Line #32 Trivia/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver


1	* AccidentallyCorrectWriting:
2	** Insanely enough, John's joke about [[Series/TigerKing Joe Exotic]] ([[RetroactiveRecognition back in 2016]], when John was talking about him as part of an episode about third-party candidates in the 2016 U.S. presidential election) being the kind of guy with whom you could get drunk enough to try meth for the first time ''ended up being entirely accurate'' as Joe got several lovers of his addicted on meth to keep them "happy", to prevent them from leaving, and to stop them from realizing they [[SituationalSexuality weren't actually gay]].
3	** In a 2019 episode, when showing Rudy Giuliani calling himself a hero, John countered that given Giuliani's involvement in the events that lead to Donald Trump's first impeachment, he was more likely to become a contestant on ''Series/TheMaskedSinger''. Sure enough, come season seven, Giuliani was unmasked as the Jack-in-the-Box.
4	* BannedInChina:
5	** An especially extreme case, as the episode about Chinese President Xi Jinping, especially his legendary hatred of his supposed resemblance to Franchise/WinnieThePooh, pissed him off so much that he temporarily blocked ''all of HBO'' in the country. One has to wonder what his reaction will be to the fact that a Winnie-the-Pooh-looking caricature of him actually made it to the opening credits of the show as of the Season 6 opening.
6	** Much to John's chagrin, any footage lampooning the proceedings of the British Parliament gets blacked out in the United Kingdom due to a law preventing the media from using footage of the House of Commons/Lords to poke fun of Parliament or its members (said footage is unedited in every other locale). John, in a characteristic act of petty vengeance, tapped Creator/GilbertGottfried to film himself reading out three-star Yelp reviews from restaurants in Boise, Idaho (or Brexit clauses, or Big Foot erotica) in the place of any segment that would be blacked out in the United Kingdom, and vowed to continue this trend until his home country changed the laws to match the times. Later, in lieu of a short clip of parliamentary footage, in which the result of the meaningful vote gets announced, footage from a very 1983 Chippendales exercise video got edited into a newscast with no context or explanation whatsoever.
7	--->'''John Oliver:''' ''Yeah''. That's what they'll get. They'll be confused by it! And it will be all their fault!
8	** The episode about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wasn't carried in India by streaming service Hotstar. John would later state that it's most likely that this was a decision made by Hotstar itself rather than the government, as Hotstar already had a history of censoring previous episodes of the show, in particular removing jokes about Disney, due to Hotstar actually being owned by said company. Similar to the British Parliament footage issue mentioned above, John would state that more Disney jokes would follow (labeling them as "Disney Facts").
9	** The episode about the Brazilian elections, which criticizes the far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, was not aired in Brazil or made available on the streaming service HBO GO until after the elections (which ended with Bolsonaro's victory).
10	* BeamMeUpScotty:
11	** Early on the show's run, some online communities mocked John by using "It's [current year]" to denote something deemed backwards and old-fashioned is still happening now, except for the fact that John never actually used the phrase that way except once, to ''mock someone else using it'' (when then-recently-elected Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau used that phrase unironically to explain why his cabinet was gender-balanced), which is probably why it died down pretty quickly.
12	** John later calls attention to this phenomenon, specifically misquoted historical figures. He then mentions that he himself has fallen victim to it in a meme in which he compares gun control to air security, admitting it's an interesting thought but that he ''never said it'', but had "seen it so many times I'm genuinely starting to wonder if I did".
13	* ColbertBump:
14	** After pointing out how women's scholarship programs are pretty lackluster if the Miss America Pageant can truthfully state it gives out the most number of women's scholarships and name-dropping the Society of Women Engineers as an alternative, said organization received $25,000 in two days, which the society dubbed "The John Oliver Bounce" in recognition.
15	** He aims to do this with the Supreme Court by giving people on the Internet the ability to combine their audio recordings with dressed up dogs.
16	** ''Time'' magazine has already dubbed [[http://time.com/3674807/john-oliver-net-neutrality-civil-forfeiture-miss-america/ "The John Oliver Effect"]], for John Oliver's uncanny ability to raise awareness of issues such as net neutrality and civil forfeiture.
17	** Regarding the show itself, in the episode following one which garnered much media attention.
18	--->'''John Oliver:''' That's right, we are talking tonight about special taxation districts. So, hello, people watching for the first time because of the [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump Trump]] piece. [[AudienceAlienatingPremise And also, I presume, goodbye!]]
19	** He caused a huge flood of interest in the juvenile political satire ''The Kid Who Ran for President'' by Dan Gutman, pointing out the eerie parallels to Donald Trump's campaign.
20	** The infamous SoBadItsGood TV flop ''Series/CopRock'' trended on Twitter the day after John mentioned it in the "Police Raids" episode, complete with showing snippets of the "Baby Merchant" number, which consists of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a child trafficker singing about his "services."]]
21	* {{Corpsing}}:
22	** If a clip ends in a particularly outrageous line, when it cuts back to John he'll be struggling to keep a straight face. In another example, during a skit featuring ''Sesame Street''-like puppets singing about prison, once John says to a reptilian character complaining about his dad being locked up somewhere other than prison, "Those are zoos, your dad is an alligator in a zoo!"; as the puppet responds "I'm a crocodile. I'm a crocodile! Oh, we all look alike, right?", John is clearly covering his mouth.
23	** When Kenny G was a guest, [[https://twitter.com/officialkennyg/status/661300372187840512 he was clearly trying not to laugh behind his sax.]] The only time he took the instrument out of his mouth was to crack up a bit!
24	** Creator/DavidKaye [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/23/last-week-tonight-trivia_n_7118622.html revealed]] it's hard to keep [[TheComicallySerious the serious announcer voice]] while recording his voiceovers for the gag trailer and commercial pieces given all the ridiculous stuff he has to say.
25	** John catches Paul Ryan trying to suppress a laugh during Trump's speech at Congress.
26	** If a joke is successful and the audience laughs at it, John sometimes almost joins them; he can often be seen smiling afterwards.
27	* CreatorBacklash: Despite covering former President Donald Trump for all four years of his term, John made it adamant in an interview with the ''[[https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/11/hbo-john-oliver-trump-comedy/ Washington Post]]'' that he ''really'' didn't like how many stories related to Trump ended up being on the show. John noted it was very difficult to come up with comedic material on Trump and his actions that other online outlets hadn't already done, how frustrating it was having to bring him up on subjects that didn't even involve him that much, and was insulted at the idea that his departure from office would make it more difficult for late-night hosts such as himself to stay relevant. This also extended to the "Make Donald Drumpf Again" meme [[ForcedMeme created by the show]], with John saying in [[https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/john-oliver-takes-on-the-trump-era-the-rolling-stone-interview-126096/ a 2017 interview]] with ''Magazine/RollingStone'' that the joke "got out of hand" and compared his relationship with it with how Thom Yorke of Music/{{Radiohead}} grew weary of "Creep", and as of 2021, John has said he wishes he could scrub every reference to the meme from the internet.
28	* DearNegativeReader: The subjects of the show at times will react like this, with the first episode alone leading POM to send a fridge full of their juice and a Portland ad agency to [[https://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-31563-cover-oregon-ad-agency-north-is-not-amused-by-the-john-oliver-parody.html write a defensive response]] regarding Oregon's failed health website. Some will be acknowledged by John in the show, such as the Ecuadorian NonIronicClown Tiko-Tiko complaining about being called a MonsterClown, and the long saga of coal mogul Bob Murray downright suing HBO for supposed libel.
29	* DescendedCreator:
30	** John has acknowledged that the people in the background graphics are usually the crew or their acquaintances. The most prominent case is writer Jill Twiss as [[https://twitter.com/jilltwiss/status/653412216109187072 Janice in Accounting]].
31	** {{Invoked\|Trope}} during his segment on Wells Fargo and their [[MorallyBankruptBanker multiple ethics violations]], as Wells Fargo had produced an internal ethics video years ago ''[[ContrivedCoincidence in which one of the show's writers starred]]''. Said writer then stars in a parody of the video, mocking Wells Fargo for producing said anti-fraud video "[[TakeThat that, judging by your behavior, none of you assholes watched.]]"
32	* DuelingWorks: With ''Series/RealTimeWithBillMaher''. Both of them are political satire shows hosted by well-known comedians that stream exclusively on HBO Max, and they both cover current events in the world and give their take on it. That's roughly where the similarities end however, as ''Real Time'' consists of Bill debating a variety of issues on a live stage with several authors, politicians, journalists, and celebrities on different sides of the political spectrum, whereas ''Last Week Tonight'' has a more streamlined and prepared process that has a team of researchers and writers John works with to further support the points he makes on each episode's main topic. Not helping matters is that the two comedians aren't particularly fond of each other, with both of them taking shots at each other in 2021. Made even more notable with ''Last Week Tonight'' gaining a massive left-wing fanbase as John himself endorses progressive ideas, which is contrasted to Maher, who many feel has jumped to the right over time.
33	* FollowTheLeader: The show's success has led to an array of programs with a similar presentation internationally, such as Mexico's ''Chumel con Chumel Torres'', hosted by Chumel Torres, host of the Mexican political web series ''WebVideo/ElPulsoDeLaRepublica'', and Brazil's ''Greg News'', hosted by Gregorio Duvivier, a member of the Brazilian comedy troupe [[Creator/{{Backdoor}} Porta dos Fundos]]. Given that both shows also air on Creator/{{HBO}} in their respective countries, it also looks like HBO was going for a bit of SelfPlagiarism.
34	* RealSongThemeTune: The opening theme is the opening of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAPjTHA19Kw "Go" by Valley Lodge.]] In the season 2 finale, the band appeared to play it.
35	* ReferencedBy: The track that plays during the mid-credits scene of ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'' is called "And Now This...".
36	* SeriesHiatus: As with all late night comedy shows, ''Last Week Tonight'' went on hiatus during the 2023 Writer's Strike. The show's return in early October has John quick to lampshade this, with him struggling to recap the five months that he missed properly covering.
37	* ProductionPosse: Creator/JonathanBanks appears on the show's story on Sex Education, where he condemns an old, horribly outdated PSA he had starred in about women supposedly getting better at bowling if they just had their period. Banks had previously worked with John Oliver on Season 5 of ''Series/{{Community}}'', where they played professors Buzz Hickey and Ian Duncan respectively.
38	* WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings: John Oliver [[http://www.ourladyofperpetualexemption.com/ claims]] he shut down his satirical church Our Lady Of Perpetual Exemption because fans sent ''semen'' in through the mail (likely a pun on the "seed faith" ideology). "And when someone sends you jizz through the mail, it's time to stop whatever you're doing".

Context Trivia / LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver