-Our first guest hosts the Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning show
"Last Week Tonight," which airs Sundays on HBO
and streams on MAX.
Please welcome back to the show our very good friend
John Oliver, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Yes.
You know, it was a -- it was a bad time.
The strike was a bad time. -Yeah, yeah. Really bad.
-We got to spend some time together.
-Let's throw - - I know cursing is --
-Encouraged. -Oh, sure.
Let's call it a [bleep] bad time
because otherwise, what are intensifiers for?
-Yeah. -Yes. Very bad.
-And, you know, we did spend some time together
during the strike. That was nice.
But we were talking about a lot of people
just assume when you're not working that is a positive.
-Yeah, they sure do assume that, don't they?
-Yeah. -They assume that
almost every day, and they assume that reminding you
of that might be a pleasant thing for you to hear.
Yeah. It was nonstop. People would say,
"Well, at least you're getting some time off.
It must feel like a vacation."
And I most of the time did not respond to that.
And when I did, I was not as gracious
as I might otherwise have been.
I was on an elevator with my wife,
and someone got off saying, "Yeah, well, at least
you're getting a nice vacation. That must be nice."
And I was following them off to say,
"You're [bleep] wrong about that,"
until my wife pulled me back, and said, it's not our floor.
I know it's not our floor.
But that's -- that's not appreciating the difficulty
of the situation that I'm in right now.
-Right before the strike, you were here,
and it was lovely to have you here,
and your parents were in the audience.
-Yes, that's true.
-Although you stressed to us -- -I did.
-Don't mention it and don't cut to them.
-That's right.
Your producers asked, would they like a camera on them?
And I had to say, I cannot overstate enough
just how little they want a camera on them right here.
It would be the meanest thing I could possibly do to them.
And I've not been a perfect child.
But yeah, they really did.
They were so excited to be here, though,
and the thing they said afterwards was it was really,
really fun to go and watch a real TV show.
And they had been, Seth, at my show the previous night.
Gets one step worse because I went, "Oh, I think I understand
what you mean," because, you know,
it's like it's -- "30 Rock"
is kind of a really exciting place to be.
So I think I see it. And they said, "Well,
could we go and see Colbert next time that we're here?"
And I said, "Why?" And they said,
"Because it would be nice to see a real guest."
[ Laughter ]
Wow. Yeah.
So if there's any sense of why I'm like this,
there's a little snapshot.
That's why my feet are -- -You kind of feel like --
there should be a Huffington Post article
that's like, "John Oliver's parents destroy John Oliver."
-Eviscerate their own boy.
-A very well structured two-part burn on you.
-Yeah. That's right. Yeah. -Also that thing of --
I mean, by the way, don't blame us for asking like,
do you want a camera on your parents?
Because, you know, of course, when my parents come,
they actually bring a camera,
just in case something's wrong with ours.
-Your dad is permanently live streaming himself,
just so you've got two cameras,
so you can edit around him. [ Laughter ]
-Now we also talked, you know, people like us, hosts,
we get asked -- it makes natural sense to people,
"Oh, you should host my charity event."
-Oh, yeah. -And you, over the years,
have just eliminated multiple charities
where you're suitable for.
-Yeah, I talk a lot of [bleep].
-Yeah. -So helpfully for me that --
Yeah, I think I -- -It's, like, narrowed the field.
-Exactly. There's not many -- and so there's not many
that I can do or that I'm welcome at now.
-But then you mentioned the one thing.
-I mentioned last time.
"Sesame Street's" the greatest. I love --
-Of course, the best.
-Obviously, I love them in general so much.
I love the idea of them getting as much money as they can.
So every year, I do the "Sesame Street" gala.
So I mentioned it here because it's so fun,
and I thought this would be nice, too,
and I knew it was coming up. I was then booed at that gala.
And I want you to think about how hard it is
to make that happen.
The theme of the evening was kindness.
[ Laughter ]
That's not easy to do. Just to explain what happened --
So obviously, the whole point is raise as much money as they can.
They got a big sponsor. They had Bank of America
were going to be their sponsor,
and I think they got Bank of America
by making up this nonsense award
they were going to give to one of the executives.
I was going to go on after her. And she walked on and she said,
"I've been thinking about how appropriate it is
that Bank of America and "Sesame Street" have teamed up tonight,
because we are two organizations built on kindness."
And I was standing at the side of the stage.
I remember thinking, "Hm.
I'm going to let that go, because no one needs me
to create a scene." Alright now, you know,
she's out. All the characters
are out there with her.
The whole point is that we raise money.
No one needs an incident just because she said something
that I personally find a little odd to say,
so I can let that go. I will choose to let that go.
I'm going to make the better choice right now.
Then she said it three more times in the next five minutes,
and I snapped and I walked out and said,
"It's been odd to hear talk of kindness from Bank of America,
an institution that had the highest foreclosure rates
over the last ten years."
Boos bouncing --
Oh, that's the opposite of the reaction in that room.
And the worst thing, the thing that has imprinted itself
on my memory, is all I remember is Bert looking up at me
with such disappointment in his eyes.
Just, "Why are you like this?
You're behaving erratically, and I live with Ernie."
It wasn't great, so I would like to do it again.
"Sesame Street," have me back. I'll be a good boy this time.
-Yeah.
They can trust you on that.
-Oh, definitely. [ Laughter ]
Just have McKinsey be a sponsor. They'll be fine.
-I've got a lot more to ask you.
We'll be right back with more from John Oliver.