-Welcome back, John. It's always great to see you.
You look great, bud. -It's nice to be here, thanks.
-Yeah, it is Nana Week.
We're talking about nanas and highlighting --
spotlighting grandmothers. -Congratulations.
-Yeah, thank you. [ Laughter ]
Do you have any memories of your grandma?
-You're presuming they're dead.
[ Laughter ]
-Is she alive? I'm so sorry.
-No, she is dead. -Okay.
[ Laughter ]
I shouldn't have asked that, I'm so sorry.
-It's just the idea you went leaning in so hard
with "Any memories?" [ Laughter ]
-That's not what I meant --
-It was supposed to be a high-risk strategy,
but you stuck the landing. She died.
-Okay, no, I didn't -- Yeah, I'm sorry.
-A while ago. And I do -- Yes, she was great.
She was from Liverpool, which is where all my family is from.
And she loved comedy.
And right towards the end,
she got into a bit of a scuffle with --
in her old people's home. -No.
-Yeah, she walked around in a nighty a lot, all day,
which, you know, that's her right.
[ Laughter ]
Nighty, does that make sense? Nighty?
-Yeah. -Does that sound too Dickensian?
-No, a nighty. Yeah, sure.
-Yeah, she walked around in a nighty.
And there was a woman who lived opposite her
who took exception to this.
So she kind of came at her one day, waggling a walking stick.
She grabbed the stick, pulled it towards her and then kind of --
honestly, kind of Will Smithed an open-hand slap.
[ Cheers and laughter ]
Yeah.
The crazy thing is Lupita Nyong'o
was there going, "Oh, [bleep]" [ Laughter ]
She did. She did.
There was definitely a conversation about what --
"What do we do here?"
To which we -- Our thought was, "You're allowed one."
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
-There was a -- She loved the fact I did comedy
and there was a famous comedian in Liverpool called Ken Dodd,
who you won't have heard of.
He was a very odd man who --
There's no way to explain this in a concise way.
He used feather dusters for his act.
That's all -- Google it or don't.
[ Laughter ] -No, no, no.
As part of his act, he had two feather dusters?
-Yeah, that's right. He used them to tell jokes.
Anyway, the point is, he was famously a tinker.
Like, he used to spell pots and pans as a young man.
And he would talk about it a lot on stage.
And he was -- he was a tinker where my nan grew up.
And she said, "Oh, you're a comedian now like Doddy.
That's great. You know what?
He knocked on my door one day and said,
'Barb, you know, if you buy this pan,
you'll never need to buy another one.'"
And she said, "You know what?"
And she reached under her bed and said, "I never did."
And she brought out a pan that really should have been
thrown away about 55 years previously.
[ Laughter ]
You can see lead paint just flaking off it.
Ken Dodd poisoned her and my family.
-Oh, my God.
That's the whole point of this story, yeah.
-He's dead as well. -No, sorry, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-Just as long as we're listing dead British people.
-I want to ask, how are the -- How are the cute kids?
-They're alright. Yeah. -They're good?
-They're great, yeah. -They're what, six and three?
-Six and three now, yeah.
The 3-year-old has got really into the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
[ Laughter ] I wasn't expecting it either.
But he heard "Under the Bridge" once
and has become obsessed with it.
It's the only thing he wants to be played,
it's the only thing he wants to be sung to him at night,
and "Under the Bridge" in particular.
-"Under the Bridge"? -"Under the Bridge."
You haven't heard "Under the Bridge" until
you've heard a 3-year-old
gaze sorrowfully into the mid-distance and said --
♪ Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner ♪
[ Laughter ] Yeah, exactly.
♪ Feel like my only fwend ♪
With a W. Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-Oh, my God. -And can you imagine
a 3-year-old -- "I don't ever want to feel
like I did that day"?
What the [bleep] do you know about pain?
[ Laughter ] At 3 years old.
I'll tell you about pain.
Like you did what day?
What day is such a bad memory for you?
[ Laughter ]
You're fine!
[ Laughter ]
He loves it. I was singing it to him last night.
He was like, "Sing 'I don't want to feel.'"
Basically, "Under the Bridge" is his "Baby Shark."
-Oh, I love that kid. [ Laughter ]
"Last Week Tonight," you're back into the studio, bud.
-Yes. We're back now, yeah.
-Congrats. -Thank you.
-The show is fantastic as always.
But now you're back in the studio.
And our pal Drew Barrymore is your neighbor.
-Yes. I met her -- I met her when I was having
one of my first nasal swabs early on in the pandemic.
-You never forget your first.
[ Laughter ]
-Back when -- Kids don't understand.
They used to go real deep.
[ Laughter ]
Not this kind of nose tickle you're having now.
[ Laughter ]
Anyway, she was -- you know, she had a mask and a hat on.
-Yeah. -And she started yelling at me.
And it took me like a few seconds to realize who she was.
Her show was just starting.
And she was saying -- -You didn't know it was Drew?
-I gradually realized it was her.
And then she was saying, "I love late-night comedy."
And she said she been on "The Johnny Carson Show."
And it was all happening so fast.
I'm went, "How on Earth were you on the Johnny Carson show?"
She looked at me and she said, "I was in [bleep] 'E.T.'"
[ Laughter ]
If I had known as a child that Elliott's sister would one day
come out of that screen and yell at me,
"I was in [bleep] 'E.T.,'"
I'd have been -- I would look forward to every day
between then and that point. -And now, yeah.
-It was the first film I ever saw.
-I loved "E.T." -It was -- I was carried --
The visceral memory I have is being carried,
screaming tears, as the credits were rolling
because I couldn't believe he left, that E.T. left
and that Elliott didn't go with him.
That was the thing that really broke my heart.
-You thought Elliott was going to go on --
-Of course!
[ Laughter ]
What's he staying for? His family?
[ Laughter ] -Yes, yes.
-An alien you just made a key connection with
is leaving, invites you to come.
And you stayed?
Like, if we don't -- Even at that age,
I understood the fundamental lore of rom-coms,
if you can call "E.T." that, which I'm not sure you can.
-No. -Is you get on
the plane at the end.
[ Laughter ]
-You're running -- Yes, you run after the thing --
-Go to him. -Go to him, yeah.
-Go to him. So yeah, I thought it was awful.
That little rainbow felt sarcastic as it takes off.
I hope there's a director's cut somewhere where
Elliott tells his family and says, "Peace."
-Yeah, and goes to space with E.T.
-You know what I was going to say to you, by the way,
last time you were on the show, and I talked to you.
I said -- I was talking about -- I don't know how I got into it.
About meeting a dog. -Oh, my God.
Oh, my -- That is -- Honestly, you know, during the pandemic,
it was hard to sometimes get the laughter that you wanted
and needed in that moment.
That sentence that you stumbled over gave me something
from deep, deep down.
[ Laughter ] -I made you laugh --
-He was passing --
We were just having conversation.
And he said, like it was nothing,
"Oh, I once met a famous dog backstage
at a Kevin Hart concert."
And I remember thinking, "Stop talking now
and unpack each ingredient that you've presented there.
Don't skim on like it's nothing
when what you presented is a vignette to me."
-Yeah, you met a dog at backstage --
-You met a famous dog. Not "a" dog. A "famous" dog.
-Backstage at a Kevin -- -Backstage -- you did
a meet-and-greet with a famous dog backstage
at a Kevin Hart concert.
All of those ingredients separately are good.
Together, that is a "Chopped" episode
that should make the final.
[ Laughter ]
-Well, it really happened.
And we tracked down footage of this.
This is real. Here I am meeting a dog named Jiffpom
backstage at a Kevin Hart show.
We'll figure it out, right? I'll call you tomorrow.
And we're hanging out.
I'll call you tomorrow. It's good.
-Look at that. [ Applause ]
Wow, huh? -Wow.
-One of the things in that room is looking at
the other thinking, "What are you doing here?"
And it's -- it's not you, Jimmy.
[ Laughter ]
-John Oliver, everybody.
"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver"
airs Sundays at 11:00 p.m. on HBO.