The way I remember it, he wasn’t allowed to join the strike because of his immigration status. I’m guessing he was here on a temporary work visa. He’s now a legal permanent resident.
Thanks, Gyrate! I knew it was an ONN bit, but work prevented me from watching videos and I couldn’t remember the guy’s name.
John Oliver’s doing pretty well. There were a couple of times this week (and I can’t remember the jokes specifically) where I thought he hurried the punchline just a tiny bit.
I still reserve judgment about his interviewing skill. Stewart has a way of showing respect for even interviewees he disagrees with, so that the interviewee can answer a tough question. Stewart has fun with the person, but doesn’t just slam them like a Fox or MSNBC talking head might do.[sup]1[/sup]
When Oliver has his first conservative politician or pundit in the guest chair, we’ll see. I’ve never seen him have that skill in his segments, though.
[sup]1[/sup]Notable exceptions exist, of course, I guess if Jon Stewart just thinks there’s nothing more to be gained from the interviewee, and if he never cares to have them on the show again. Like the author whose premise was that liberals are fascists and whose book cover had a smiley face with a Hitler mustache.
This thread reminds me of the old saying about umpires: they have to be perfect on their first day and then get better.
It’s Enrico Palazzo!
Okay, now that I’ve seen last night’s show (especially the web-only parts), where John was doing off the cuff jokes and great questions and everything, I am starting to wonder if Jon Stewart and John Oliver are the same person. I almost wonder if Comedy Central is going to pull a Colbert with him and give him his own show.
BTW: I don’t really care for the interviews Jon does with conservatives, so I could never judge those. Even if Stewart is nice, the conservative always comes off as hostile. I can only stand it when Colbert interviews them and they don’t seem to know whether to take him seriously.
Oliver is much better than Stewart at sarcasm. His explanation of why to fight the unwinnable war in Afghanistan was an all-time classic.
“For a start, it’s a bit hilly. It’s chief exports are heroin…and vengeance.”
Ah…in other words, he showed good craft ;).
Just caught up with the shows. My impression was that the writing staff was turning out better stuff for the first few days at least. They might have gotten into a rut writing for Jon who was mugging a bit more than he should. And Oliver delivered the lines quite nicely.
As for interviewing, he seems to be personalizing stuff a bit too much (I love the movie) but he’ll get there.
What are they going to do when Putin’s dictator outfit gets retired?
That’s kind of a problem since his signature look is going shirtless. But Putin is not going to retire any time soon.
I like Stewart, but his bits rely too much on bad impersonations/cute voices and googly faces. Oliver is a good change of pace so far.
Last night was replacement John’s last show. The correspondents told him he was terrible, and they brought Wyatt Cenac and Rob Riggle back to add to the proceedings. Oliver didn’t change the show beyond bringing his own style of improvising, but I liked that a lot and I thought he did a great job. I do think Rand Paul kind of steamrolled him in their interview this week and Jon Stewart probably would have done a better job of interrupting his talking points, but he was great with Resa Aslan, for example.
I LOVE the DS, but it kind of annoys me that they have to stick so completely to the template: Jon fucking with the papers- I guess it’s a parody of the way newscasters, maybe 30 years ago, used to shuffle their papers, usually at the end of the show as the lights dim and credits roll. And what if they had so much good material that they didn’t have a “special guest”? Who would care?
I would. They do some of the best interviews around. I feel like it’s the public’s only chance to hear politicians and pundits get asked tough questions and get called on it if they don’t answer directly.
I agree that the Daily Show is one of the tougher interviews on the air. It is also one of the few places where you actually here substantive discussions on the issues of the day.
I have quite enjoyed Mr. Oliver as the host. I still laugh as i remember his coverage of the royal baby, including that horse in the pub… comic gold! Regardless of who wrote the material, having an english accent during the delivery was a plus. In other news stories, I viewed him as a non-american making fun of American issues, and that made the jokes richer, IMO.
I’m going to miss him. I don’t know if he was better than Jon S, but he was fresh and less pretentious. I love Jon S, but I was growing weary of him and had stopped watching TDS for a while. Oliver has renewed my interest, so that’s a win for TDS and a win for me.
The problem I have with them is they’re so brief. At least the internet versions run a little longer. I’d kinda like to see Stewart spend some Charlie Rose time on some guests.
Granted, some guests get two segments… if they’re a current or former U.S. president, I guess.
One thing that slightly annoys me about The Daily Show. Formerly the entirety of the interview was shown in the program. Rarely, an interview would run long and they’d put the entire thing on the web. Now it seems every interview, even the lightweight ones, is extended with part of it online.