFriendsAndZoidberg: In "[=McKinsey=]," a [=McKinsey=] employee in a parody of a recruiting video walks down a hallway lined with portraits. He says "We're proud to say [=McKinsey=] alums include many of the most powerful people on Earth. And also, Pete Buttigieg." |
| 578 | * MyNewGiftIsLame: John notes that, besides the [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking more pressing diplomatic implications]] of Jared Kushner's gift of a map of Israel featuring the Golan Heights to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a map is a very boring gift. |
| 579 | * NamedLikeMyName: During the segment on charter schools, John mentions the school Harambee Institute, which was named long before. He also immediately lampshaded this and pointed out the difference, before he then said "Rest in Peace" to [[MemeticMutation Harambe]]. |
| 580 | * {{Narm}}: {{Invoked|Trope}} when John considers the ridiculous line "Socks don't protect my heart", from a sex education video promoting abstinence which compared a woman who had already lost her virginity to heavily used shoes, to be the funniest thing ever said on the show, and he's furious that his people didn't write it. |
| 581 | * ANaziByAnyOtherName: Discussed when far-right groups won in European elections in 2014. |
| 582 | -->'''John:''' In terms of phrases you never want to hear, ["far-right election victories in Europe"] is right up there with "it's malignant" and "we're losing cabin pressure." Because, lest we forget, when Europe goes far-right, they go [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany far right through Belgium]]! |
| 583 | * NeverAcceptedInHisHomeTown: Whenever the United Kingdom is discussed, John will say something related to this. Once he even declared he's known in Britain as "Who?" |
| 584 | * NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: Although Justice Antonin Scalia was a frequent punching bag on the show (see TakeThat), John does manage to avoid making fun of him in the third-season premiere, which occurred shortly after his death, noting that his family is currently going through a bad time; instead, the segment mainly focuses on how the vacancy caused by his death has thrown the Supreme Court into jeopardy and the GOP is determined to block all of Obama's potential appointments (but they ''will'' have to [[KickTheDog kill Pickles the bulldog]]). |
| 585 | * NGOSuperpower: John occasionally highlights these. Examples include Eliot Management Corporation boat-jacking an Argentine warship and Phillip Morris International bullying several small countries into backing off from tobacco legislation that might hurt their international sales. |
| 586 | * NightmareFuel: [[invoked]] "Melon Kuma", a ''yurukyara''[[note]]A specific form of Japanese mascot.[[/note]] from Hokkaido meant to promote Yubari melons; because the region is also known for its wild Ussuri brown bear population, the creature is [[http://blogs.lainformacion.com/strambotic/files/2013/09/melon-kuma.jpg a snarling chibi grizzly with a huge melon helmet]]. John, struggling to keep from laughing, even plays a clip of Melon Kuma's visit to a kindergarten class, where he pretends to bite the screaming, crying children. |
| 587 | * NoOSHACompliance: |
| 588 | ** Literally in his segment on the North Dakota oil industry. OSHA's inspection division is woefully understaffed and overworked, so the oil industry can get away with a lot of violations. |
| 589 | ** Chain dollar stores are also violators, especially Dollar General. In his 2023 episode on dollar stores, John makes reference to a mea culpa and a series of promises to reform its practices from Dollar General in response to a damning report from the US Department of Labor, but then points out that they had said similar things in similar circumstances eight years earlier, which didn't reflect well on them. |
| 590 | * NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity: Invoked, solely for RuleOfFunny, in the ads promoting Season 3, by [[http://nerdist.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Last-Week-Tonight-Poster-John-Oliver.jpg using negative quotes from internationally hated or criticized figures]] [[InsultBackfire the show has made enemies of in the past]] (and, uh, Music/{{Cher}}, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} for whatever reason]] -- [[ManipulativeEditing taken from a complimentary tweet, no less!]]). |
| 591 | * NotHyperbole: |
| 592 | ** In a web exclusive, after getting tired of news websites using click-bait headlines that claim he's "destroyed" the various topics on the show, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYWtbMb8Fhw John takes out his frustrations]] on something which can be ''objectively'' broken, not just metaphorically -- a piñata. |
| 593 | ** In the episode about the 2022 Brazilian election, John discusses how incumbent Brazilian president UsefulNotes/JairBolsonaro is threatening to contest the results violently if he loses the election, similar to how Donald Trump orchestrated an insurrection after losing the 2020 American election, but explains that, unlike Trump, Bolsonaro has the backing of Brazilian military leaders. He adds, "Generally, when someone threatens democracy, it's a lot easier to say 'YouAndWhatArmy' when you're absolutely certain that person doesn't have ''an actual army'' behind them." |
| 594 | * NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: |
| 595 | ** Much like Jon Stewart, he'll preface particularly outrageous truths with "and this is true" or "and this is real!" |
| 596 | ** John has to clarify that UsefulNotes/JavierMilei, the Argentinian anarcho-capitalist president (who was a candidate at the time of the episode) who refers to clones of his dog as his chief strategists, is ''not'' a character created specifically for the show, as much as it sounds like he was. |
| 597 | * NotMeThisTime: In the 2018 segment on Venezuela, John makes the argument that while the U.S.'s actions in Latin America have led to instability in many countries in the region, the then-current Venezuelan economic crisis was not actually caused by American interference. |
| 598 | -->'''John:''' Accusing America of creating Venezuela's crisis is about as fair as accusing Creator/OJSimpson of murdering [[UsefulNotes/DianaOfWales Princess Diana]]. I'm not saying it would be completely out of character, it just happens to not be true in this ''particular'' instance. |
| 599 | * NotSoDifferentRemark: John argues that crisis pregnancy centers are basically this for abortion. An anti-abortion activist got caught on tape admitting that such centers are "not a charity," [[DidntThinkThisThrough are critically short on supplies compared to the number of women they're attempting to help,]] and (in her opinion) should cut women off from receiving any supplies at all after they give birth. |
| 600 | -->'''John:''' So the basic argument there is: "We're just not in a position where we can take care of a baby forever. We don't have the time or the resources, so we're choosing not to make that commitment right now." To which I would say: "Yeah! Exactly!" |
| 601 | * NWordPrivileges: |
| 602 | ** After making a joke about Black hair, John tries to {{invoke|dTrope}} it by finding out if the joke writer was Black. When the writer is revealed to be a White man, [[OhCrap he's distraught]]. |
| 603 | ** At one point, he goes on a [[OverlyLongGag long tangent]] about the life of the only old White man officially allowed to say the full N-word. [[spoiler:He was chosen because he never actually says it.]] |
| 604 | * ObstructiveBureaucrat: John's view of the SVI program, which should give up to 1,500 translators in Afghanistan -- people who have had to risk ''their lives'' aiding the U.S. military -- visas to America, only gave out '''three'''. |
| 605 | -->'''John:''' What the fuck? By now, the ghost of Creator/FranzKafka is thinking, "Don't you dare call this Kafka-esque, I don't want my name anywhere near this shit!" |
| 606 | * ObviouslyEvil: |
| 607 | ** Raymond [[EmbarrassingNickname "Shrimp Boy"]] Chow, a San Francisco Triad leader and arms trafficker who actually took ''Film/{{Scarface|1983}}''-esque [[http://www.trbimg.com/img-5334cabc/turbine/la-la-me-raymond-shrimp-boy-chow-3-jpg-20140327/2048/1452x2048 glamour shots of himself]] at one point. |
| 608 | ** John notes that among the shell companies revealed in the "Panama Papers" were some named Film/{{Goldfinger}}, Film/{{GoldenEye}}, Film/{{Moonraker}}, Film/{{Spectre}}, and [[Characters/JamesBondBlofeld Blofeld]]. |
| 609 | ** Roger Stone, who dresses bizarrely like a cartoon '40s gangster. |
| 610 | --->'''John:''' I'm usually against profiling, but look at this guy! Look! At! This! Guy! He looks like a mannequin in a department store for Dick Tracy villains. He looks like his day planner is just one entry that says "Frame Roger Rabbit." |
| 611 | * OddlySmallOrganization: John thinks this of the NRA, which wields outsized influence for an organization whose membership lags behind that of some national gym chains. He then explains that the reason they're so effective is because their membership is really motivated and has an extremely specific message about gun legislation: "No!" |
| 612 | * OhCrap: |
| 613 | ** John's reaction when he learns that the Thai military government is angry with him, thanks to a previous segment where he made fun of Thailand's then Crown Prince, including calling him an idiot and showing a video with him and his topless wife feeding their dog cake, something so ridiculous he considers it entrapment, because Thailand has a law against ''lèse-majesté''. Of course, his reaction is to then mock the royal families of [[CrossesTheLineTwice the Netherlands, Kuwait, and Denmark]], which have similar laws. |
| 614 | ** John has this reaction in his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kye2oX-b39E second episode]] when he finds out that he's going to have to talk about an issue as serious and controversial as the death penalty. |
| 615 | ** He reacts this way to all the stories of America's mismanagement of its nuclear missiles, from near nuclear mishaps to incompetent officials to the ridiculously outdated equipment. |
| 616 | ** A very genuine, non-rehearsed example: after personally mocking Russia for over 25 episodes, John learns while waiting to interview Edward Snowden that their hotel is right across the street from the old KGB offices, now the location of the country's Federal Security Service. ''And they know he's there''. |
| 617 | ** He looks terrified again later in the same segment after Snowden informs him that John is probably on the NSA's "list" now. John takes a while to digest the terror of either being hunted by the NSA or being stuck in Moscow forever. |
| 618 | * OldMoney: In his segment on the wealth gap, John argues that the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of a rich elite coupled with fewer taxes on inheritance may lead to America developing a "landed gentry" reminiscent of the one that traditionally ruled John's native England. |
| 619 | * OldShame: |
| 620 | ** At the end of his segment of Sex Education, Creator/JonathanBanks appears at the end to condemn an old PSA commercial he shot in the 70s: namely that only a "[[SelfDeprecation fucking idiot]]" would believe that [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext getting a period makes a girl better at bowling]]. |
| 621 | ** John himself expressed regret on the show, just before the 2016 elections, about a bit he did on ''Series/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart'' where he encouraged Trump to run for president, because he thought that would be really funny at the time. |
| 622 | --> [[NoExceptYes In my defense, I have no defense for that]] and was hoping to think of one before finishing this sentence, and oh shit, it's over. |
| 623 | ** In the segment on public shaming, John expressed regret about another Daily Show piece he participated in. It was a bit commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, which featured a graphic reading "Ten Suckin' Years". Looking back, John calls it "gross", feeling that it just added to the intense and disproportionate amount of humiliation the media put Lewinsky through. |
| 624 | * OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Discussed regarding New Zealand politician Steven Joyce getting a dildo thrown in his face. |
| 625 | -->'''John:''' So let us, as you put it, get this over with. Although I think we both know this will ''never'' be over for you. From now on, your entire life is going to be viewed through a dildonic prism. |
| 626 | * OnlyInFlorida: A RunningGag, such as referring once to North Korea as "Earth's Florida", and saying that Tennessee is "rated one of the forty-nine best states in the country by ''Obvious References to Florida Magazine''". |
| 627 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: |
| 628 | ** The episode "American Healthcare Act" brings up how Trump is so distant from the bill, he hadn't gone out of his way to name it "Trumpcare". And as John points out, that is a ''major'' red flag, considering the sheer amount of shitty things he ''has'' put his name on, like Trump Vodka, Trump Ties and [[TakeThat Donald Trump Jr.]] |
| 629 | ** How do you emphasize the seriousness of global warming? Invite over kids' edutainment icon [[Series/BillNyeTheScienceGuy Bill Nye]] and have him drop a ClusterFBomb on the viewer. |
| 630 | ** The end of the "Police" episode in 2020 hits hard with this. After getting more angered and more torn about the issue during the episode, John plays a clip of Kimberly Jones' speech. When it cuts back to the studio, there's no skits or stunts like usual; just a devastated John who ends the show with a somber "That's our show. Thanks for watching. Goodnight." |
| 631 | * OverlyLongGag: |
| 632 | ** The "Other Countries' Presidents" segment on Tony Abbott naturally features the infamous 2011 clip in which Tony, then leader of the opposition party in the Australian Parliament, is questioned by news reporter Mark Riley to contextualize [[DudeNotFunny his remark of "shit happens" about a soldier killed in a firefight]]; Abbott, in response, [[DeerInTheHeadlights falls into a silent panic for half a minute, bobbing his head up and down with his mouth open]], then weakly counters, "I've given you the response you deserve". |
| 633 | ** John plays a clip of Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the UN, in which he complains about the deal with Iran, and then spends ''45 seconds'' [[DeathGlare just staring at the delegates]]. |
| 634 | ** "And Now, John [=McCain's=] Favorite Joke", where he tells the exact same dumb quip[[note]]"I've been sleeping like a baby -- sleep two hours, wake up and cry; sleep two hours, wake up and cry."[[/note]] over and over to multiple news outlets and talk show hosts, even years after his 2008 run as a Presidential candidate. At one point, three separate tellings are played simultaneously, and his delivery barely changes. |
| 635 | ** "John [=McCain=] Has ''Another'' Favorite Joke", in which, for years on end, he relates a bogus anecdote about having arrived at the airport that very morning[[note]]The name, of course, changing depending on the city he's in[[/note]] and being mistaken for [[YourCostumeNeedsWork someone who merely resembles John McCain]]. |
| 636 | ** "And Now, Basketball enthusiast Pat Roberts spends 12 minutes fantasizing about shooting hoops with the President" (which is thankfully edited down during the program). |
| 637 | * PanderingToTheBase: |
| 638 | ** Invoked in the Dr. Oz segment; as John demonstrates, you don't need to give unscrupulous testimony to please your audience -- Creator/GeorgeRRMartin, [[PreciousPuppy adorable puppies]], [[CatFight ladies catfighting]], [[FunTShirt free T-shirts]], Creator/SteveBuscemi tap dancing, and a marching corps will do the job even better. |
| 639 | ** Invoked again in the Scottish Independence segment (see GrandRomanticGesture); when trying to win back Scotland's heart, John does the most stereotypical things imaginable -- reluctantly eating haggis, downing a swig of Glenlivet, and enduring bagpipe music. |
| 640 | ** Once he learns Kenny G is very popular in China, John brings him along to play his sax while trying to calm the Chinese down regarding [[http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-13748349 a naval dispute]]. |
| 641 | * ParallelPornTitles: When he hears about an auction of pornographic toys in Kansas, John rattles off a number of ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz''-themed porn titles. |
| 642 | * ParanoiaFuel: [[invoked]] In his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4NRJoCNHIs segment on drones]], John shows that their increasing overseas use has turned ''clear, blue skies'' into a terrifying omen of death, while grey skies are seen as good because drones don't fly in them. |
| 643 | * ParodyAssistance: Right Said Fred sung a version of "I'm Too Sexy" against Bashar al-Assad (who was revealed to have purchased the group's songs), Michael Bolton did a version of "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You" praising the IRS, and ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'' actors Alison Sweeney and James Scott did a sketch reuniting their characters in homage to a Syrian immigrant who learned English through the soap opera. |
| 644 | * ParodyCommercial: Done in either segments about certain companies (General Motors [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6IZ2TroruU denying their cars are death traps]], Fanta struggling to not remind viewers of its Nazi Germany origins) or to mock the concepts of others (tourists are causing damage to Antarctica, so the show made an ad asking [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH573B1bkHI "Don't go there!]]"). |
| 645 | * ParodyReligion: Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption. With the kicker that -- despite being a totally obvious parody of televangelism that says outright its only purpose is to receive donations -- it's ''completely legitimate'' under current U.S. tax codes. |
| 646 | * ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: Discussed with Edward Snowden in a web exclusive outtake from John's interview for the segment on government surveillance, when Snowden notes that simple passwords are so ineffective they are basically pointless. As an example of a strong passphrase he 'spontaneously' suggests [=MargaretThatcheris110%SEXY=], which leaves John speechless. |
| 647 | * PerpetualFrowner: According to John, Queen Elizabeth II's resting expression is "total contempt." |
| 648 | * PersonaNonGrata: |
| 649 | ** After discovering he's been put on the Thai government's shit list for mocking the crown prince, John realizes his Thailand vacation is going to be suspended indefinitely. |
| 650 | ** Edward Snowden. John himself fears not being able to return to America after speaking to Snowden.[[note]]As in literally: John at the time was not a US Citizen, but instead had a green card. He could have been be denied entry for any number of reasons, and speaking with Snowden is actually a really, really good reason to deny him entry. It thankfully didn't happen.[[/note]] |
| 651 | * PersonAsVerb: In response to random people on the street confusing Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked many of their secrets, for Julian Assange, the founder of [=WikiLeaks=]. |
| 652 | -->'''John:''' Edward Snowden is not the [=WikiLeaks=] guy. The [=WikiLeaks=] guy is Julian Assange, and you ''do not'' want to be confused with him. Partly because he was far less careful than Snowden in what he released and how, and partly because he resembles a sandwich bag full of biscuit dough wearing a Stevie Nicks wig. And, that is-- that is critical, Julian Assange is not a likable man. Even ''Creator/BenedictCumberbatch'' [[Film/TheFifthEstate could not make him likable]]! He's un-Cumberbatchable! |
| 653 | * ThePeterPrinciple: Discussed. In the episode about UsefulNotes/BorisJohnson, John fully explains that Boris relies on [[SelfDeprecation self-mockery and bumbling charm]] to avoid the consequences of his actions. While those traits did help win over the public when he was in a lower position of government but as soon as he became prime minister, however, his lack of preparation and over-reliance on buffoonish charm quickly fell flat. As people now relied on him for competent leadership and he had to deliver on his promise of Brexit within 30 days, something that EU was more clear about when they were talking about their terms on the matter. |
| 654 | * PinkMeansFeminine: Discussed and parodied in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sWRXr2Yu9g a segment]] on the UK Labour Party's misguided use of this for a campaign minibus to attract female voters in the run-up to the 2015 Parliamentary election -- while it helps sell toys, the color pink does not automatically garner votes, especially for a leftist party. |
| 655 | * PlaceWorseThanDeath: New Hampshire, "where 'live free or die' is a legitimately difficult choice." |
| 656 | * PoliceBrutality: An [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaD84DTGULo entire segment focused on police brutality and accountability]], due to the crumbling relations between police and the citizens they are assigned to protect, complete with fury when talking about Black students ''needing classes to understand how not to suffer police brutality''. |
| 657 | * PoweredByAForsakenChild: A kid's presentation on an anthropomorphic piece of coal in the episode on coal mining gets turned into this as its [[InferredHolocaust logical conclusion.]] |
| 658 | * PrecisionFStrike: John occasionally begins a rant about some person he finds objectionable with "First of all, ''fuck you'', (name)". |
| 659 | * PrisonRape: John presents [[https://youtu.be/_Pz3syET3DY?t=3m33s a montage of jokes]] about prison rape from sitcoms and comedy films (mostly puerile "dropping the soap" gags) to demonstrate that Americans care about prisoners so little, they can comfortably joke about a horrifying thing that potentially could happen to any of them. |
| 660 | -->'''John:''' D'you get it? [[WesternAnimation/PussInBoots The egg's going to get fucked against its will!]] [[YouBastard That's why it's funny!]] Wake up your children and explain that joke to them, they'll love it! |
| 661 | * ProperlyParanoid: |
| 662 | ** If you're [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUdHIatS36A getting high in your house]], there ''is'' a SWAT team outside your house coming to get you, and they have military grade weaponry which they're not properly trained to use. |
| 663 | ** People in Yemen and Pakistan are terrified of sunny days, and probably check the skies more often than [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim an adventurer in Skyrim.]] Drones are practically invisible in them. |
| 664 | * PunctuationChangesTheMeaning: John mentions a missed piece of punctuation when covering Chief Justice Roberts' comments on Obamacare, then bringing up a banner used to support the London women's soccer team -- "Come On Our Girls!" -- pointing out that it really could have used a comma. |
| 665 | * PurpleProse: John is briefly taken aback at how Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) describes Mexican drug runners as having "calves the size of cantaloupes" from hauling bales of marijuana across the border -- it may be an abhorrent, factually incorrect message, but it's still such a beautiful, poetic way to say it. |
| 666 | -->'''John:''' Cantaloupe calf; they did burrow across the border / Their arms moist and sinewy like ropes upon a ship's mast… |
| 667 | * PuttingOnTheReich: Invoked in mentioning the [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Meandros_flag.svg swastika-like flag]] and fascist salute of Greece's nationalist Golden Dawn party, which are so similar to Nazi Germany's symbols and rallies that Hitler could conceivably sue them for infringement of copyright. |
| 668 | -->'''John:''' Lest we forget, when Europe goes far-right, they go far ''right through Belgium''. |
| 669 | * QuestionableCasting: Invoked by John when he complains about the mentally ill being placed in nursing homes. |
| 670 | -->'''John:''' It's like casting Creator/TaylorLautner in the new ''[[Film/TheBestExoticMarigoldHotel Best Exotic Marigold Hotel]]'' movie; it's unsuitable for everybody involved in it. |
| 671 | * RacistGrandma: When John brings out people from all walks of life to demonstrate why gerrymandering is harmful to democracy, one is a racist grandma. He's quick to warn her not to say anything. |
| 672 | * ARareSentence: |
| 673 | ** In the segment on the NCAA, following an ''MTV Cribs''-style clip showing the opulent football facilities at the University of Alabama illustrating how colleges aggressively use their funds to build stadiums and sports facilities: |
| 674 | --->'''John:''' I never thought I'd say this, but Alabama, stop showing off your ostentatious wealth. |
| 675 | ** The sentence, "We did it perfectly at the end of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar", regarding resettling refugees who helped the U.S. during the war, which he comments, "There is a sentence you don’t often get to say out loud." |
| 676 | ** "Scorpions, what is wrong with you? Stop hiding in bananas in Pittsburg area Walmarts, get your shit together, and fight terrorism like snakes and bees! ''What'' a sentence!" |
| 677 | ** After a segment about Hungary in which protests led to successfully postpone the making of a law that would've taxed the internet, John notes that "the protest worked," a sentence he immediately compares to "Great one-man show," "Guy Fieri, that was delicious," or "I met my wife at Dave & Buster's." |
| 678 | ** John noting how marijuana legislation being passed in several states and people celebrating it, the same night Donald Trump being elected President as "being a little weird." |
| 679 | ** When discussing Lord Buckethead, a joke candidate in the UK's 2017 snap election who's made public denouncements about both Theresa May's and Jeremy Corbyn's lack of preparation for the upcoming Brexit talks: |
| 680 | --->'''John:''' I never thought I'd say this, but that intergalactic space lord has a point! |
| 681 | ** On Equifax: "That angry business-casual farm animal on Fox Business is talking sense." |
| 682 | ** On NRA TV: "I didn't think this was possible, but I think that guy just slut-shamed marijuana." |
| 683 | ** In the story about COVID-19 conspiracy theories (and conspiracy theories in general), John plays a clip of Creator/RushLimbaugh, [[EveryoneHasStandards of all people]], saying that Trump spreads conspiracy theories in such a way that he never says he actually believes them, as a way of deflecting backlash. |
| 684 | -->'''John:''' Rush Limbaugh gets it, which is a sentence I thought I'd only ever say about toilet-based chlamydia. |
| 685 | ** In the story about Texas' 2021 anti-abortion law, John recounts how some Tik-Tok users are protesting it via posting links to ''Shrek'' porn on the website set up to report people violating it. |
| 686 | -->'''John:''' "Tik Tok users bombard anti-abortion website with ''Shrek'' porn" is one of those sentences I never thought I'd have to say, like "Everyone needs to stop talking about [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Kim Jong-un's]] sexy bod"[[note]]Around the time the episode was aired, Kim Jong-un made a public appearance in which he was noted to have drastically lost weight.[[/note]] and "Creator/BenAffleck looks so happy right now."[[note]]Around the time the episode was aired, Affleck reunited with his early-2000s girlfriend Music/JenniferLopez.[[/note]] |
| 687 | * ThisIsReality: Watch ''[[WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail An Actual American Tail]]'', Fievel's journey through the hellish reality of immigration. |
| 688 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: An Indian news presenter delivered one of these to John in a clip from Indian TV that condemned western shows criticizing India's prime minister, Narendra Modi. The presenter directs all kinds of ad hominem attacks towards him, before telling him he should be ashamed of himself. After watching the clip, John triumphantly replies that he has embarrassed himself on TV so many times, that he has become immune to feelings of shame. |
| 689 | * RecycledPremise: The presentation and style are almost identical to ''Series/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart'', but concentrating on considerably fewer issues to write more cutting comedy, while ''The Daily Show'' runs a lot of fluff pieces. The two shows diverge in that ''Last Week Tonight'' does not have correspondents nor includes in-studio or on-location interviews in every episode. |
| 690 | * RecurringExtra: John has mentioned a "Janice in Accounting" several times in his hypothetical pseudo-skits on the show, once as the only person who says "everything is wonderful" (and that she's so extremely dysfunctional that it's clear she's lying), and second -- the typical depiction of her -- as that person who "don't give a fuck", and will eat anything out of the employee freezer (including a euthanized lion corpse), give lame Secret Santa gifts, win an office fantasy league while not caring about sports, and [[https://twitter.com/LastWeekTonight/status/661928191024582656 take over China's artificial islands!]] Janice (played by writer Jill Twiss) [[https://twitter.com/LastWeekTonight/status/668648548628606976 even appeared in the season one finale]]. |
| 691 | * ReformedButRejected: The segment on prisoner re-entry examines the numerous barriers which make it harder for parolees to start anew; most notably, being asked whether they'd ever been convicted, to the point that one state actually gives tips on [[MetaphoricallyTrue how to answer such questions without directly referencing their prison time]]. |
| 692 | * RefugeInAudacity: John points out that slander laws give an exception to speech that is clearly ridiculous and not meant to be taken as factual, which he then realizes can be used to say purposefully ridiculous and over-the-top things about Bob Murray without it affecting his lawsuit against him. He does this in spectacular musical fashion. |
| 693 | * RelaxOVision: |
| 694 | ** As a reward for his viewers sitting through a segment on capital punishment only two episodes in, John shows a video of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOCtdw9FG-s tiny hamsters eating tiny burritos.]] |
| 695 | ** Following his segment on abortion, John plays a video of sloths in a bucket, and subsequently brings out an animal trainer who puts a live sloth on his desk in a nightcap to help viewers sleep. |
| 696 | ** Steve Scully, "the most patient man on television," apparently deals with his crazy callers by retreating into images of space, animals, and plants before a spirit deer informs him that it's time to start paying attention again. |
| 697 | * RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: In the "How Is This Still a Thing?" segment on the ''Sports Illustrated'' swimsuit magazine, the show plays a clip from a segment from CNBC's ''Squawk on the Street'' of NBC News correspondent Carl Quintanilla asking "What's left?" in response to the cover of the 2015 issue, which features Hannah Davis pulling down her bikini bottom just enough to keep from fully exposing her … nether region. The response? |
| 698 | -->'''[[Creator/DavidKaye Narrator]]:''' ''[[AskAStupidQuestion The vagina.]]'' The vagina is what's left. |
| 699 | * RetroactiveRecognition[[invoked]]: Discussed. The "Sex Education" episode reveals that Creator/JonathanBanks, who played ProfessionalKiller Mike Ehrmantraut on ''Series/BreakingBad'', played an awkward teenage boy in [[TheSeventies a 1970s']] sex ed film. At the end of the segment, Banks corrects a "fact" from that clip by clearly stating, "If anyone tells you that their period makes them better at bowling, they're a fucking idiot." |
| 700 | * RightOnTheTick: John plays a video on Cade Cothren's texts that reveal he was doing drugs, and makes fun of the attention the clip puts on the exact time that these texts were sent even though [[SubvertedTrope the time has no real significance]], rather than the actual content of said texts. |
| 701 | * RootingForTheEmpire: Invoked and discussed during the segment on municipal violations, where John plays a clip of a deputy in Orange County tossing out suspended traffic licenses (most of which were due to insolvent owners given small fines) while dressed in a Grinch costume, then remarks that it's not a good idea to try and garner sympathy for your cause when you're play-acting as a misanthropic villain who steals from people. |
| 702 | * RoyallyScrewedUp: {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in his segment on monarchies, as John argued that generations of inbreeding coupled with a privileged upbringing can result in the heir either being a potential tyrant or weak. |
| 703 | * RousingSpeech: |
| 704 | ** John feels the only way to get people to do something about the hilariously exorbitant LoopholeAbuse regarding stadiums and their troubles is to give a fake halftime speech. So he does. |
| 705 | ** In the segment about doping, John describes cyclists who have hidden urine-filled condoms in their anuses and covered them with fake hair, saying their coach must've given one hell of a pre-race speech to get them to do that. |
| 706 | ** The third episode about Brexit, in the Season 6 premiere, has a [[UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill pseudo-Churchillian]] parody of Churchill's "We shall fight them on the beaches" speech (narrated by Creator/StephenFry, no less!) in regards of the consequences of Brexit. |
| 707 | --->'''"Churchill":''' We shall fuck ourselves at the ports, we shall fuck ourselves in the shops, we shall fuck ourselves in the hospitals and in the fields. We shall never surrender! |
| 708 | * RunForTheBorder: In the parody advertisement for a timeshare exit service, Wanda Jo informs the viewers that they can reach her in her van, at least until she crosses the Mexican border, a spoof on how such businesses tend to shutter their offices by the time anyone thinks to start asking questions. |
| 709 | * RunningGag: |
| 710 | ** Highlighting a country on a map, then saying "a country you think about so little…", and then revealing that the map graphic he's using is highlighting the wrong country, then chastising the audience for knowing so little about the country that they didn't notice. Sometimes this is coupled with showing the wrong flag in the background of the map, which goes uncommented. |
| 711 | ** "Fuck you, X!"/"Fuck this guy!" John will issue this proclamation tongue-in-cheek for various reasons. For example, when the race horse California Chrome lost the chance to win the Triple Crown, he puts up a picture of the other horse and says "I wanted a different horse! Fuck this horse!" |
| 712 | ** Whenever John watches a video of any kind that tries to portray its topic as hip, badass, interesting or intimidating, John simply replies emotionlessly with a bored expression, "Cool". |
| 713 | ** Assigning names and entire fictional backstories to characters played by stock photo models while using their pictures in jokes, such as "Declan", the goldbricking douchebag son of a successful lawyer ("You're the WORST, Declan!"), and "Gerald", a fat guy who will pay $750 for a gym membership he won't use ("This is learning to speak Korean all over again, Gerald!").[[note]]Tom Schlarping and John even both acknowledged it as one of their own personal favorite elements of the program during an interview on ''The Best Show''.[[/note]] |
| 714 | ** Making up Twitter hashtags based on random jokes (e.g. [=#HalfAHemsworth=] for his claim that Liam Hemsworth is worth half of his brother Creator/ChrisHemsworth). Their most common is to include the pair "#Feminism, #[completely unrelated topic]" as a tongue-in-cheek note of female inclusion and equality even in the most ridiculous circumstances. |
| 715 | ** At the end of most episodes, blowing a bunch of HBO's money on ridiculous stuff like Japanese mascots or a decently star studded trailer for a fake film about infrastructure or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxUAntt1z2c buying up $15 million dollars in medical debt and forgiving it all]] in the biggest TV giveaway in history. |
| 716 | ** "John Oliver is a rat-faced bastard." After setting up his ''Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption'' church, John received a note and a t-shirt calling him such. Later, in fake advertisement for ''Peeble'', an app in which users are rated by Mario van Peebles, Mario calls him a rat-faced bastard and gives him two stars. The trailer for the third season featured one of Music/{{Cher}}'s tweets, which said John has a "wee rat face" (with the rat represented by a rat emoji). |
| 717 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gEEJxC0_mQ Saying that only a certain group can successfully make an article of clothing look good]], then showing an image of Creator/GwynethPaltrow doing the same as a counterpoint. |
| 718 | --->'''John:''' […] The Secret Service, the only people on Earth who can pull off aviator sunglasses, ''Gwyneth''. |
| 719 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4tB-oTykv4 "Janice in Accounting don't give a fuck."]] |
| 720 | ** As of 2017, mentions of "President Trump" are followed by examples of other words that just sound ''wrong'' together, with the latter generally being famous people with [[AerithAndBob not-quite-common names]], such as "walrus porn" or "Tilda Swinton". |
| 721 | ** Speaking of Tilda Swinton, there have been multiple gags about John being creeped out by her. |
| 722 | ** John ''absolutely'' hates ''WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}}''. |
| 723 | ** Referring to Sean Spicer as Creator/MelissaMcCarthy, following her portrayal of him on ''Saturday Night Live''. |
| 724 | ** Whenever John wants to relay a message to Donald Trump directly, he takes out an ad on programs Trump watches, always narrated by the Catheter Cowboy, a parody of catheter ads in which a cowboy shills said product. |
| 725 | ** Shilling [=DeWalt=] ladders and taking swipes at their competition, Werner, while insisting that he's only doing so out of a personal fondness for the former. |
| 726 | ** John insists that [[Creator/MaryKateAndAshleyOlsen the Olsen Twins]] are in fact one person who is [[SuperSpeed moving back and forth at superhuman speeds]] to create the illusion of being two people, and that [[EpilepticTrees there is a grand conspiracy to convince the world there are two of them]], for reasons he cannot understand. It even showed up in the segment about Facebook, where a scene when various people mention conspiracy theories lists the Olsen twin among them. |
| 727 | ** The CelebrityResemblance between John and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, usually combined with John [[ButHeSoundsHandsome gushing over how handsome Mnuchin is]]. |
| 728 | ** In season four, after catching Donald Trump in a lie or mistake, John will sometimes proclaim "We got him!" and start a celebration, only to be informed that he's still President regardless. Eventually, the tiger mascot loses his temper and smashes the button. Then he switches it up with a "We got her!" button after the Olsen twins being unable to prove him wrong in person is taken as proof they're actually one person. |
| 729 | ** Post-''Series/GameOfThrones'' finale, [[BitingTheHandHumor repeated jabs at HBO's status as a network taking a nosedive.]] That began ''during the final season's airing''. |
| 730 | ** Responding to fearmongering about crime rates with, "Is this Film/ThePurge?", followed by him wondering how exactly the Purge works. |
| 731 | ** Since AT&T purchased Time Warner John's made a sport of [[BitingTheHandHumor taking cheap shots at AT&T as part of a(n often unrelated) joke]], and then gleefully saying things like "You like that, Business Daddy? I got you good!" |
| 732 | ** During the 2020 season, [[EvenTheGuysWantHim John thirsting over]] Creator/AdamDriver, intensely ordering him to attack him. |
| 733 | ** Every year since 2017, when the news note pumpkin spice latte has returned [[https://youtu.be/xwnH1nVKb3U?t=131 there is a montage glorifying that]]. |
| 734 | ** Talking about [[BestialityIsDepraved how fuckable horses are]] whenever a horse is mentioned. |
| 735 | ** As a nod to how Texas senator Ted Cruz filibustered against Obamacare by reading ''Literature/GreenEggsAndHam'' in 2013, John often uses ''Green Eggs and Ham''-eseque rhymes to denounce Cruz whenever he's discussing him. |
| 736 | ** During the 2021 season, John reveals that when he snaps his fingers, he can summon Creator/GeorgeClooney. This has lead to several moments where he does it on accident and summons a very annoyed George. In one instance, George reveals that when he claps his hands, he can summon [[Franchise/TheMuppets Kermit the Frog]], but he doesn't do it out of respect. John dares him to do it anyway, whicn upsets both George and Kermit. In the season finale, George had gotten so sick of this that he gave John the power to call on any other celebrities, so he summons Creator/JenniferCoolidge, Creator/WillFerrell, Creator/RuPaul, Music/CardiB, and Creator/LeslieJones. |
| 737 | * RunningGagged: The Adam Driver gag got a resolution in the Season Seven finale, with Adam himself showing up to chew John out about it. |
| 738 | [[/folder]] |
| 739 | |
| 740 | [[folder:Tropes S to Z]] |
| 741 | * SadClown: John gives off this impression due to his cynical outlook, the often depressing nature of the topics he covers, the sheer amount of self-depreciating jokes, and frequent quips about his lack of emotional well-being. Particularly noticeable in season 7, in line with the DarkerAndEdgier tone the series started taking. |
| 742 | * SarcasmMode: Anytime he ends a clip of people saying or doing TotallyRadical stuff, he says "Cool" in the most flattened, forced inflection. |
| 743 | * ScamReligion: After dealing with some in the Televangelists episode, John went on to create his own version for laughs, Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, which makes it clear that their sole purpose was to get money. (which was donated to Doctors without Borders once it was closed the following month) |
| 744 | * TheScapegoat: He calls out some Republican nominees for blaming mass shootings on mental illness so they won't have to address the issue of gun control; even though mentally ill people are more likely to the ''victims'', rather than the perpetrators, of violent crimes. |
| 745 | * SdrawkcabName: In the segment about multilevel marketing, Market America CEO JR Ridinger uses this to explain how his company isn't a pyramid; he calls it a 'dimaryp'. |
| 746 | * SecondPlaceIsForLosers: John {{lampshade|Hanging}}s this in the segment on stadiums, when he notes that a boastful rap about San Diego, created by a local rap artist to convince the city council to fund a new stadium for the San Diego Chargers,[[note]]The Chargers eventually decided in January 2017 to relocate to Los Angeles after it failed to reach a stadium deal with the San Diego city government.[[/note]] includes the line "San Diego … second largest city", which John noted is a "strange boast for a rap song": |
| 747 | -->'''John:''' Yo, I got the second hottest car/'cause I'm the second most paid/when I walk into the club/I get the second most laid! |
| 748 | * SelfDeprecation: John never misses an opportunity to mock himself and the show: |
| 749 | ** John admits that his credit report is probably low, given he spends HBO's money on "silly costumes, [[ImpressivePyrotechnics pyrotechnics]], and [[LimitedWardrobe checkered shirts]]." |
| 750 | ** In the segment about abortion laws: |
| 751 | --->'''John:''' Death by colonoscopy has to be one of the worst ways to die – right after having your mother catch you masturbating and while you're trying to pull your pants up you fall and hit your head so your dad has to carry you pantsless to the car to take you to the hospital and the girl next door you have a crush on tries to help but she's laughing so hard at the size of your penis that she closes the door on your hand startling your mother who slams her foot on the gas dragging you behind the car for several blocks while your father yells, "Your TV show is derivative, and you'll never escape the shadow of Creator/JonStewart!" |
| 752 | ** A brief opening segment has John show off an actual API advert that blatantly steals the design and presentation of his show's opening credits. He then plays the show's theme over the ad to make the comparison even ''more'' glaring. |
| 753 | --->'''John:''' You took our shit, API! [[PunctuatedForEmphasis You took! Our! Shit!]] Everything! From the font to the design style! You have so thoroughly copied our credits, at the end of that ad I was honestly worried I was about to watch twenty-nine minutes of a rat-faced Englishman telling me sad news facts! [[ItWillNeverCatchOn And who wants that?]] |
| 754 | ** In the segment on journalism, while playing an old clip, to showcase the show's reliance on printed references: |
| 755 | --->'''John:''' You probably didn't notice it at the time because you were too fixated on my bold choice of shiny gray tie with checkered dress shirt. The tie says "Matthew funeral", the shirt says "high school debate tournament" and the face says "I am not confident enough to carry this look off". |
| 756 | ** The season 4 trailer has the narrator dramatically announce the return of HBO's greatest/hit/whathaveyou show … which isn't ''Last Week Tonight'' and John keeps showing up uninvited. |
| 757 | ** He does it again in the first episode of season four, referencing his haters about his show, saying that they most likely call it ''Last Cuck Tonight with Johnny Triggerwarning''. |
| 758 | ** John refers to Britain as the place where he is "affectionately" known as "Who?" |
| 759 | ** When Alex Jones attributed John's popularity to the "legitimate" sound of his British accent, John was quick to issue a rebuttal the only way he knows how. |
| 760 | --->'''John:''' My British accent does ''not'' sound intellectual. Believe me, I sound like a chimney sweep passing through a wood chipper. |
| 761 | ** In the retirement episode a running gag was that the research staff was working hard while John and everybody else were wasting time googling pictures of teacup pigs. |
| 762 | ** He began one of the many stories relating to immigration with: "Immigration. The system that brought you: me. But, it's still good, and I promise that won't happen again." |
| 763 | ** John constantly makes fun of his "strength". Just for one example, in "Chiijohn", he decides to contact his friends overseas with a bottled message. He heads to the docks and throws the bottle as far as he physically can … the camera follows the bottle as it hits the water approx. 2-3 meters from John. |
| 764 | ** In the segment on Death Investigations, John notes that some U.S. counties have the local hairdresser serving as their coroner: |
| 765 | --->'''John:''' No disrespect to hairdressers, but some have been known to drop the ball from time to time. ''(shows a picture of his old haircut)'' It ''has'' happened. Mistakes have been made. |
| 766 | ** When mentioning [[Franchise/HarryPotter the four Hogwarts houses]] one time, John claims that if he were at Hogwarts he would be sorted into a separate, fifth house "specifically for cowards". |
| 767 | ** While covering the 2020 Republican National Convention, John mentions that calling Joe Biden a radical socialist is much like calling him [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing2019 history's greatest Zazu]] -- "you can say I am all you want to, and, honestly, I wish I were, but the fact is, it's not even ''close''." |
| 768 | ** A history book calling slavery "tasks" was compared to "calling Hitler 'a best-selling author', JFK's assassination 'a bad day', [[TheTriple and this show a comedy.]]" |
| 769 | ** After a clip where a man assigned for jury duty complains that he was locked in a place without HBO, John notes he doesn't get free HBO either "and I'm helping ruin it!" |
| 770 | ** In "Long Term Health Care", he says that choosing a haircut is the kind of thing you'd expect to figure out through trial-and-error (as opposed to figuring out long-term healthcare): |
| 771 | --->'''John:''' ''(showing a series of images of his old haircuts, followed by his current one)'' And for the record: Error, error, error, and error. |
| 772 | ** In "Multilevel Marketing", John discusses an MLM representative selling the fantasy of telling a BadBoss to go fuck themselves: |
| 773 | --->'''John:''' The picture she paints is enticing. Who doesn't want to tell their boss to go fuck themselves? Half my staff would do it right now if they could. |
| 774 | ** After John mocked the city of Dunbury, the mayor said he'd rename the local sewage plant after him because "it's full of crap, just like you, John". Sure enough, John complimented this move and asked them to go through, even saying that had they not done so, he'd give donate to charities of neighbouring towns instead of Danbury's. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Oliver_Memorial_Sewer_Plant And they did,]] on the condition of John being there to cut the ribbon. |
| 775 | ** Once Joe Biden was filmed sleeping at an environmental conference right right as the presenter noted the concerns: |
| 776 | -->'''John:''' "This conference is one of the most important meetings in history" is one of the worst things someone can say as you nod off, right there with "you may now kiss the bride", "in one mile, exit highway" or "welcome to ''Last Week Tonight'', I'm John Oliver'." |
| 777 | * SeriesFauxnale: At the end of the May 6, 2018 episode, it was revealed that the Blockbuster in Alaska accepted the Creator/RussellCrowe memorabilia the show bought for them, and Crowe then donated a large amount of money to the Australia Zoo, which is run by the family of the late Steve Irwin, the ''Series/CrocodileHunter'', and used it to set up the John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward. John then announced that having a Koala Chlamydia ward named after him was the goal of the show, and announced that he was stepping down, and thanked all his viewers for watching the show all these years, walking off set as it was being taken down. On May 13, 2018, he started his show by claiming that his contract with Creator/{{HBO}} is still in effect, and he can't just walk away like he tried to do. Also, he claimed that he visited the ward, and was disgusted by the koalas up close that he doesn't want anything to do with them. |
| 778 | * SeriousBusiness: A segment regarding the crown prince of Thailand landed John on their police watchlist, after he apparently violated a law prohibiting the mockery of that country's royalty. He decided to tempt fate further by insulting the royalty of Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands and Denmark, which have similar laws on the books. |
| 779 | * SesameStreetCred: Just in case a pastiche wasn't enough, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLi2xB82ZyI&feature=youtu.be here's him on the real thing]]. And in the segment on lead poisoning, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUizvEjR-0U Sesame Street characters came to the show.]] |
| 780 | * SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: In the OAN episode, he mocks host Chanel Rion have a word of the day calendar that in the end is basically imploring her viewers to use these words to ''seem'' smarter, which Oliver uses aganist her both by describing it with the word "Fanfaranode" and using a string of them at the end. |
| 781 | * SexMiseducationClass: Discussed by John. Due to there being no federal standard for sex education classes and certain conservative districts limit what can be said during sex education classes, many students wind up under or misinformed about sex. Attention is also pointed at creative workarounds, such as teachers who aren't allowed to show how to put on a condom instead give a demonstration on how to properly put on a sock. |
| 782 | * SexyWhateverOutfit: In the Halloween 2014 episode, John is shocked to discover that [[GenderFlip "sexy" female Halloween costume versions]] of both comedian Creator/LouisCK[[note]]With bald patch and beard included.[[/note]] and ''himself'' are now available for purchase at the Playboy Store, commenting [[ScrewYourself "I don't know if I've ever been as confused]] [[StrangelyArousing as I am right now"]] on the latter. |
| 783 | * ShadyScalper: "[[https://youtu.be/-_Y7uqqEFnY Tickets]]" is an episode on tickets to concerts and sports games. Of course it also talks about ticket scalpers, even claiming that Ticketmaster was accepting scalping resellers as partners. |
| 784 | * ShamedByAMob: Deconstructed during the segment on public shaming, as John notes that [[GossipEvolution the alleged offense often gets warped out of context]] to the point that [[DisproportionateRetribution the backlash becomes highly excessive]]. |
| 785 | * ShamuFu: Upon seeing a video of a salmon catapult designed to launch them upstream, John decides he must make his own. He then decides to test it, resulting in a montage of ''many'' celebrities getting smacked by fake fish. |
| 786 | * ShoutOut: |
| 787 | ** During the segment on student loans, John includes a reference to ''Series/{{Community}}'', on which he played Professor Duncan, much to the audience's glee. |
| 788 | --->'''John:''' …and you don't even get to hang out with a study group of lovable scamps for, let's say, [[CatchPhrase six seasons and a movie.]] |
| 789 | ** In the title sequence, over a Gorilla, is the phrase [[Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes "Damned Dirtius Apus"]]. |
| 790 | ** Twice the opening had an homage to an retiring television host, [[Creator/DavidLetterman Hostus Letterman]] and Hostus Maximus (John's former employer Creator/JonStewart). |
| 791 | ** After Ronda Rousey won her bout in UFC 190 [[CurbStompBattle by knockout in 34 seconds]], she was featured on the final slide with the title Gladiatrix. |
| 792 | ** Over John's shoulder in the collage of real landmarks is Dragonstone, Stannis' castle on ''Series/GameOfThrones''. |
| 793 | ** When referring to a UsefulNotes/StLouis deputy who explicitly called for more racial profiling in an internal memo: |
| 794 | --->'''John:''' Let's be fair here, "Let's have a black day" is an ''[[PreAssKickingOneLiner awesome]]'' thing to say -- if you are Film/{{Shaft}}. |
| 795 | ** Chiijohn Part 2 involves the titular mascot otter and his new friend visiting America to find John after they receive a message in a bottle from him. In New York, when someone finally helps them on their quest to find "TV's best late show host", they're sent to the set of ''Series/LateNight'' to meet Creator/SethMeyers. |
| 796 | ** The ''Art/LaserKiwiFlag'' is discussed when the topic of the New Zealand flag referendum came up. John praises the flag due to its hilarity. |
| 797 | * SickeninglySweethearts: Whenever "Wanda Jo" appears, she and John act like this, addressing each other solely as "my John" and "my Wanda" and excessively praising each other (and God). |
| 798 | * SignificantAnagram: "Soybean Wind", because Dabo Swinney, a college football coach with a $3 million salary and personal licensing deals sadly denouncing entitlement in the sport, "seems as pleasant as an edamame fart". |
| 799 | * SignificantNameOverlap: [[invoked]] During the segment on credit reports, this is shown to be a major problem when someone is wrongfully rejected. For example, a man called Sam Jackson ([[Creator/SamuelLJackson no, not him]]) was mistaken for ''three'' sex offenders that shared the same name, one of whom was convicted when he was ''three years old''. The show also found ''two'' news segments about different women named Judy Thomas who spent years trying to correct errors on their credit reports. |
| 800 | * SilentCredits: After his OOCIsSeriousBusiness signoff in the "Police Brutality" episode, silent white-text-on-black-background credits play instead of the normal black-text-on-white-background credits set to the show's InstrumentalThemeTune. |
| 801 | * SinisterMinister: The televangelists, who have been shown to ask for large donations from people who can't afford them, and who use those donations for personal enrichment. One egregious example is Mike Murdock, who, in one clip, bragged about purchasing two jets with cash, then passive-aggressively chided the less-than-responsive crowd as being "jealous", and requested $1000 donations from people in another clip (explicitly promising those who donated despite being in deep debt that [[DeusExMachina "God will wipe out your credit card indebtedness"]]). |
| 802 | * SinsOfTheFather: Played with in his segment on UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily and the legacy of the UsefulNotes/BritishEmpire. While going over the British monarchy's role as a symbol of both the United Kingdom itself and its former Empire, John does not suggest that the modern royals are responsible for events that took place generations (or, in the case of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, ''centuries'') before their lifetimes. Rather, John faulted the modern royals for not properly reckoning with what the British government did in the Crown's name to the indigenous residents of former British colonies. |
| 803 | * SirSwearsALot: Since HBO is a privately owned cable company that does not have to adhere to as tightly to the moral standards of FCC censorship, John regularly swears like Eminem crossed with David Mamet, particularly if a particular act of cruelty/callousness angers him. |
| 804 | * SlutShaming: Discussed in the segment about sex education. Material for abstinence-only sex ed compares non-virgins (especially women) to a chewed-up stick of gum, an used shoe and so on. When he mentions Elizabeth Smart, who received abstinence-only sex education after having been kidnapped and raped as a child, John notes that she would have been better off if she had called in sick that day and learned ''nothing.'' |
| 805 | * SmokingHotSex: Referenced in the segment about tobacco, when John is talking about how prevalent smoking used to be. |
| 806 | -->'''John:''' It used to be a cornerstone of American life. It was how you knew sex was over before the female orgasm was invented. |
| 807 | * SoccerHatingAmericans: John acknowledges that his American audience might not understand the epic scale of the FIFA scandals, as in America, "soccer is something you pick your 12-year-old daughter from." |
| 808 | * SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX: In his segment on the 2016 riots in Charlotte, John comments that Representative [[DeepSouth Robert Pittenger]] should [[DefiedTrope defy this trope]] when commenting on race relations. [[TemptingFate When Pittenger did claim that he did have several Black friends]], John commented that he (Pittenger) ''did not'': he had, at best, one TokenBlackFriend, [[DeconstructedTrope and he was likely angry at those comments.]] |
| 809 | * SongParody: |
| 810 | ** In response to learning that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's music downloads include "I'm So Sexy" by Right Said Fred, and realizing that we're basically never getting rid of Assad because the alternative is even worse, John decides there is only one recourse: actually getting Right Said Fred to do a parody of their own song calling out Assad. |
| 811 | ** Michael Bolton also did "How [[strike:Am I]] Are We Supposed to Live Without You", about the IRS. |
| 812 | * SoOkayItsAverage: Invoked, as this is John's opinion of the Scrub Jay's sound in the Stand Your Ground laws segment. |
| 813 | --> '''John:''' See? That's fine. Is it great? No, it's not great, it's fine, it's perfectly fine. Sure, the bird is no {{Music/Mariah|Carey}}, but it's also no {{Creator/Roseanne|Barr}}.[[note]]It's worth noting that when John mentions Roseanne, it shows a picture of her from her performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1990, where she didn't so much sing as ''scream'' the national anthem.[[/note]] If that bird is anyone, it's Music/{{Fergie}}. You heard me, the scrub Jay is Fergie. [[HashtagForLaughs Tweet it]], [[SublimeRhyme Tok it, put it in your pocket]], I've made a flimsy take and I'm proud of it. |
| 814 | * SoulSuckingRetailJob: Working in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4QGOHahiVM dollar store]] is one, according to first- and third-person coverage of such. It's not much of a surprise, therefore, that some dollar-store employees have gone "TakeThisJobAndShoveIt" -- in real life or in the [[BlandNameProduct "Dollar Bucket"]] satirical sketch at the end of the segment. |
| 815 | * SpringtimeForHitler: |
| 816 | ** In a segment dedicated to Vice President Mike Pence, John mentioned that Pence's daughter wrote a book about their pet rabbit, Marlon Bundo, which told the reader about what the Vice President does everyday through the rabbit's viewpoint. To comment on the fact that Pence was responsible for some [[HeteronormativeCrusader homophobic legislation as Governor of Indiana,]] John revealed that the show [[DuelingWorks wrote a book about Marlon Bundo as well,]] where the story centers on the bunny falling in love with another male bunny, and their trial and tribulations of how the animals around them, in particular a stinkbug that [[SarcasmMode totally does not look like Pence at all,]] opposed their relationship. John expected to sell just a couple of books to a small number of curious readers, [[https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/76466-pence-s-rabbit-outsells-oliver-s-bunny.html but was surprised that not only did his book outsell Pence's book,]] [[https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/03/john-oliver-pence-book-marlon-bundo-copies-sold but had to order a reprint to meet demand.]] |
| 817 | ** Discussed in the Brexit segments. When the Brexit vote resulted in the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, John theorized that the Brexit collaborators (Boris Johnson, David Cameron, and Nigel Farage) weren't expecting to win the vote because of their actions after it. John showed that as soon as the Brexit vote came through, David Cameron stepped down as prime minister and Nigel Farage took back his promise to fund the NHS with the 350 million pounds that Britain was sending to the European Union. |
| 818 | * StageMom: Argues that the reason that Sandy Hook was not a false flag attack (keep in mind that [[ConspiracyTheorist one supporter]] of this theory is a trusted source according to Donald Trump) is that if they had hired child actors, their stage moms still would not stop bragging about it. |
| 819 | * StartMyOwn: Occasionally does this as part of any story about certain industries or businesses being too unregulated. Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption is probably the biggest example. |
| 820 | * StartXToStopX: |
| 821 | ** In the episode about robocalls, with the FCC refusing to do anything to stop them, John sets up his own to send to all the organization's top people every 90 minutes until they decide it's worth addressing. |
| 822 | ** The episode about the filibuster ends with John giving a filibuster about abolishing the filibuster, arguing that it is a needless hindrance in American politics. |
| 823 | * {{Stereotype}}:[[invoked]] Discussed. An anti-Scottish independence ad showed a {{housewife}} as clearly conflicted and unsure about the voting process. John took it as portraying women as lacking the mental fortitude to decide for themselves. |
| 824 | * StiffUpperLip: John jokingly claims that crying in public is punishable by banishment in Britain. Doing so during in theatre preview for ''Film/TheNotebook'' is what got him exiled to the United States. |
| 825 | * TheStoic: Steve Scully, "the most patient man on television." |
| 826 | * StockFootage: When John breaks down an attack ad against what it calls a bailout of Puerto Rico, he points out that the sad old people in the ad are stock footage models. And the entire stock footage of one gentleman in particular shows that he's in the process of ''smiling''. |
| 827 | -->'''John:''' Hey, Stock Footage Man, you've been used in a manipulative attack ad!\ |
| 828 | ''[Stock Footage Man looks sad]''\ |
| 829 | '''John:''' Oh, don't be sad. Let's get some ice cream!\ |
| 830 | ''[Stock Footage Man smiles]''\ |
| 831 | '''John:''' Oh, you know what? Bad news … They're out of ice cream.\ |
| 832 | ''[Stock Footage Man looks sad again]''\ |
| 833 | '''John:''' But they have cake!\ |
| 834 | ''[Stock Footage Man smiles again]''\ |
| 835 | '''John:''' ''Pound'' cake, though…\ |
| 836 | ''[Stock Footage Man looks sad yet again]''\ |
| 837 | '''John:''' …with strawberries!\ |
| 838 | ''[Stock Footage Man smiles yet again]''\ |
| 839 | '''John:''' Oh, Stock Footage Man, you're America's greatest living actor! |
| 840 | * StopBeingStereotypical: |
| 841 | ** Various segments centered around France end up recalling several stereotypes associated with the country, which surprises and annoys John. |
| 842 | *** The segment on then-French President François Hollande details how he would sneak out after midnight to pick up his mistress on a moped, "a sequence of events so stereotypically French, it's almost offensive." |
| 843 | *** France's film ratings board greenlighting ''Film/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t3TzSnwCn4 as suitable for 12+]] is perhaps the "Frenchest thing imaginable", and that's coming from a compromise decision because some thought it shouldn't have any age restriction. |
| 844 | ---->'''John:''' [''[[GayParee as a cigarette-smoking, wine-drinking child in a striped shirt]]''] "Yes, it was an amusing erotic trifle, I zuppose -- ze lovemaking was passable, but, uh … belt-play is a leetle ''[[CasualKink pedestrian]]'', don't you zhink?" |
| 845 | *** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkZir1L7fSY&t=4m30s During his segment on France's 2017 presidential election]], he described Jean Lassalle as "almost offensively French". |
| 846 | ---->'''John:''' His entire life seems like an attempt to win the game show called "''So You Think You Can France''". |
| 847 | ** Even segments related to John's native Britain end up being too British for John most of the time. |
| 848 | *** Even John thinks British Prime Minister David Cameron embodies everything that's wrong with England, and John himself is English. He even shows up a picture of Cameron at Oxford wearing a tailcoat. |
| 849 | *** A British newscaster saying that the extremely close race between David Cameron and Ed Miliband could "potentially get a little bit exciting" is, according to John, "quintessentially British enthusiasm." |
| 850 | *** The entirety of the scandal facing Baron Sewel and the House of Lords, including [[StiffUpperLip Sewel's unflappably polite demeanor during a cocaine-fueled tryst with prostitutes]], his insistence of turning a photograph of his wife face-down, ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Sun]]'' coarsely referring to a woman's breasts as "boobs", and Sewel calling one of the prostitutes "luvvie darling" while indignantly replying that he doesn't waste taxpayers' money on lunch, he wastes it on ''them''. The segment finally ends with a recitation of some of the Lords' UpperClassTwit names, paired with fitting photographs of animals and scored by harpsichord music. |
| 851 | ** The Canadian Senate expenses scandal. |
| 852 | --->'''John:''' Wow. Hockey and fishing trips. This scandal could not be any more Canadian if public money was used to get Music/{{Drake}} to drink maple syrup on Niagara Falls.\ |
| 853 | ''[later, after further footage of the scandal]''\ |
| 854 | '''John:''' A man named Terry going to a curling club anniversary. Kudos, Canada. You made this scandal more Canadian after I explicitly said that that could not be done. Well played. Well played, Canada. |
| 855 | ** When detailing Australia's ridiculous giant sculptures of objects, he brings up a crocodile with boxing gloves meant to attract tourists to the town of Humpty Do, "a statement so offensively Australian that, if it were not true, would actually be racist." |
| 856 | ** In detailing the video explaining Alaska's new ranked choice voting system, John takes note of the "offensively Alaskan" example ballot which uses a deer, a polar bear, a penguin, and an owl as the candidates. |
| 857 | * StrawHypocrite: John took Fox News to task for this over their early reporting on coronavirus. |
| 858 | -->'''John:''' A lot of people underestimated the danger of [[[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic the coronavirus pandemic]]] early on, but Fox News was still doing it not just as the death toll mounted, but even as, behind the scenes, ''their own company'' was suspending non-essential business travel and encouraging employees to cancel all in person meetings and summits and conduct business via Skype or by phone because … they only pretend to believe these things on television for money. |
| 859 | * StreisandEffect:[[invoked]] |
| 860 | ** Discussed in the segment on the "[[https://youtu.be/r-ERajkMXw0 Right to Be Forgotten]]", as Mario Costeja-Gonzalez, the man from Spain who petitioned the European Union for the rule to be legislated did so concerning his personal debts from 1998. |
| 861 | --->'''John:''' In doing so, he's now world-famous for being "That Spanish guy with debts from 1998". The only thing I ''know'' about him [[{{Irony}} is the only thing he didn't want me to know]]. |
| 862 | ** This happened again during [[https://youtu.be/aw6RsUhw1Q8 his segment about the coal industry]], as the show was sent a Cease & Desist letter by Murray Energy, which prompted them to focus even ''more'' on that particular company than they had initially planned to. The company [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/22/john-oliver-a-giant-squirrel-and-a-defamation-lawsuit-by-a-coal-industry-titan/?utm_term=.5412bb831398 filed a suit just three days later]]. |
| 863 | --->'''John:''' Bob Murray, I didn't really plan for so much of this piece to be about you, but you kind of forced my hand on that one. |
| 864 | * StrictlyFormula: When discussing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ2keSJzYyY freight trains]], John says: "[I]ndustry plus deregulation minus government oversight equals episode of ''Last Week Tonight''. And guess what, guys? ''Here we are.''" |
| 865 | * StuffBlowingUp: In the Season 3 finale, John Oliver detonated signs reading 2016, claiming it to be a bad year. [[CallBack This would be repeated]] in 2020 for [[https://youtu.be/EzlCOg-37hI?t=520 the Season 7 finale]], claiming it to be an even worse year. |
| 866 | * StylisticSuck: The prosperity-gospel megachurch John set up, "Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption", had [[http://www.ourladyofperpetualexemption.com its very own website]], and [[https://41.media.tumblr.com/cce0e248c672a223bab32af306b0f7ff/tumblr_nuu7rouD1j1uu2uuso1_1280.png it was exactly]] [[https://40.media.tumblr.com/20b69cc2546cc0fe38a1f49044944642/tumblr_nuu7rouD1j1uu2uuso2_1280.png as cheesy-looking]] [[https://41.media.tumblr.com/1972e6da2fd6bd8e29d9bbffa0d89c89/tumblr_nuu7rouD1j1uu2uuso3_1280.png as you'd expect]]. |
| 867 | * SuddenMusicalEnding: At the end of the "SLAPP Suits" Episode, John concludes with a big Broadway-style musical number filled with wild and crazy anecdotes about Bob Murray. |
| 868 | * SuddenlyShouting: Often used by John in punchlines to emphasize how ''infuriating'' the cruelty/callousness of this week's stupid politician is. |
| 869 | * SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: |
| 870 | ** In discussing the right to remove embarrassing links from internet searches, John plays a clip of CNBC anchor Brian Sullivan hypothetically suggesting "that article of me running over a squirrel on my bicycle while drunk and naked" as something one might want removed. John concludes that Sullivan must have done this in the past, as it is too bizarrely specific to be a spontaneous, off-the-cuff example and not something he is personally familiar with -- then, just in case there isn't a photo somewhere of Sullivan doing just that, he creates a Photoshopped approximation of it, and declares it will soon be everywhere on the Internet (true to form, "squirrel" shot up to the ''second'' Google Search suggestion when typing "Brian Sullivan", and remains near the top to this day). |
| 871 | ** John maintains that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler stating outright that he isn't secretly a dingo, then adding that he had to look up what the animal was on the Internet, is exactly how a dingo would lie about being a dingo disguised as a human being. |
| 872 | ** After British prime minister David Cameron was connected to a shell corporation mentioned in the Panama Papers, Cameron responded in a speech saying he "doesn't own shares in that company". The press took such wording as an invitation to look further, and found that yes, [[ExactWords he was correct]]: Cameron didn't own shares in that company at the time he made the statement, because he had already sold them. |
| 873 | ** After Louise Linton, wife of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, asked one of her critics on social media whether they thought the government had paid for their European honeymoon, John pointed out that this was a ''suspiciously specific'' thing to ask out of nowhere, and indeed, surprising nobodyone, it transpired that they indeed tried to get the government to pay for it (fortunately, it refused). |
| 874 | * TakeAThirdOption: On the August 21, 2016, episode, at which point almost everyone still expected UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton to beat Trump in a {{landslide|Election}} in the upcoming US presidential election, John notes that at that point, Trump seems to have two options. He can (1) keep going down his ostensibly losing path, thereby undercutting his brand as a successful businessman and perpetual winner, or (2) retool his campaign, win, and take on TheChainsOfCommanding, which would make him miserable because he's TheHedonist and likes to show off his wealth. In response, John proposes a third option that he [[KnowWhenToFoldEm drop out]] and admit his campaign was [[PoesLaw "a satire designed to expose the flaws in the system"]], such as the deleterious influence of big money in politics, [[StrawmanNewsMedia a mediascape uninterested in issues that affect people]], and how senior Republican officials and civilian Trump supporters alike continued to support him, openly or tacitly, despite or even because of all the appeals to bigotry he made. Of course, when Trump won a couple of months later, that suggestion became moot. |
| 875 | * TakeThat: |
| 876 | ** During a segment on native advertising in online news websites, he points out that HBO has no sponsors, meaning he doesn't need to watch what he says about various products, and promptly gives out take thats to Cadbury Creme Eggs, Old Navy clothing, and Snickers bars, just to show that he can. Later, he does a phony "native advertisement" for Mountain Dew Code Red, and afterwards bitterly refers to it as "the most disgusting fucking drink ever manufactured" (although, true to its name, it does [[TastesLikePurple taste a lot like the color red]]). |
| 877 | ** John is clearly one of the many people that is not incredibly fond of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44fCfJQV7yQ&list=PLmKbqjSZR8TZa7wyVoVq2XMHxxWREyiFc the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal]], "also known as the single worst place on Planet Earth." |
| 878 | ** When making his bid to have the 2022 Winter Olympics hosted in his studio by complying with their bizarre demands, he offers a cooler with various Coca-Cola products, including Vanilla Coke. |
| 879 | --->'''John:''' It's like drinking a Glade plug-in. |
| 880 | ** After watching the Turner Doomsday Video,[[note]]Which consists of a marching band playing the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee."[[/note]] he states the only comforting thought is that the marching band will also die. He also compares marching bands to jails: something that if you're in for at least a little while, ''will ruin you''. |
| 881 | ** In the segment about Japanese mascots, he calls Japan "a nation so vibrant, not even Creator/SofiaCoppola and the band Air [[Film/LostInTranslation could make it boring]]." |
| 882 | ** He likens political scandals during election campaigns to raisins on cookies: they shouldn't be there, and they disgust people. |
| 883 | ** The segment on multi-level marketing, in which he gives proof that shows that most are pyramid schemes, ends with John instructing people to pass on this video to others in what is basically, you guessed it, a pyramid scheme. The show even produces a Spanish-language version of the same segment for its Website/YouTube channel hosted by Jaime Camil for the same purpose, after noting how multi-level marketing schemes frequently recruit Latinos. To drive the point further, that episode featured a clip from the Mexican telenovela ''La Fea mas Bella'' (a {{Remake}} of the Colombian ''Series/YoSoyBettyLaFea'', the same telenovela that was the basis for ''Series/UglyBetty'') where some of the main characters [[ProductPlacement talk about the benefits of Herbalife products]], and where Jaime Camil was the male romantic lead. |
| 884 | ** After admitting that the topic of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bl19RoR7lc economic development incentives]]" isn't an interesting topic, [[BreakingTheFourthWall John is then promptly put into the corner as the "viewer" picture-in-pictures in]] ''Film/{{Entourage}}''. John then tells them to switch the audio, and listen to the first line, to see what they would prefer watching. One "I may have to jerk it before we even get there!" later, we are promptly returned to the episode. |
| 885 | ** When doing a story on the election fraud scandal surrounding Mark Harris' 2018 election in North Carolina, John says of the state "of all Carolinas, it is definitely a Carolina", suggesting there's nothing else positive to say about it. |
| 886 | ** While covering the controversial anti-abortion "heartbeat bill", we get this gem after a clip where Republican sponsor John Becker says that "people smarter than me can figure out what that means": |
| 887 | --->'''John:''' Wow. "I just wrote the bill, someone smarter than me can figure out what it means." It seems like lawmakers should exhibit a little more awareness about what they're releasing than the makers of the ''Film/{{Sonic the Hedgehog|2020}}'' movie. ''(brings up Sonic's infamous initial design onscreen)'' "Look, I don't know. [[UncannyValley I just had the CGI team mock-up a furry potato with a corpse's face.]] Someone smarter than me can figure out if that's nostalgic for people." |
| 888 | ** In the Compounding Pharmacies segment, John took two jabs at ''Film/{{Cats}}'', the ''other'' movie at the time time with a widely mocked trailer showcasing infamously creepy CGI creations. |
| 889 | ** Really, it's easier to name a reference to a person, country … ''ice cream flavor'' ("Strawberry is for perverts!") or any other thing that hasn't received one. One case being a subversion in which John said that the only person who could pull off [[ItMakesSenseInContext being three different sex offenders]] is Creator/NeilPatrickHarris not as an insult, but because he's that amazing of an actor. |
| 890 | ** In the "Televangelists" segement, John illustrates how the IRS definition of a religion as a "strongly held belief that is not illegal" can apply to literally any belief: |
| 891 | --->'''John:''' If you believe that the greatest movie ever made is ''Film/LadyInTheWater'', then your name is Creator/MNightShyamalan, but congratulations Mr. Shyamalan -- that belief could be a religion. |
| 892 | *** He goes after Shyamalan again in "Pennies" upon showing how people often literally throw the titular coins away: |
| 893 | ---->'''John:''' …[T]he US Mint is spending millions to make garbage, and that's not their job; that's M. Night Shyamalan's job [inset poster for ''Film/AfterEarth'']. |
| 894 | ** In his segment on misinformation in foreign languages, John notes that "all it takes is a few superficial labels and style choices to convince people that something with no real substance is actually meaningful and good. Or as it's known in America, the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse." The audience actually groans at this one, which prompts John to tell them to grow up. |
| 895 | ** On his coverage of Critical Race Theory, John describes [=NFTs=] as "Ugly Monkey jpegs, sold by ''and'' for dipshits". |
| 896 | ** During his Home Ownership Association piece, John ends up making a reference to ''Series/TheVoice'', at which point he goes on a tangent about how not a single person who has ever won it has become an actual celebrity. |
| 897 | ** While talking about Dollar Stores, John takes note of the fact that nobody has actually watched any TV shows on Creator/AppleTVPlus, describing it as a streaming service "where celebrities go to hide". |
| 898 | * TalksLikeASimile: A major portion of the show's humor, where John constantly crafts absurd, outrageous metaphors just to properly describe the equally absurd, outrageous situations the show covers. |
| 899 | * TankGoodness: The segment on the racial discrimination by local police that led to the August 2015 riots in Ferguson, Missouri and police militarization has a part where John mocks an advertisement of the Doraville, Georgia police force's new tank with the original background music--[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw-m4jEY-Ns Dope's "Die Motherfucker Die"]]--being switched out and replaced with Simon & Garfunkel's "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" to illustrate how the footage doesn't pair well with any other song than the former. |
| 900 | * TastesLikeChicken: Discussed when talking about chicken farmers. Various descriptions of a bunch of animals whose taste is likened to chicken leads John to state that there's no equivalent in other senses ("How weird would it seem if I said 'everything looks like tables'?"). |
| 901 | * TastesLikeFeet: |
| 902 | ** "[[http://youtu.be/DeQqe0oj5Ls Pumpkin-spice lattes taste like candles taste]]. Don't ask me how I know that." |
| 903 | ** The segment parodying Bud Light ads contains many such similes, comparing its taste to among other things "a liquid John Mayer song," "water spraying from a gutter full of dogs' teeth," "the ghost of a dead lemon" and "a raccoon [ejaculating] carbonated vinegar inside of an old log". |
| 904 | ** John pleads with FIFA's sponsors to "Sepp Blatter go away", promising to drink a Bud Light Lime, which he describes as tasting like a puddle beneath a dumpster at a Long John Silver's restaurant. In a later segment when he keeps his promise, he has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Csi_BEgL_U a few more things to say about Bud Light Lime]] before downing a bottle of it. |
| 905 | ** An offhand joke about Total cereal during his story on corporate tax evasion has John state that it tastes like your spoon somehow missed the cereal and you just started eating the box. |
| 906 | * TeachHimAnger: John admires how polite and milquetoast North Dakotans are (including showing a picture of a real billboard there that simply says "Be Polite"), but after discovering how much damage is being done to them by the oil industry, John produced a video encouraging North Dakotans to get angry at the oil industry instead of welcoming them. He also had a billboard put up telling them "Be Angry. (Please.)" |
| 907 | * TeethClenchedTeamwork: John argues that the relationship between the American taxpayer and the IRS should be this. They're not a likable institution, and it sucks having to deal with them, but at the end of the day they are here to help you and it's not their fault that taxes are high or overly complicated. They definitely don't deserve [[ButtMonkey to have their budget slashed by 20%]], [[GodwinsLaw or to be compared to the Gestapo]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking or to be forced to wipe down checks soaked in mustard]]. |
| 908 | * TastesLikePurple: John mentions that Mountain Dew: Code Red actually does taste like the color red. |
| 909 | * TemptingFate: |
| 910 | ** When Justice Antonin Scalia notes that the media could easily distort the Supreme Court's sound bites if there were televised broadcasts, John uses the blue backdrop behind him to insert the orgy circle from ''Film/EyesWideShut''. |
| 911 | ** Noting that former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg bought up multiple .nyc domain names related to himself, some with unflattering comments about his height, John reveals that some potential ones that Bloomberg ''didn't'' acquire which were purchased by ''Last Week Tonight'' to mock him, like [[http://tinytinymikebloomberg.nyc/ Tiny, Tiny Mike Bloomberg]], which contains nothing but a single Photoshop of him sleeping in a matchbox with a cotton swab for a pillow. |
| 912 | ** [[https://youtu.be/lyjmrwRkHGg A Look Back at Al Roker Delivering the Thanksgiving Kiss of Death]] |
| 913 | * ThatRemindsMeOfASong: Once the mayor of Paris states that any Americans sad that their president jumped off the Paris Agreements are welcome to France, John's reaction is: |
| 914 | -->'''John:''' So what do you mean is … ''[[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast ♪ Be our guest, be our guest, put our service to the test … ♪]]'' |
| 915 | * TheOneThingIDontHateAboutYou: At the beginning of the episode about Vice President Mike Pence, John said that there was one positive thing that he would say about him, which he later reveals is the fact that he actually likes Pence's pet rabbit, [[Creator/MarlonBrando Marlon Bundo]] (which John even says is [[AwesomeMcCoolName an objectively good name for a bunny]]). |
| 916 | -->'''John:''' The point is Marlon Bundo is the most likable thing of an otherwise unlikable man, like how UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush is a perfectly fine painter, or Creator/BillCosby raised American's awareness of pudding, or how Roger Ailes [[CrossesTheLineTwice is dead]]. |
| 917 | * ThinkOfTheChildren: |
| 918 | ** John notes that the argument for doing something about man-made climate change used to be so we could leave a better world for our children. He concludes, based on the fact that opposition to doing so is still so fierce, that they've decided "Eh, fuck 'em." |
| 919 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiN_-AEhTpk When the New Hampshire legislature introduced a bill written by a little girl requesting to make the Red-Tailed Hawk the state's official raptor,]] the legislature, against all common sense, proceeded to engage in ridiculous debates over it, and one of them proceeded to use it as a segue to say that the hawk's sharp talons, which it uses to tear into its prey, makes it a better mascot for Planned Parenthood. This naturally left John ''bewildered''. |
| 920 | --->'''John:''' '''[[WhatTheHellHero What is wrong with you?!]]''' A: this doesn't matter, B: the children are in the room, and C: ''this doesn't matter''. Just vote "yes" and make [the children] happy! Sadly, the story didn't end there, because state representative Warren Groan also decided it was appropriate to use the Red-Tailed Hawk to make a ''completely unnecessary point''. ''[cue said point being shown, followed by the audience's collective shock]'' "'''What the fuck are you talking about?!'''" |
| 921 | * ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: Edward Norton combines this with complicated engineering lingo in the fake movie trailer for ''Infrastructure'': |
| 922 | -->'''Ed Norton:''' I'm ordering uniaxial tests of the slab transverse to the deck corrugations with additional reinforcement and tension tests of the support fastener connections between the deck and the girders … bitch! |
| 923 | * ThisIsGoingToBeHuge: New rules stripping net neutrality could mean John's web startup "Nutflix" may not get off the ground. It's going to be the top website for videos of [[GroinAttack guys getting hit in the nuts]]. |
| 924 | -->'''John:''' You don't even know you want it yet. That's why it's brilliant! |
| 925 | * TheThreeCertaintiesInLife: John's introduction to a topic on death began, "Death, it's one of the few things you can't avoid, along with taxes and plugging in a flash drive upside-down on the first try." |
| 926 | * TomatoInTheMirror: In the episode that delved into how modern-day schools are still segregated, a picture on the corner of the screen shows a smug-looking couple when John mentions how people in "liberal" [[BigApplesauce New York City]] think the segment will talk about schools in the [[DeepSouth Southern U.S.]] John then shows a news-clip about how, [[UrbanSegregation because of income inequality and gentrification,]] schools in New York City are actually ''the'' most segregated in the country. The expressions of the couple in the corner picture then switches to alarmed confusion after being told that fact. |
| 927 | * TortureIsIneffective: John discusses the torture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who revealed secrets of an alleged terrorist plot in Montana, but nobody had realized that he was just lying until well after the fact. |
| 928 | -->'''John:''' Yeah, of course he was lying. What part of the phrase, [[ARareSentence "Recruiting African-American Muslims in Montana"]] did not make you call "bullshit" instantly?! |
| 929 | * {{Touche}}: John has a moment of this in one of the fan mail videos after receiving one telling him "At least you serve your corporate masters well, Unfunny Live-Action [[Series/TheMuppetShow Beaker]]". John claims it's one thing when someone merely insults him, and another [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame when someone "out-comedians" him.]] |
| 930 | * TrailerSpoof: As said on SelfDeprecation, season 4 was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekoETowzmAo promoted]] with a trailer that said ''Last Week Tonight'' wasn't HBO's "biggest show on Sundays" (''Series/GameOfThrones''), "smash hit comedy that is debuting its fourth season" (''Series/SiliconValley'') or "long-awaited return" (the UnCancelled ''Series/CurbYourEnthusiasm''). |
| 931 | * TranquilFury: |
| 932 | ** Upon viewing a clip where Clemson Tigers football coach Dabo Swinney refuses to entertain the notion of paying student athletes because "there's enough entitlement in this world as it is" -- keeping in mind that he's making millions off the kids, and has trademarked his own name to make even more money -- John brightly smiles and informs the audience that "Dabo Swinney" is an anagram of "Soybean Wind", a not-so-subtle call to action for his audience to humiliate Swinney on social media ([=#SoybeanWind=]). |
| 933 | ** Just watch his entire segment on transgender rights. For the entire segment, John's tone has an undercurrent of barely restrained fury, as though he desperately wants to hit some of the people in the clips he was lambasting. In particular is his reaction to Mike Huckabee's comments about transgender bathroom rights: |
| 934 | --->'''Mike Huckabee:''' We are now in city after city, watching ordinances that say that your 7-year-old daughter, if she goes into the restroom, cannot be offended and you cannot be offended if she's greeted there by a 42-year-old man who feels like a woman more than he does a man. Now, I wish someone had told me when I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in P.E. I'm pretty sure I would have found my feminine side and said, "Coach, I think I'd rather shower with the girls today." You're laughing because it sounds so ridiculous, doesn't it? There's something inherently wrong with forcing little children to be part of this social experiment.\ |
| 935 | '''John:''' No. But, uh, there is something inherently wrong with forcing us to listen to your fucked up daydreams about all the sex crimes you would have committed as a teenager, had you just been able to find a legal loophole! That's weird! |
| 936 | ** When doing an episode on sexual education, he was disgusted by teachers and guest speakers using SlutShaming against non-virgins to make students become abstinent. His fury was shown after showing a clip of a sexual abuse survivor telling her story of how her pro-abstinence teacher used a chewing gum metaphor to shame non-virgins. To quote the man himself "learning nothing would have been better than learning that." |
| 937 | ** When doing an update on the Brexit vote, he's visibly and verbally furious with the result. Due to the conspirators exaggerating the benefits, revoking their promises and then stepping down from their positions. The only time he's truly angry was when he summed up Brexit after an interview clip with a Portuguese migrant who asked the interviewer how should she explain the Brexit aftermath to her children. |
| 938 | --->'''John:''' Perhaps I can help you with that, because it's easy. Just tell them that they might be screwed, because a pig fucker called for a vote, a bus had some bullshit written on it, and then two idiots named Nigel and Boris quoted [[Film/IndependenceDay President Bill Pullman.]] They'll get it. They'll totally understand!" |
| 939 | ** "Trump & the Coronavirus" is one, long rant towards former president Donald Trump and how he responded to the pandemic. The few times where John loses his composure are when he voices his concern for his staff and his concern for the medical groups breaking their backs carrying America through the pandemic. He's also barely restraining himself when he repeatedly points out Trump's callousness when he ignored advice from medical professionals, refused to set an example for the public, and sociopathically ignoring the pleas from the medical professionals for help with controlling mass infections. There's so much rage and hate in John's voice that [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness there's barely any jokes in the episode to lighten the mood]]. |
| 940 | --->'''John''': ""Oh, Trump must be great for you comedians, right?" Yeah, not really, this has been a FUCKING nightmare." |
| 941 | * TrappedInVillainy: In his segment on the return of prisoners to society, John notes how half of all prisoners eventually return to the prison system. In one instance, he notes because one parolee was ''charged'' a fee for a parole officer or be sent back to jail, that parolee could end up ''dealing drugs'' to pay back the parole officer. |
| 942 | * TheTriple: |
| 943 | ** The Cuban embargo. |
| 944 | --->'''John:''' Cubans blame the embargo for everything. The economy, the weather, the [[TakeThat complete collapse]] of ''Series/{{Homeland}}'' in its second season… |
| 945 | ** [[OnlyInFlorida Among Florida's many common misdemeanors]]: feeding meth to an alligator, feeding an alligator to a meth dealer, or ''being'' [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs an alligator/meth dealer.]] |
| 946 | ** John manages to nest one triple inside another in response to Donald Trump's [[BlatantLies claim]] that Trump University had a 98% approval rating. |
| 947 | --->'''John:''' The only things that have 98% approval ratings are dictatorships, Creator/{{Pixar}} movies, and Neapolitan ice cream: You have chocolate for the chocoholics, vanilla for the blands, and strawberry for the [[BreadEggsMilkSquick perverts]]. |
| 948 | ** In the Canadian anti-adultery advert, the narrator tells lumberjacks to turn off their chainsaws and hockey players to stop skating around. Then it switches to a moose, whom the narrator tells to keep moosing because it doesn't concern him. |
| 949 | * TrollFic: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in regards of ''Literature/ADayInTheLifeOfMarlonBundo''. Not a deliberately offensive fic, but to quote John: |
| 950 | -->'''John:''' And let me be completely clear about this: [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids This is actually a book for children!]] This is a real children's book. [[SubvertedKidsShow This isn't some adult book telling Mike Pence to go fuck himself.]] [[DoubleSubversion Although in buying it, that's exactly what you would be doing!]] |
| 951 | * TryingNotToCry: |
| 952 | ** In the episode on Trump's family separation policy, John is visibly shaken after watching a gut-wrenching clip of a five year old from Honduras who is traumatized after being locked away from his mother for a month. John struggles to hold back tears of anger while ripping into the policy that allowed that to happen. |
| 953 | --->'''John:''' ''[choked]'' Yeah, we did that. Not because we had to, but because we ''chose'' to. |
| 954 | ** It is rare and often really subtle, but there are a few more moments where something is so upsetting or moving that John seems to become genuinely emotional, such as in "Police" and "Mandatory Minimums". |
| 955 | * TwoWordsICantCount: In [[https://youtu.be/gPHgRp70H8o?t=801 the COVID vaccine episode]]: |
| 956 | -->'''Joseph Jack:''' Six words: testing, testing, testing, testing, and more testing. |
| 957 | -->'''John:''' I'll tell you what I admire about that guy: his confidence. Because I don't think I've seen anyone more self-assured than the man who just promised six words, said seven, and counted five, all without even flinching. That guy is so secure in his thinking, he could be wrong about numbers on camera twice and do it with an unbreaking smile. |
| 958 | * TyopOnTheCover: |
| 959 | ** The Miss America Foundation website's "About Us" page would greet you with the sentence "We Fun Scholars!" |
| 960 | --->'''John:''' You really might want to butt-glue a "d" onto the end of that word. |
| 961 | ** The segment on vaccines included a TV news report titled "Swapping Spit & Passing Pus." However, on the title graphic, the word "pus" was spelled with ''two'' S's. |
| 962 | --->'''John:''' Swapping spit and passing puss sounds like the sex talk that Music/KidRock would give his teenage son. |
| 963 | * TyrannicalHomeownersAssociation: The main story of Season-10 ep. 7 was "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnThetin Homeowners Associations]]," ([=HOAs'=]) and after Oliver explains why so many municipalities have them, to keep taxes low via the collection of fees to pay for services and infrastructure, he goes on to mention several horror stories that came as a result of interactions with [=HOAs'=], such as: a man who kept getting fined for having a bench on his front yard; another household that got fined for having a non regulation shed on his property, which could only be seen from the air; and another who had her home foreclosed by her [=HOA=], and had her house sold for an over 99% discount, as in her property was originally valued at several hundred thousand dollars, but was listed for a few ''dozen'' dollars. |
| 964 | * TheTysonZone: John discusses it in reference to a rumor about Iraqi terrorist group ISIS. |
| 965 | * {{Understatement}}: In the segment on nuclear weapons, when a report says that the North Dakota facilities housing the United States' nuclear stockpile are getting rid of personnel and the proficiency of the place is barely passable, the only thing John says is "that's not great". |
| 966 | * TheUnFavourite: John suggests this regarding two of Donald Trump's children. In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xecEV4dSAXE "Trump vs. Truth"]] he cites Tiffany's name as something he likely doesn't remember (alongside ''the components of America's nuclear triad''). Later, in the segment on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMBj_tU7HRU Robert Mueller's investigation]] into possible Trump-campaign collusion with Russia in 2016, he says Donald Jr. likely has [[RichInDollarsPoorInSense no "general knowledge" of anything]] except the feeling of disappointment that his father [[PatrioticFervor hugs flags]] more often than he hugs him. |
| 967 | * {{Unicorn}}: In his GrandRomanticGesture to woo Scotland back to remaining part of the United Kingdom near the end of his segment on the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, John brings out two guys dressed as Scotland's national animal, the unicorn. |
| 968 | * UnionsSuck: {{Subverted|Trope}} in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk8dUXRpoy8 Union Busting]] episode, which ultimately presents unions as necessary to workers' rights despite their flaws. In addition, during the [[UsefulNotes/UnionsInHollywood Writers' Guild of America strike]] of 2023, the show itself went on hiatus in solidarity. |
| 969 | * {{Unishment}}: While discussing Mandatory Minimums, John demonstrates how much of an anti-drug fervor America was in the 1980s and 1990s by showing a couple of anti-drug [=PSAs=] and some choice clips from ''WesternAnimation/CartoonAllStarsToTheRescue''. Afterwards, he points out: |
| 970 | -->'''John:''' [''Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue''] had a clear message to kids: "If you do drugs, all your favorite cartoon characters will show up and talk to you. Is that what you want? Is that what you want?" |
| 971 | * UnusualEuphemism: John coins the term "Libyan pool party" for any time military action backfires (Vietnam, Iraq, etc.), taken from a clip of Libyan rebels capturing an embassy and then having a pool party. |
| 972 | * UpperClassTwit: British Prime Minister David Cameron. Listening to him, John admits Scotland's bid for independence isn't unexpected. |
| 973 | * VigilanteInjustice: In the episode about bail, John points out how counterproductive bounty hunters are. John shows that celebrity bounty hunters hunt people for spectator sport and have even hurt and killed innocent people during their hunts, simply because the bounty hunters went to the wrong address. |
| 974 | * TheVillainSucksSong: The episode on SLAPP lawsuits ends up with a huge, bombastic musical number about how much Bob Murray sucks, the idea being that the claims in it are [[RefugeInAudacity so outrageous and clearly false]] that he can't be sued for slander for them. |
| 975 | * VillainWithGoodPublicity: John's interpretation of the Egyptian tourism board, who managed to get the rest of the world to still associate the country with the pyramids of Giza rather than the region's widespread practice of female genital mutilation. |
| 976 | * ViolentGlaswegian: In the segment about the Scottish independence vote, John commented that Scotland's national flower is the thistle, and mused that they probably chose it because it's a flower they can stab someone's throat with; and when he mentioned later that, if the vote succeeded, their currency would change from the British pound sterling to the one they had before joining the United Kingdom, he assumed that said currency was "sheep and threats." |
| 977 | * VirileStallion: Parodied in the episode about Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the president of Turkmenistan who associates himself with horses (specifically Akhal-Tekes, the national breed of Turkmenistan) and John makes fun of this by implying that his love for horses borders on bestiality. Berdimuhamedov has written books about horses, wrote a poem about one of his horses, instituted horse beauty competitions, made it illegal to rename Akhal-Tekes, has horse-themed decorations in his office, and calls himself the "People's Horse Breeder". |
| 978 | -->'''John Oliver''': "Witnesses never wearied of being astonished by the steed-and-human intercourse brought to full perfection…" Which I'm hoping is a mistranslation but probably isn't." |
| 979 | * WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency: Discussed. When talking about Jared Kushner, John was both confused and frustrated that the only thing people had to praise about Kushner was that he was calmer and more rational than Donald Trump. John even showed an interview where one of Kushner's friends stated that although Kushner was a nice man, even they believed he was underqualified for the job he was given and pointed out that simply comparing him to Donald Trump wasn't the best justification for his role in the Oval Office. |
| 980 | * WaxingLyrical: |
| 981 | ** When seeing that Brazil built a stadium for UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup that now was mostly used as a bus yard, John notes how [[Music/JoniMitchell "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot."]] |
| 982 | ** John says that a successful Kickstarter on a Music/LionelRichie giant inflatable head should get its creators locked up "all night long. All night. All night." |
| 983 | * WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties: The "Please Stand By" variant is used when John implores Thailand to google Hitler: |
| 984 | -->"Please Stand By While Thailand Googles Hitler" |
| 985 | * WeHaveReserves: During the segment on nuclear weapons when talking about the (non-lethal) Goldsboro Incident, where the government accidentally threw two nuclear bombs on North Carolina. |
| 986 | -->'''John:''' You're probably thinking: "OK, alright. We nearly blew up one of the Carolinas. But that's basically why we have two." |
| 987 | * WellPlayed: As a maybe, in the "Doomsday Video" about some future twilight of humanity, depending on why. |
| 988 | -->"But perhaps humanity's greatest achievement of all was our total domination of every other species. ''Nice try, lions!'' Unless of course we're all dying because lions evolved and conquered the human race, in which case -- ''Well-played, lions.''" |
| 989 | * WhamLine: |
| 990 | ** While discussing the NSA, John points out that the best person to talk to on the subject is Edward Snowden, who's still in Moscow. Talking to him is not easy because of Russia's draconian travel restrictions, plus an uncomfortable ten-hour flight … and John knows all of this because ''he flew to Moscow to speak with Snowden''. |
| 991 | ** The second time is about the Dalai Lama, where he again reveals that he traveled to India to meet up with him on a ''fourteen-hour'' flight. |
| 992 | ** John gets Creator/MichaelKeaton and Creator/BryanCranston to portray Richard Sackler, but realizes that HBO has access to another ''very'' popular series. |
| 993 | --->'''John:''' So brace yourselves, everyone, because … [[spoiler:[[Series/TheWire Omar comin']]]]. |
| 994 | * WhatTheHellHero: Frequently, John will explode at a target of his criticism. |
| 995 | ** And then in the Season Seven finale, he ended up on the receiving end of this from Creator/AdamDriver, who took issue with the season's running gag about him, being understandably ''more than a bit creeped out'', getting John to apologize. |
| 996 | * WhiteVoidRoom: The show uses one in promotional materials, as seen in the page image. Once the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the show's studio, the new location was this. And it's an actual room in John's house. The August 22, 2021 was announced as the last to take place in the room, and the September 12, 2021 episode was the first to take place in the regular studio with a live audience since the pandemic began 18 months earlier. |
| 997 | * WhyWeCantHaveNiceThings: John and "Wanda Jo" use this phrase to explain why the mock ministry Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption is being shut down. Ultimately, people took the requests for "seeds" literally, in a bad way: |
| 998 | -->'''Mega-Reverend John:''' We received—[[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer and this is all too true]]—not one, not two, not three, but ''four packages containing jars and/or vials of semen''. And some looked fake, but others ''did not!'' |
| 999 | * WorstNewsJudgmentEver: |
| 1000 | ** Invoked by John in the segment on pennies and their obsolescence, admitting that it's not what you'd call an urgent matter, but since it's the last show of the second season, it's an easy, agreeable, low-effort note to go out on; he even goes on to point out that two different news teams from New York and L.A. have ''both'' run [[{{Padding}} filler segments]] which just consisted of dumping a bag of pennies on the sidewalk and filming the indifference of passersby. |
| 1001 | --->'''John:''' Throwing pennies on the ground is essentially catnip to local news crews. "Hey, [[HumanInterestStory did an old woman celebrate a birthday]]?" "No." "Okay, [[YetAnotherBabyPanda did an animal do something funny]]?" "No." "Okay, get me a handful of pennies and a camera, I'm getting us to the 10:30 repeat of ''Series/{{Friends}}''! WHO WANTS A PENNY?!" |
| 1002 | ** In his segment on journalism, John points out that the increasing financial difficulty of print news, especially local companies, can lead to them emphasizing less important "clickbait" stories over more relevant but boring stories about corruption or world events. This is exemplified by a clip of former Tribune Company owner Sam Zell[[note]]Who owned the media company (now operating as two separate corporations: Tribune Media, which owns the company's broadcasting properties [42 television stations, Creator/WGNAmerica and a minority stake in Creator/FoodNetwork], and its metadata and digital content unit Gracenote, and tronc [an acronym for "Tribune Online Content"], which operates the newspapers [including the quasi-namesake ''Chicago Tribune''] spun off by the former corporate parent in August 2014) from 2008 to 2013; his 2008 privatization of Tribune saddled it with ''$12 billion'' in debt, resulting in it undergoing a four-year bankruptcy proceeding in which the company was ultimately taken over by its senior debt holders. This guy also sold the Tribune Company's ownership of the Chicago Cubs, only for them to win the World Series several years later and ''triple'' in market value.[[/note]] telling employees of the ''Orlando Sentinel'' that they need to focus on stories the readers want over the objections of a journalist insisting that they need to inform the community, which he punctuated by telling the journalist who raised the objection "fuck you". |
| 1003 | * WrestlingDoesntPay: Mentioned in the Wrestling/{{WWE}} piece when John mentions that the company labels their wrestlers as "independent contractors" so that they can not receive employee benefits (a literal case of wrestling not paying), saying that an independent contractor is someone that one might hire for a specific, limited task, like a plumber or an accountant, and that wrestlers aren't either of those things, "apart from this wrestling plumber" (while showing [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Anthony T. L. Hopper]]) "and this wrestling accountant" (showing [[Wrestling/MikeRotunda Irwin R. Schyster]]). John also uses this on Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, saying that besides playing a {{Heel}} on screen, he is a real life Heel. |
| 1004 | -->'''John:''' While the character Vince is an asshole, it's important to know that the real Vince [[DistinctionWithoutADifference is also an asshole.]] |
| 1005 | * YouBastard: John isn't afraid to point out when the viewing audience might have some fault for the things he criticizes. For example, at the end of his segment on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_F5GxCwizc native advertising]], in which he criticizes the insidious and increasingly unethical ways in which advertisers are slipping advertising into news content, he points out that the reason they are forced to go to such lengths is that the public has been spoiled by the easy availability of free news media thanks to the Internet, meaning that this is one of the only ways they can stay afloat. |
| 1006 | * YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: |
| 1007 | ** The "How Is This Still a Thing?" segments, which cover some kind of trend or event which has persisted despite perceived problems, outdated rhetoric, or waning public interest. Columbus Day and Creator/AynRand are two examples. |
| 1008 | ** The "People Who Somehow Got Elected" segments, which profile politicians who were elected to public office despite glaring personality flaws; Maine governor [=Paul LePage=] is the first subject. The "Other Countries' Presidents of the United States" segments similarly profile world leaders whose flaws also should have precluded them from becoming heads of state. |
| 1009 | * YouKeepUsingThatWord: |
| 1010 | ** "And Now, Politicians Literally Misusing the Word 'Literally'" |
| 1011 | ** "And Now, People on TV Misunderstanding What the Term 'Spoiler Alert' Means" |
| 1012 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHNx2VVDDnE "And Now, Newscasters Misidentifying Photographs as Selfies"]] |
| 1013 | ** "And Now, Newscasters Stretching the Definition of the Word 'Exclusive'" |
| 1014 | * YouMonster: John ends his second web segment on fan mail (Website/YouTube comments, to be precise) by stating, "You're all monsters, goodnight!" |
| 1015 | * YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: John notes that UsefulNotes/NorthKorea had the gall to call United States torture techniques "brutally medieval." And he says that probably the most insulting thing about it is that North Korea probably meant that as a compliment. |
| 1016 | [[/folder]] |
| 1017 | ---- |
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