John Oliver abandoned us was on hiatus for most of July, but came back with a vengeance when he returned on July 27 to eviscerate Trump and his Jeffrey Epstein connection (and update us on the Moon Mammoths’ big debut, it was a triumph!). As often happens, Oliver missed a lot during his month away. There was bad news, like CBS firing fellow late night host (and Daily Show alum) Stephen Colbert, a move Oliver described as “terrible” for comedy. But there was also good news: Oliver and Last Week Tonight garnering their eleventy-third Emmy nominations. Oliver discussed these hot topics and many more in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter:
Jokes are added in towards the end of writing a LWT story: The jokes used to come in earlier, but you don’t want to start writing before a story is stable because then you’ll fall in love with jokes that are built on material that doesn’t stand up, and that’s a terrible position to put comedy writers in. So, it’s only in the last two weeks that the jokes come in. But in that first month, you’re trying to give people ingredients that they’ll be able to create comedy from. You want it to be like an episode of Chopped, where it’s not impossible to make something palatable at the end. So, you’re not giving them broken glass and weed killer. You’ll give them eggs.
On the ‘fraught relationship’ with their lawyers: They are our final line of defense, so it has to be a functional relationship, but it can be fraught, especially toward the end. The general tension that we land on is having a slightly different view of their job. They think it’s to stop us from getting sued, and I think it’s to make sure that when we are sued, we win. So, yeah, I’m half-joking when I say it’s a fraught relationship. It’s an important process for the script to go through, but it can be not infrequently tense. … But you also don’t get to be angry at the livesaving device. (Laughs.)
Responding to the comment that he seems most gleeful when ribbing his business daddy: And you’re right, I’m truly happy in those moments. That’s probably the most at peace I am, when I’m trying to draw fire from our owners. … But I always used to love watching David Letterman do it. To me, it felt like a really healthy sign of contempt and just a very fun and slightly important indication of noncompliance. So, I loved it when he’d make fun of G.E. and CBS and, yeah, for me, making fun of whoever owns us on a minute-to-minute basis is a thrill.
Responding to Jay Leno saying that Colbert was fired because he didn’t do ‘both sides’ comedy: I’m going to take a hard pass on taking comedic advice from Jay Leno.
HBO is great, but he worries that the show’s freedom may go away if/when they stop winning Emmys: I mean, two things can be true at the same time. (Laughs.) It’s a fantastic place to work while we are insulated by golden armor. If that stops, we might be going away. … It’s not entirely a joke, that’s for sure. I think it is objectively very, very helpful to have won Emmys with the show. I think it has helped us keep our independence and keep the show on the air. So, yeah, I do think there is a utility to it. It’s something that I know has always been important to HBO, and so I’m massively grateful that we’ve won them, and long may that continue. Please! I don’t want my theory tested.
John Oliver is so joyously gleeful when haranguing his business daddies (by simply relaying their own inane actions), and it’s infectious to watch! In addition to all the truth-sharing, the greatest part of Last Week Tonight is witnessing Oliver’s moments of unadulterated mischief and mirth. As for the ongoing tension with their lawyers, Oliver has long talked about the basic divide between the two camps: that the show views the lawyers as their safety net so they can take big leaps, whereas lawyers are gonna lawyer and advocate for walking on safe ground to begin with. And as Oliver says regarding HBO overall, I imagine all the Emmy wins help out immensely in his tête-a-têtes with the lawyers. Luckily, Oliver & Co seem poised to keep winning — the Emmys even shuffled them to a new category last year and they still triumphed, beating out SNL twice now!
And lastly (because that’s where Jay Leno belongs), that was a solid burn Oliver landed on him.
Photos credit: Getty Images for Netflix via Netflix press, Getty Images