John William Oliver (born 23 April 1977) is a British and American[1] comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. Oliver started his career as a stand-up comedian in the United Kingdom. He came to wider attention for his work in the United States as Senior British Correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 2006 to 2013. Oliver won three
Primetime Emmy Awards for writing for The Daily Show and he became the
guest host for an eight-week period in 2013. He also co-hosted the comedy
podcastThe Bugle with
Andy Zaltzman, with whom Oliver had previously worked on the radio series Political Animal. From 2010 to 2013, Oliver hosted his stand-up series John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show on
Comedy Central. He has also acted on television, most prominently in a recurring role as
Dr Ian Duncan on the
NBC sitcom Community, and in films, including
voice-over work in The Smurfs (2011), The Smurfs 2 (2013), and the 2019
remake of The Lion King. He became a US citizen in 2019.
Since 2014, Oliver has been the host of the
HBO series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. He has received widespread critical and popular recognition for his work on the series, and its influence over US culture,
legislation and policymaking has been dubbed the "John Oliver effect". For his work on Last Week Tonight, Oliver has won sixteen
Emmy Awards and two
Peabody Awards and was included in the 2015 Time 100.Time described him as a "comedic agent of change...powerful because he isn't afraid to tackle important issues thoughtfully, without fear or apology".[2] Oliver's work has been described as journalism or
investigative journalism, labels that Oliver rejects.
Oliver's first appearance on-screen was playing Felix Pardiggle, a minor role in the
BBC drama Bleak House, in 1985. In an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, he commented, "When I was six years old ... [the BBC] wanted a kid with dark hair and brown eyes, and I was two-for-two on that".[14][15] In 2001, Oliver appeared as a bank manager in series two of People Like Us.[16] Oliver said in a later Seth Meyers appearance that one of his first paying jobs was writing for the British morning show The Big Breakfast.[17]
In 2007, Oliver wrote and presented a
BBC America campaign to have viewers use
closed captions. Shown in brief segments before shows, one of the campaign messages said, "The following program contains accents you would have heard a lot more if you hadn't
thrown our tea into Boston Harbor ... Not even British people can follow the British accent 100 per cent of the time. Therefore you, like me, might want to use closed-captioning." Oliver used some of these jokes in his stand-up routine.[30]
After moving to New York City, Oliver began performing stand-up comedy in clubs, later headlining shows in larger venues.[31] From October 2007 to May 2015, Oliver co-hosted The Bugle, a weekly comedy
podcast, with Andy Zaltzman. Originally produced by The Times, it became an independent project in 2012.[32][33]John Oliver: Terrifying Times, his first stand-up special, premiered on
Comedy Central in 2008.[34] In 2009, Comedy Central announced that it would be ordering six episodes of the John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show, a series on Comedy Central that featured sets from himself and other comedians, including
Janeane Garofalo,
Brian Posehn,
Paul F. Tompkins and
Marc Maron.[35][36] From 2010 to 2013, four seasons were produced.[37] In 2013, he went to
Afghanistan on a
USO tour to perform for the troops.[38][39] Oliver continues to perform stand-up.[40][41]
Starting in June 2013, Oliver
guest-hostedThe Daily Show for eight weeks while Stewart directed his film Rosewater.[49] Oliver's performance received positive reviews,[50][51][52][53] with some critics suggesting that he should eventually succeed Stewart as the host, or receive his own show.[54][55][56]CBS discussed the possibility of Oliver replacing
Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show.[26] Three months after his role as the interim Daily Show host ended, HBO announced it was giving Oliver his own late-night show.[57]
2014–present: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
In 2014, Oliver began hosting his current events late-night talk show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.[58] The show features thoroughly researched segments dedicated to topics or events in the news.[59] His initial two-year contract was extended through to 2017 in 2015,[60][61] to 2020 in September 2017,[62] to 2023 in September 2020,[63] and to 2026 in December 2023.[64] Oliver has stated that he has full creative freedom, including free rein to criticise corporations, given HBO's ad-free
subscription model.[26] In 2015, Oliver was named one of
Time 100 influential people of the year for his work on the show.[2] Across the TV airings,
DVR,
on-demand, and
HBO Go, Last Week Tonight averaged 4.1 million weekly viewers in its first season.[65] In 2014, Last Week Tonight was honoured with a
Peabody Award in the "Entertainment" category for "bringing satire and journalism even closer together".[66][67] The show received a second award in 2017.[68][69] The show has also won 26
Primetime Emmy Awards,[70] five
Writers Guild of America Awards,[71] eight
Producers Guild Awards,[72] and three
Critics' Choice Television Awards.[73]
Oliver has said that among his comedic influences are
Armando Iannucci,
David Letterman,
Monty Python,
Peter Cook,
Richard Pryor,[22] and
Jon Stewart.[89] Oliver said regarding Monty Python, "I saw Life of Brian in
middle school, when a substitute teacher put it on to keep us quiet on a rainy day ... I've never forgotten how it made me feel".[90] Edward Helmore wrote in The Guardian about Oliver's comedy, "His style leans toward the kind that Americans like best from the British – exaggerated, full of odd accents and mannerisms, in the vein of Monty Python."[8] Oliver describes his own accent as a "
mongrel" of
Brummie,
Scouse, and
Bedford influences.[91]
Personal life
Oliver lives in New York City with his wife Kate Norley, an
Iraq War veteran who served as a
United States Armymedic.[92][93] Oliver has said that they met at the
2008 Republican National Convention; he was reporting for The Daily Show and Norley was campaigning with
Vets for Freedom. She and other veterans hid Oliver, the other correspondents, and the camera crew from security.[94] The two married in 2011 and have two sons, one born prematurely in 2015 and the other born in 2018.[95] Oliver occasionally wears a
1st Cavalry Division lapel pin – his wife's unit in Iraq.[96] Oliver has a younger sister who lives in Australia.[97]
Oliver's immigration status when he joined The Daily Show in 2006 placed certain constraints on what he could do in the United States, but also provided him with comedy material as he poked fun at the opacity and occasional absurdity of the process of obtaining
US residency.[1][98][99] During the
2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, which temporarily stopped production of The Daily Show, Oliver participated in
picketing protests;[100] he appeared on the show upon its resuming production on 7 January 2008. During a sketch, he pointed out that he was then in America on a
visitor visa that requires him not to strike while the show is in production, as violation of the terms of the visa would be grounds for
deportation.[101]
In an episode of The Bugle released on 2 November 2009 and recorded three days earlier, Oliver announced that he was approved for his
US green card, noting that now he can "get arrested filming bits for The Daily Show".[102] Oliver says he was given a scare when applying at the
US embassy in London when an immigration officer asked, "Give me one good reason I should let you back in to insult my country?", which the officer followed up with, "Oh, I'm just kidding, I love the show". Since then, he has referred to Americans as "us" or "you" based on what each segment has demanded.[99] Oliver was
naturalized as a
US citizen on 13 December 2019.[1][98] Since moving to the United States, Oliver has been a fan of the
New York Mets.[103] Oliver has said that being a
New York Yankees fan would be the "wrong thing to do morally".[104]
Oliver's philanthropy includes an on-air giveaway in which he forgave over $15 million of
medical debt owed by over 9,000 people. He purchased the debt for $60,000 and forgave it on his show on 4 June 2016.[105] Oliver was raised in the
Church of England. In an interview with
Terry Gross, he said his
Anglicanism lapsed when he was aged 12 because of the death of a school friend and an uncle, and a feeling of not having received any useful answers from his church.[9][106]
Political views
Oliver was opposed to
Brexit, making multiple pieces about it and calling it "painful, it's pointless, and most of you didn't even agree to run it; you were just signed up by your dumbest friend". He also found it "sad" to consider that his children with British citizenship would not experience the benefits of the
EU.[107] He has also been particularly critical of the
British Conservative Party, and of
Boris Johnson when he was Prime Minister of the UK.[108] In November 2022, he made a piece criticising the
British monarchy, stating "we've long evolved past needing them".[109] He also criticised the
Royal Family's secrecy concerning their
wealth, calling them "a freeloading multimillionaire family exempt from paying most taxes" and stating that "the Royal Family's wealth ―
unlike its gene pool ― is massive".[110] Oliver is reportedly in favour of Britain
becoming a Republic.[111] Oliver declined an
Order of the British Empire.[111] On a September 2022 edition of Late Night with Seth Meyers, he said he declined the award because he didn't want his name being associated with the words "
British Empire", and expressed distaste for the British class system.[112]
In
American politics, Oliver favoured
Joe Biden for president in the
2020 election, later celebrating his victory over
Donald Trump. He warned that "more than 70 million people voted for [Trump] and everything he said and stands for, and that is something we are going to have to reckon with for the foreseeable future".[113] Oliver has been strongly critical of Trump and the
Republican Party on Last Week Tonight.[114][115]Politico argued that Oliver criticised
liberal politicians as much as those on the
right.[116]
Oliver's comedic commentary has been credited with influencing
US legislation, regulations,
court rulings, and other aspects of US culture; this has been dubbed the "John Oliver effect".[141][142]: 298–299 This came from
the show's fifth episode, which dealt with
net neutrality, a subject that had previously been considered obscure and technical.[143] Oliver documented problems attributed to internet service providers and argued that the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could resolve these concerns with upcoming changes to internet regulation. Oliver then encouraged viewers to submit public comments through the FCC's website. The FCC's website promptly crashed.[142]: 299 [144] Internal FCC emails revealed that the clip was being watched inside the agency.[145] The FCC Chairman
Tom Wheeler publicly addressed the video.[146][147] The day after the broadcast, the FCC had received over 45,000 comments on net neutrality; in total, it received 3.7 million comments on the subject, by far the most for any issue in the agency's history.[148][149]: 1414 Reporters detected a shift in the FCC's stance: Before Oliver's segment, The New York Times described an FCC proposal that would leave net neutrality "all but dead",[150] but the paper later said that Wheeler showed "a steady shift toward stronger regulation".[151] A study conducted in 2018 found that viewers of Last Week Tonight and The Colbert Report were generally more familiar with net neutrality than non-viewers; Last Week Tonight viewers were also more likely to support strict regulation to ensure net neutrality.[149]: 1421–1422, 1424 In the end, the FCC enacted robust net neutrality rules that classified the
broadband internet service as a public utility.[152] Oliver was credited with transforming the net neutrality debate.[143]
A
Ninth Circuit Court judge cited a Last Week Tonight segment about the lesser constitutional rights of residents of
US territories in a ruling in favour of the residents of
Guam.[153][154][a] Members of
Congress credited Oliver with helping to win a vote to enforce protections for chicken farmers who speak out about industry practices, after a Last Week Tonight segment on the subject.[155][156][b] A
Washington, D.C.,
council member proposed a resolution in Oliver's honour after he aired a segment on the district's
struggle to attain statehood.[157][c] A study published in 2022 found that "calls for action" by Oliver in seasons seven and eight of Last Week Tonight raised over $5 million for charities and other causes.[59]
Oliver maintains that he is not a journalist,[158] but reporters have contended that his show is a form of journalism.[159][160][161] The Peabody Awards honoured Oliver, saying his programme engages in "investigative reports that 'real' news programs would do well to emulate".[162] One example of Oliver's investigative work is a segment on the
Miss America organization, which bills itself as "the world's largest provider of scholarships for women".[163] Oliver's team, which includes four researchers with journalism backgrounds,[164] collected and analysed the organization's state and federal tax returns to find that its scholarship programme only distributes a small fraction of the claimed "$45 million made available annually".[165] Oliver said that at the national level, the Miss America Organization and Miss America Foundation together spent only $482,000 in cash scholarships in 2012.[163] As of July 2023,[update] the official YouTube video of Oliver's Miss America segment has been viewed more than 23 million times.[166] The
Society of Women Engineers said Oliver's reference to their scholarship led to $25,000 in donations over the subsequent two days.[167]
Oliver also founded and legally incorporated a church,
Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, to demonstrate how easy it is to qualify as a church and receive
tax-exempt status in the United States.[168][169] The church was created in conjunction with a segment on
televangelists who have tax-free mansions and private jets funded by millions of dollars in donations, which are sent in the belief that money given to televangelists can result in
God rewarding donors with money, blessings, and by curing diseases.[170][d] The next week, Oliver showed off the large quantity of donations posted to him, which included $70,000 in cash, a large
cheque, and other gifts. The church's website stated that donations would go to
Doctors Without Borders upon the church's dissolution.[171][169]
Oliver's
February 2016 segment on presidential candidate
Donald Trump received 62 million views on Facebook and 23 million on YouTube within a month, and was reportedly the "most watched piece of HBO content ever".[172] A network spokesperson said that this was "a record for any piece of HBO content".[173] In 2018 on Last Week Tonight, Oliver presented the children's book A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, a parody of Marlon Bundo's A Day in the Life of the Vice President. A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo featured the rabbit
Marlon Bundo, who was the pet of the 48th US Vice President
Mike Pence, in a gay relationship.[59][174] During the
2023 Reddit API controversy, the major subreddits r/pics, r/gifs, and r/aww, among others, protested at Reddit's
API policy changes by only allowing content containing Oliver.[175][176]
John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward
In May 2018, actor
Russell Crowe donated approximately $80,000 to the
Australia Zoo wildlife hospital for the creation and naming of "The John Oliver
KoalaChlamydia Ward".[177] Oliver had previously bought in an auction several
film props that had been used by Crowe, including
his jockstrap from Cinderella Man, which he sent to one of the last Alaskan
Blockbuster Video shops for exhibition.[178][179] Crowe then donated the proceeds from the auction towards the establishment of the Chlamydia Ward named after Oliver, calling it "a cool way" to honour him.[180] Covering the story on his show, Oliver admitted admiration for the gag: "Well played, Russell Crowe. Well played indeed. That may honestly be the greatest thing I've ever seen."[177] Crowe visited the ward in early 2020, posing with the nameplate bearing Oliver's name.[181]
In August 2020, the mayor of
Danbury, Connecticut,
Mark Boughton, announced in a Facebook video his intention to rename the Danbury
Water Pollution Control Plant as the "John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant" as a comedic symbol of his displeasure at Oliver's
hyperbolic insult to the city during a segment concerning alleged
racial disparities in a jury selection process.[182] After reporting that Connecticut jury rolls had excluded two entire towns, Oliver said, "If you're going to forget a town in Connecticut, why not forget Danbury?" Oliver then humorously offered to "thrash" the entire town, including its children.[183][184]
As a response to Boughton's video, Oliver embraced the idea enthusiastically, promising to donate $55,000 to Danbury charities if the city renamed the sewage plant after him.[184][185][186] After the city council voted 18–1 in favour of naming the plant after him, Oliver visited Danbury to attend the unveiling ceremony on 8 October 2020 in person, wearing a
hazmat suit.[187] Mayor Boughton had made Oliver's personal attendance a condition for the renaming, and Oliver complied, revealing footage of his trip on Last Week Tonight the following week.[188]
^Meyers, Seth; John, Meyers (25 July 2023).
"John Oliver Camped for Two Human Weeks". Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers (Podcast). Simplecast. Event occurs at 55:19. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
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