A Brit with wit
John Oliver’s satire is a GPS for navigating life’s craziness, Rebecca Davis
IF you are fortunate enough to have DStv and you aren’t watching John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, you need to ask yourself what you’re doing with your life. Oliver’s political satire show has only been on air for a few months, but has already established itself as an indispensable GPS for navigating through the craziness of modern life. Oliver’s topics are, admittedly, mainly American. This is a pity because when he tackles issues of wider significance — as he did recently with Fifa’s handling of the World Cup — it amounts to some of the most incisive commentary out there.
The caveat here is that your fondness for Oliver may be contingent on your political sympathies. A right-wing blog recently described his show as falling within “the ‘Smug Liberal Idiot That Other Liberal Idiots Watch’ genre of television”. As a smug liberal idiot myself, I can’t get enough of him.
It is remarkable that John Oliver was ever given his own show, because for a while it seemed as if Piers Morgan might have conclusively blown the chances of any Brit getting their paws on a US talkshow ever again. Morgan’s lack of success as host of CNN’s flagship talk programme appeared to confirm the idea that the Yanks seriously resent it when a self-satisfied Brit lectures them about what’s wrong with their country.
Not since the heady first days of the War on Terror have Americans been united in hatred the way they were against Piers Morgan after a while. If the SABC really wants to “boost social cohesion and moral regeneration”, as was recently reported, they should ditch the plan to play the national anthem twice a day and just offer Morgan his own show here.
Anyway, turns out the Americans don’t hate all Brits telling them their country’s going to the dogs, because they’re eating it up from Oliver. Indeed, his outsider status works to his advantage comedically, since Oliver can legitimately express perpetual bemusement at the nation he finds himself in.
Oliver first made his name in the US as a foreign correspondent on satirist Jon Stew- art’s Daily Show, a bit like the role David Kibuuka plays on Loyisa Gola’s Late Night News . One wonders if Stewart regrets giving him the leg up, because there’s every indication the protégé may outstrip the master.
This is because Oliver is a bit of a genius. He follows Stewart’s formula, playing real news footage interspersed with extremely snarky commentary, but he takes more chances and isn’t afraid to linger at length on an issue that he deems serious. Oliver recently spent a full 20 minutes exposing the pernicious role played by US evangelicals in fuelling Ugandan homophobia.
Oliver’s rant against Fifa deservedly went viral just before the World Cup. In it, Oliver surgically dissected the ugliness of the beautiful game’s ruling body, describing Fifa as a “comically grotesque organisation” akin to ancient Egyptian slave masters. He isn’t making this stuff up: his features are underpinned by wide-ranging research, and enhanced by his eye for absurd detail.
Who knew, for instance, that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is a fan of 1990s British band Right Said Fred?
Oliver’s real strength, however, lies in taking seemingly impenetrable or tedious issues and explaining them clearly and entertainingly. It’s important work. “If you want to do something evil, put it inside something boring,” he said recently. “Apple could put the entire text of Mein Kampf inside the iTunes user agreement and you’d just go ‘Agree’.” Thank heavens for John Oliver, reading the terms and conditions for the rest of us.
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: M-Net, Sundays, 22:00, from July 20