Thursday, July 17, 2014

MEDIA - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

"Comedian John Oliver makes fun of serious news" PBS NewsHour 7/14/2014

Excerpt

JOHN OLIVER, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”:  If we let cable companies offer two speeds of service, there won’t be Usain Bolt and Usain Bolt on a motorbike.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHN OLIVER:  They will be Usain Bolt and Usain bolted to an anchor.

(LAUGHTER)

JEFFREY BROWN:  The highly divisive debate over who controls Internet speed and access, so-called net neutrality, is hardly standard comic fare.

JOHN OLIVER:  The point is, the Internet in its current state is not broken, and the FCC is currently taking steps to fix that.

(LAUGHTER)

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  But it’s just the kind of policy and political subject that John Oliver tackles, often in surprising depth, on his new HBO comedy program “Last Week Tonight.”

JOHN OLIVER:  We need you to channel that anger.

JEFFREY BROWN:  His admonition to viewers to write to the FCC even briefly shut down the agency’s comments section of the Web site.  Born in a suburb of Birmingham, England, Oliver studied English and joined a comedy troupe at Cambridge University.  He performed stand-up in festivals, pubs and clubs around England, before coming to this country and joining “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” in 2006, eventually sitting in as host while Stewart took time off.

The new program has probed, poked fun, and raised serious questions around a variety of news topics, from India’s elections to Supreme Court decisions.

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