MovieChat Forums > Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (2014) Discussion > With John Oliver so dominant, should Emm...

With John Oliver so dominant, should Emmys split variety talk show category into two?

posted 5 years ago by TMC-4 (20181)
13 replies | jump to latest

https://variety.com/2019/tv/in-contention/emmys-talk-last-week-tonight-john-oliver-samantha-bee-hasan-minhaj-1203240207/

Weekly "explainer" shows like Last Week Tonight, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj have a distinct advantage over the traditional late-night daily talk shows because they are seen as having more gravitas. The job of a daily late-night host -- balancing monologues, comedy sketches and celebrity interviews -- is completely different than what Oliver does on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, Late Late Show with James Corden executive producer Ben Winston suggests that the Emmys should offer a special category for field pieces, like "Crosswalk: The Musical." "When we take over a crosswalk and shut it down and do Sound of Music with Allison Janney in front of traffic, that’s a very hard thing to judge against John Oliver doing wonderful pieces from his desk,” he says.

[–] Burk48917 (11386) 4 years ago

He's only dominant at sucking the metaphorical cock of the left.

[–] raymondoz2007 (2098) 3 years ago

Oliver should be in jail for sedition.

[–] TrentnQuarantino (9227) 3 years ago

Hahaha, but not Trump, Bannon, Manafort, Flynn or any number of people who actually worked to bring about the Jan 6th Insurrection. Pretty BS invalid comment and viewpoint.

[–] Burk48917 (11386) 3 years ago

Selective retardation right here folks.

[–] raymondoz2007 (2098) 3 years ago

so you like $8 a gallon and high inflation?

[–] TrentnQuarantino (9227) 3 years ago

If you say so.

[–] TMC-4 (20181) 2 years ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/w7t4n1/comment/ihpw6tm/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

My beef with Oliver is that he will chase the punch line over chasing an unbiased factual view of the topic 100% of the time. Something that was not done when Stewart popularized this type of show.

Every monologue is the same formula - he "analyzes" a topic, gives a hard-line leftist view of the topic, then acts super condescending about it with a long winded rant about how anyone who doesn't possibly see what's so obvious about the situation must be a total moron and as long as you tacitly agree with him then your not a total moron, they are the morons. Lets all circlejerk and laugh at the morons! With a Family Guy style overly long-winded but totally nonsensical analogy for comedic effect that distracts you from the meat of what he just said.

Any actual nuance or legitimate counterpoint from the other side of the issue is intentionally not represented and explicitly glossed over to make his "agree with me or your a moron" condescension land more strongly and facts are often intentionally omitted to steer the audience into thinking it's a completely one-sided issue when in reality it's usually not.

It makes for good comedy rooted in pointed social commentary that at least brings to light topics that have legitimate issues needing to be addressed, but is tacitly disingenuous and not remotely unbiased politically.

[–] TrentnQuarantino (9227) 3 years ago

You only say that because you are so busy and obsessed with sucking the cock of the right-wing authoritarians that you are blind and can only think of the world in terms of suck cocks. That is kind of sick, infantile, useless, hostile, divisive .... etc, way to see and especially discuss anything.

[–] Burk48917 (11386) 3 years ago

Suck my cock?

[–] brux (14730) 3 years ago

Last Week Tonight is not really a talk show ... it's pretty much a listen show.

[–] Rorikon (17940) 3 years ago

It's basically the Daily Show + late night without the pre-pandemic audience and interviews with a mixture of skits added in trolling laughs. Still better than Trevor Noah. I've recently stopped watching Colbert but still watch Oliver and Kimmel, can't stand Fallon or that British bloke (forget his name).

[–] brux (14730) 3 years ago

I know Jimmy Fallon is very talented, and can be very funny as well, but I just cannot stand his manner and personality. I think James Corden ... is that who you are talking about? I don't watch any of these shows, but I will sometimes catch YT videos of Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert. I think Colbert is pretty fast on his feet and very funny, and also extremely smart. Kimmel is funny to, but he is less political, thought he did a great service in talking about his son's health problems relative to the health care debate.

I like Oliver's show, but in the last year or so he has really gotten cliche and preachy. It is getting harder for me to watch because his opinions seem so robotic. I'd give him allowances because the format of the show is all him, and he has to keep coming up with subjects and takes on them that run true.

I was surprised a while back at how one-sided a show he did on Israel-Palestine was, basically doing what seems to be the obligatory pile-on on Israel for defending itself, but then I don't like our American media take on that issue, and though I am a Progressive politically I always fail to see what that has to do with Palestinians - except as human beings; not as a government, Islamists, terrorists, people who the world seems to think want to build a state, but their charter and behavior and rhetoric says they care more about destroying Israel. So, to me Progressives to the extent that some of them seem to have total support for Palestinians to the point of hating Israel ... that is confused and wrong thinking.

I use that as an example of how Oliver can seem so self-righteous, which often he has right, but when you disagree with him he is hard to listen to. Maybe because there is no back and forth or debate it is just him and the selected facts that he chooses to acknowledge.

[–] raymondoz2007 (2098) 2 years ago

Oliver should be in jail.