Last Week Tonight with John Oliver season premiere - Feb 18 2024

Started a thread because I wasn’t sure where to put this.

John Oliver is back with a bang, in case you weren’t paying attention! :slight_smile: If you missed it last night, you can probably catch it streaming. The main topic of the episode was the unpopularity, lack of legitimacy, and blatant partisanship of the current Supreme Court, with a special focus on Clarence Thomas.

Oliver really outdid himself with the show’s ending – way better than the bit promoting the Puteketeke as New Zealand’s bird of the century! Oliver, apparently in all seriousness, offered Thomas $1 million a year for life if he resigned from the Supreme Court, or in his words, “get the f**k out and never come back”. Then, having previously shown Thomas driving his beloved but aging Prevost highway coach converted into a motor home, Oliver left the set and walked to the back of the studio to show a brand new Prevost coach outfitted as a top-tier luxury motor home, and worth $2.5 million. Oliver announced that was part of the deal, too.

All Thomas had to do was f**ing quit. I thought it was hilarious! :laughing: Oliver stated that HBO had nothing to do with this and it was all coming out of his own pocket. I guess he must be pretty confident that Thomas won’t bite!

Oh, I don’t know. Oliver probably wouldn’t mind going down in history as the individual who did more to save American democracy than any other one individual.

If he has enough millions already, he might consider the price acceptable.

I imagine he also has well-heeled friends who might stump up a bit of the cash.

HBO is delaying putting Sunday’s show on YouTube. They want people to sign up for their streaming service. Which may be why a Facebook friend of mine posted today that the whole business model of streaming services is to be more convenient than piracy. Now please pardon me while I watch a YouTube video of LWT recorded right off a TV screen. Link to news article about HBO’s decision: HBO Delays Posting ‘Last Week Tonight With John Oliver’ Clips to YouTube in Hopes of Signing Up More Max Subscribers

Reminds me of that old punchline-“We have already established what you are. Now we are just negotiating the price.”

I’m not well-heeled but I could throw in a few bucks. And I’m sure there are others who would as well.