Tag: John Oliver

Why Didn’t John Oliver Take Over The Daily Show?

  Trevor Noah did a surprisingly good job as the new host of The Daily Show, but while watching his debut, something struck me. For a show to work after its king has departed, it needs a modern refresh. Otherwise, the new guy is a house guest jumping on his owner’s furniture while the owner is vacationing in Belize. He’s dirtying the digs instead of building his own abode, and he needs a new yard. The other issue? He’s not John Oliver. While I support promoting newbies into high-powered positions, Oliver was an obvious choice, and Comedy Central blundered it with their best guy. They should have pushed to keep Oliver in hopes of him taking the throne when Stewart left. The result would be Last Week Tonight, which is basically a hipper, more current version of The Daily Show. As for whether it could have worked in a non-cable format, who knows. And to be fair, NBC tried to do exactly what I’m suggesting with Conan O’Brien, and it ended in disaster. That being said, I still think they blew it. 

John Oliver v. Miss America: Is the Money a Lie?

Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver is at it again, and this week’s well-deserved victim is the Miss America pageant and it’s over-hyped claim that the Miss American Organization makes “$45 million available for scholarship money.” After rigorous research, Oliver’s team of titans discovered that the pageants bloated number was largely hypothetical, given that they’ve only awarded $4 million total. Here’s the catch: If a $54,000 scholarship is made available to one student at a specific university, for example, Miss America multiplies that by the total number of people eligible to win that ONE scholarship, thus multiplying it by 48 and grossly inflating the scholarship money the pageant claims to grant. And if that’s not enough, they also use butt glue for bathing suits. Watch below.