For those New Matilda readers not yet following British comedian John Oliver’s work on HBO’s Last Week Tonight, you’re missing out. And this particular episode explains why….
The former Birmingham stand-up comic turned American turned funnyman on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, and now host of his own show, John Oliver has been tearing people, places and things apart now for several years, with some of the best television journalism coming out of the United States in a long time.
Last Week Tonight has been airing on HBO on Sunday nights (in the wee small hours, at 11pm) since April 2014. It’s gained a strong cult following in the US, and has been described as ‘must watch’ television by countless critics, particularly since Jon Stewart pulled up stumps last year.
The format of the show is simple – Oliver spends some of the half hour updating people on the news of the week (it’s always hilarious) before treating viewers to a 15-minute epic story that Last Week Tonight researchers, in many cases, have been chasing for months, sometimes more than a year.
He tackles everything from the death penatly and abortion, to predatory bank lending, public schools, politics and international affairs.
An episode list index for Last Week Tonight is here... it’s very much worth a troll if you want to see what well funded – and well produced – journalism really looks like. You can support Oliver’s work by subscribing to HBO here.
And, obviously, you can support ours by subscribing to New Matilda here.
And if you can’t subscribe to HBO, you can subscribe for free to Oliver’s Youtube channel here.
In the meantime, please enjoy below the glorious journalism parading as satire that is the genuinely outstanding work of Last Week Tonight and John Oliver.
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