His show has crashed websites, boosted donations and inspired legislation
Comedians mock our cultural and political institutions on TV all the time. But it’s not every day that a comic’s jokes crash a government website or directly inspire legislators to push for new laws.
John Oliver, host of HBO comedy news program Last Week Tonight, is quickly building up that level of cultural cachet. While his forebears and former colleagues Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart spend as much time lampooning the news media covering world events as they do analyzing events themselves, Oliver’s show stands out for its investigations into topics as varied as the militarization of the police state, Net neutrality and Argentina’s debt crisis.
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In June Oliver discussed how bail is often to used to keep poor, low-risk defendants locked up before they’ve even been found guilty of a crime. He noted that people who can’t afford to pay bail have two bad options: plead guilty to avoid waiting in jail or stay in jail until a trial. “Jail can do for your actual life what being in a marching band can do for you social life,” he said. “Even if you’re just in for a little while, it can destroy you.” In July, just a month after Oliver’s monologue, New York mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city would relax bail requirements for people charged with nonviolent crimes and misdemeanors.
Oliver was highlighting corruption at FIFA, the world’s most powerful sports organization, long before U.S. officials arrested several of the federation’s top executives. In 2014 Oliver compared FIFA (unfavorably) to organized religion and called out the organization’s poor treatment of migrant workers. He was back with an even more scathing takedown on Sunday, calling for FIFA president Sepp Blatter to step down. “The problem is all the arrests in the world are going to change nothing as long as Blatter is still there,” Oliver said “To truly kill a snake, you must cut off its head — or, in this case, its asshole.” On Tuesday, Oliver got his wish—Blatter abruptly announced his resignation from FIFA.
You can read more of the article at the source, it goes over a few other Oliver takedowns. Interesting read.
Anyway, what with the millenial liberal bend of NSG, i'd wager many people view Oliver as something of a messiah speaking what they've been thinking for a long while but to a wider audience, and as a conservative i'd agree with many of his common sense points, such as the Miss America Pageant, FIFA, etc. His community actions to influence decisions is remarkable and truly rare, and it's excellent that he's able to do that and takes the initiative in doing so.
However I think it's kind of sad how that democracy has eroded to such a point where we rely on comedians like John Oliver, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert to be the voice of the people and show how the government is regularly trampling the principles the people approve of. All due respect to those above, but we should be elected our representatives, not hoping that comedians echo our beliefs. We won't always have an Oliver or Stewart, and I think that we need to ask ourselves some profound questions as to how our representative democracy is so un representative.
NSG, your thoughts?
