Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, or just Last Week Tonight, is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by British comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host, John Oliver.

The half-hour-long show premiered on Sunday, April 27, 2014, on HBO. Last Week Tonight shares some similarities with Comedy Central's The Daily Show (where Oliver was previously featured as a correspondent and fill-in host), as it takes a satirical look at news, politics and current events, but on a weekly basis.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and furry

Host John Oliver

There are various elements in the series of interest to furries. The show's theme song starts off every episode containing images relating the world at large (with one or more related to that episode) with satirical captions written in dog Latin.

Opening sequence of season 5:

• f.6 "Bolivian Zebra" / "Equus Stripedus" (La Paz traffic zebras)
• f.(33?) "Jeff" / "Logos Marlborum" (Jeff the Diseased Lung in a Cowboy Hat)(anthropomorphic lung)
• f.(34?) "Ginsburg" / "Justice Es Adorabelium" (from the series' dog-version of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg)

A reoccurring element of the show is Oliver's use of mascots. The mascots used in the show include Jeff the Diseased Lung in a Cowboy Hat, Hoots the NSA Owl, Taryn the Tinder Chicken, and the Last Week Tonight puppets. Oliver told Vulture in February of 2019:

I mean, the truth of the mascots is that we have a gigantic room filled with spectacular mascot costumes now. [Executive producer] Tim Carvell and I — I think we’ve always seen the show as our attempt to make The Muppet Show and failing to do so. But occasionally, just occasionally, you get the kind of Muppet Show adoration in the ludicrous mascots

Relevant episodes

Season 3, episode 15

In "Retirement Plans" segment: at 10min6sec point] "The Cat of Wall Street" image is shown (image edit combining The Wolf of Wall Street (2013 film) movie poster of with face of Orlando the stock-picking cat) instead of Leonardo DiCaprio's head and cat paws instead of Leo's hands... resulting in a cat anthro).

Season 4, episode 21

During the information on President Donald Trump's message of "Fire and fury" to North Korea, John brings up the typo on the Kennebec Journal's front page quoting "Fire and Furry" from the president. John reacts to this by saying, "Fire and fury! The only way that is not terrifying, is if you report it like one newspaper actually did in Maine (the newspaper in reference is the Kennebec Journal) saying 'Trump warns of fire and furry' in which case, Trump is threatening to send this to North Korea, which is a very different kinda of threat.". This, a fox and chicken photo from Furry Kama Sutra, was shown on screen and to the audience.

Season 5, episode 1

While talking about YouTube (starting at 27minutes into the episode) John briefly talks about inflatable Tyrannosaurus (T-Rex) costumes, while some video clips play of T-Rex costumes on dirtbikes, ballet dancing, exercising and "car repair". And for the closing segment, a bunch of people went on stage including some T-Rex costumes.

Season 5, episode 2

Segments at the start: followup to season4 segment about Coal and the series (Last Week Tonight) being sued by Bob Murray for defamation. The judge said he was planning to dismiss the lawsuit, and then giant squirrel Mr. Nutterbutter showed up and displayed a sign that said: "Eat Shit, Bob!" Mr. Nutterbutter also did gestures and costume emoting.

Season 5, episode 4

(during a segment about cryptocurrencies):

• (14 minutes into the episode) John says he would like to make fun of a Bitcoin bro in a "stupid costume", but "it is literally the entire business model of this fucking television show" with eight thumbnails from previous episodes
  • row 1: John and Jeff the Diseased Lung in a Cowboy Hat; and John and space gecko suiter (season 1, episode 12?)
  • row 2: John and two suiters (pig and hedgehog?); John and Mr. Nutterbutter.
  • row 3: John and unicorn; John and pole-dancing(?) headless de-feathered (oven-ready?) bird.
  • row 4: John and 1 or 2 customers (moose and owl?); John and polar bear.

• (21 minutes into the episode) John mentions startup companies sometimes sell cryptocoins to raise money as an alternative to stock, but sometimes as tokens to be used for services that the startup may eventually offer and compares it to tokens at Chuck E. Cheese. (with an image of Chuck E. Cheese character)
• (23 minutes into the episode) discussion of Dogecoin where Shiba Inu paw presses a key on a computer keyboard and then a Shiba Inu rides a rocket in an animation. John compares Dogecoin (started as a joke) to a theoretical situation of someone starting a joke band named The Woofles (named similar to The Beatles) that was all St. Bernard dogs, (The Woofles image seems to be dog-heads on clothed humanoid bodies) but the band becomes incredibly successful.

Season 5, episode 5

2018 Russian presidential election segment: (6 minutes into the episode) Russian children's drawings of Putin (organized by Resource Center Information Agency Infrastructure of Charity) where one drawing (as John put it) depicting Putin "frolicking with two extremely DTF furries" (a brown bear and a polar bear).

• • After doing a segment about USA vice-president Mike Pence, gay Conversion therapy (and Focus on the Family), John talks about Pence family having a bunny (Marlon Bundo) and that Pence family writing and illustrating a Marlon Bundo book. John announced the show had come up with their own Marlon Bundo book (A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo) and their Bundo is gay and falls in love with another boy rabbit. And that the book can be bought from Amazon.com, BetterBundoBook.com and FocusOnTheFURmily.com plus an audiobook version available from Audible.com. The show presented a video version of some of the audiobooks.

Season 5, episode 6

• Episode opener (in addition to usual elements of zebra, Jeff, and dog-version of Ginsburg) included "f.37 Marlon Bundo / In Bookstoresum".
• in 2018 Egyptian presidential election segment: (4 minutes into the episode) graphic of FarmVille with a sheep driving a tractor.
• in Executive Office for Immigration Review segment:
  • (at start of the segment): 11 minutes into the episode: brief mention and image of Mr. Nutterbutter shit-talking coal CEO Bob Murray.
  • (13 minutes into the episode): bad ideas include "doing coke in a Build-A-Bear Workshop including an image (relevant due to plush toy)
  • (17 minutes into the episode) (includes two images): saying 2-year-olds can't represent themselves in court because you can't even explain to them that muppet Elmo isn't their best friend.
  • (26 minutes into the episode or 15 minutes into the segment on YouTube): Tot Bench (courtroom staffed by children) spectator area is populated with plush toys (about 13 toys including 2 primates (monkies?), a frog, a tiger(?), 2 elephants, pink dragon(?), yellow dog, rabbit, and husky) that seem to get moved around in between some video-shots.

Season 5, episode 7

• segment 2018 Hungarian parliamentary election: (10-12 minutes into the episode) joke parties include Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party who have a spokesperson dressed in a chicken costume.
• segment Crisis pregnancy centers:
  • (14 minutes into the episode): John says the name of Barbara Beavers (a founder of a CPC) sounds like the name of a sassy mother in a TV show of a family of beavers and the TV series would be named Hot Dam! (including logo with an image of four anthro-ish beavers)
  • (18 minutes into the episode): John compares CPCs luring women under false pretenses to Catfishing, with an image of catfish in clothing (hat and necklace) using a laptop.
  • (19-20 minutes into the episode): images include one from the The Wizard of Oz (1939 film) with the Cowardly Lion. One abortion clinic painted their ramp bright yellow in an attempt to avoid their clients getting hijacked by a CPC, John likens the ramp to the Yellow brick road in The Wizard of Oz and that is appropriate because that Oz movie "involves a young woman getting stopped several times by idiots bothering her with their own fucking issues as she just tries to get where she needs to fucking go."

Season 5, episode 8

• Corporate tax avoidance in the United States (YouTube):
  • (15 minutes into episode or 9:44-9:53 into a segment on YouTube): Image of a dog in clothing (dress shirt, suit jacket, necktie, and monocle) accompanied by John saying "the reaction to the sentence 'I pay all my taxes' should never be incredulous laughter unless you are a very wealthy dog who's just spoken for the first time."
  • Blockbuster Video in Alaska: (23 minutes into the episode) art depicting a Bigfoot (aka Sasquatch) with John saying (about Blockbuster locations closing) "we seem to be rapidly losing something I didn't even know we had, which is a weird feeling. It's like if Bigfoot walked out of the woods with a gun to his head saying he exists, there were four of him, but he just brutally murdered his wife and two kids and he's not feeling great about it."

Season 5, episode 9

• Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (Iranian nuclear deal)(YouTube):
  • (23-24 minutes into the episode or 15:13-15:35 into a segment on YouTube): (image of a cat parachuting) "You can't just be against something without having any plan for what comes next. Trump is like a cat on an airplane trying to escape from its carrier. Ok, but if you get out, then what? Do you have a cat-sized parachute in there with you? What's your fucking plan here? And obviously, I'm not going to say cat-sized parachute without showing you a cat in a parachute."

Season 9, episode 3

• Wrongful convictions (Youtube): 16 minutes into a segment on Youtube) "Yeah, he’s right. Fucking duh! You’ve probably already been screaming it at your tv for the last 15 minutes, along with “talk slower!” And “this guy’s a furry, right?” That’s my business. But I will say, the clues are all there."

Season 9, webisode

Rocks (Season 9, webisode)

• Rocks (Youtube): (From 5:39) John discusses false rumors about furry behaviors in schools, and highlights furry Twitter responses to ex-Georgia Governor candidate Kandiss Taylor's tweet that "The furry days are over when I'm governor."

John highlights that many furries "offer art commissions, where you can get yourself done up as sexy river otter at very reasonable prices" while showing a picture of himself done up as just that

YouTube

The show's production has also created content specifically for furry fan use. For the March 19, 2017, episode, which reported on Bolivia's growing coalition of workers clad in zebra suits to educate civilians about traffic laws, the show's production recorded 23 minutes of a person in a zebra costume dancing and gesticulating before a green screen so that viewers could edit it into other videos for humorous effect.

A similar video called "Real Animals, Fake Paws" for use in reenacting U.S. Supreme Court cases was released after the October 19, 2014, episode where dogs were used instead of justices to make listening to oral court cases more amusing to the general public and to increase interest in the subject.

A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo

A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, cover by illustrator Gerald Kelley.

On March 18, 2018, Oliver announced the publication of a children's book, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, which parodies a book that Mike Pence's family wrote about their family rabbit, Marlon Bundo's A Day in the Life of the Vice President. Oliver used his book as a platform to criticize Pence's positions on LGBT issues, as it featured a rabbit in a same-sex relationship. The book became the number-one book and e-book on Amazon the next day, and the top-selling audiobook on Audible.

See also

• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Wikipedia

External links

• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver official website