I don’t know why everyone seems to like John Oliver so much. I’ve inferred that people are fond of the guy’s work based on my inability to find very much on the internet to suggest that anyone hates him, but maybe his political leanings give him diplomatic immunity over criticism and all of his dissenters have been unpersoned. If that’s the case, I guess I’ll be next.
I don’t dislike him solely because of his bleeding-heart liberalism, although that probably doesn’t help. Still, I’ve liked other pretend news actors like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who tend to lean more to the left, and liberal sociopolitical vloggers like The Amazing Atheist. The difference between them and Oliver, though, is that a) the other guys are at least somewhat funny and entertaining and b) the other guys aren’t obvious political shills. Doesn’t anyone else find it at least a little patronizing that a UK expat, who wasn’t invested enough in his own country to stand up for change, is telling US citizens how they should run their society? Never mind the Mexicans, this is the type of immigrant Republican nutjobs are afraid of – and Oliver sure doesn’t make it easy to blow them off as overreacting.
That said, is he even a pretend news actor at all? At first I assumed that Last Week Tonight was supposed to be another Daily Show or Colbert Report, but maybe Oliver is trying to be a legit news anchor with the gimmick of random profanity and begging the question. I could accept that, but the majority of his information is pulled straight out of his ass, with some low-hanging fruit thrown in for good measure (once again, things that The Amazing Atheist could combine in a much more entertaining fashion). He purposely spin doctors events and news stories that are harder to find and fact-check, delivering them in a manic presentation that I would imagine Onision could do if he grew up and went to rehab. I actually know people who believed his spiel about North Korea having one hand on the launch button until hearing Craig Tucker explain how low that probability actually is in Season 21 of South Park.
I’m sure John Oliver is a decent enough person in his waking life, but his celebrity persona is annoying as hell, and it boils my blood that people are stupid enough to take his bait as gospel.
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