Television|Another Comedian in the Anchor's Chair
John Oliver, a graduate of 'The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,' didn't exactly break the mold when he rolled out his new show, 'Last Week Tonight,' late on Sunday on HBO; he just tugged at it a bit. If Mr. Stewart's current-events-based comedy is the equivalent of the evening news, Mr. Oliver gave us a satirical 'All Things Considered.'
He opened newscasterlike, just like Mr. Stewart, delivering material from behind a desk, or maybe it was a table, and he stayed there for most of the half-hour show. But the bits were longer and ranged wider than Mr. Stewart's material, which tends to be obsessed with American politics and Fox News.
There was, for instance, a lengthy and amusing segment on the general election in India, with a funny Gandhi joke pegged to the fact that Mr. Oliver is British. But, somewhat dismayingly, that segment bent its way around a slam of - wait for it - Fox News. 'The Daily Show' already shreds that particular target thoroughly four times a week. The best way for Mr. Oliver to distinguish himself is not to go there.
Mr. Oliver also dived into a couple of other pools already occupied. He served up a video of John McCain telling the same joke, such as it was ('Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country'), six times, humor-in-repetition territory that Conan O'Brien has been mining with local news anchors who read the same scripts. And, like practically every late-night host now, he aggressively tried to generate viral buzz in a funny piece about bogus nutrition claims, urging viewers to execute a sort of guerrilla grocery rebranding and send him photos.
There was a sit-down interview. There was - despite preshow publicity emphasizing the futility of a weekly show about breaking news - an up-to-date reference to the papal canonizations earlier that day. Pom Wonderful, Frosted Mini-Wheats, Oregon, the National Football League, Cliven Bundy and more were mocked.
All in all, it was pretty standard stuff. But there was one way in which Mr. Oliver stood out: cursing without being bleeped. The first time it happened, it was startling, so accustomed are we to hearing the bleep in his 'Daily Show' segments. After that, it was kind of refreshing, especially since he deployed the salty language sparingly. Now if only he would shake up the format a bit.
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