-Welcome back, everybody.
I am here with John Oliver, the host of
"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver."
I always love having you on the show.
And thank you for doing "Hey Robot."
-Of course.
I was going to say "a pleasure," but it wasn't.
It wasn't.
I really hope, Jimmy, you didn't cut out my question about
what union busting is.
I presume you left that in.
-I was just on -- I was just going to take your joke again.
I was just on grumpycat.com.
I kind of remember Grumpy Cat was like a --
It was a cat, right? It looked sad?
-Yeah. Do you know what? We tried to get Grumpy Cat.
In the first year, I think, of our show,
we had an idea for a joke and we said --
We got in touch with Grumpy Cat's people,
saying, "Could we have Grumpy Cat?"
They sent back the -- the first-class plane tickets
they would need and what Grumpy Cat cost,
and we thought, "[Bleep] Grumpy Cat.
We don't need that for this joke."
I'll tell you what we can get. Another cat.
-We did something -- We had a dog that was a famous dog
that didn't -- It just looked cute.
It didn't do anything.
It just sat on a dog bed and looked cute.
And it was -- Oh, no, I'm so sorry.
It was backstage at a Kevin Hart concert.
-Wow! -I swear to God.
-You are fully conflating two memories there.
"Was it on the show?
"It was backstage at a Kevin Hart concert.
You know what? I dreamt it. Let's move on."
Wait. No, I -- We have to go back.
You saw a famous dog lying on a bed backstage
at a Kevin Hart concert?
-Yes. I went to a Kevin Hart concert.
I went backstage, and in a room, they go,
"Do you want to meet..." something dog or something.
And I go, "I have no idea what that is.
I'm just here -- I'm gonna say hi to Kevin, and then..."
They go, "Well, the owners would like
you to say hello to" whatever it was.
And so I went in,
and there was like a line of people waiting to meet this dog.
The dog was in one of the rooms backstage,
like had his own dressing room.
-I mean, every anecdote from before the pandemic
seems dislocating now.
To me, that's one of the weirdest anecdotes
I've ever heard.
I feel like you've thrown that out, Jimmy,
like that's a normal thing to say.
"I met this famous dog backstage of a Kevin Hart concert"
is a sequence of words in the English language
I don't think have ever been said before.
-Oh, my gosh.
-"I met this famous dog backstage
at a Kevin Hart concert, and it looked disappointed.
And I kind of got it."
-I want to talk about some topical things,
if you don't mind.
Something everyone has been talking about this past week is
Prince Harry and Meghan's interview with Oprah.
-Right. -Did you watch this?
-I did. I did watch it. -The whole thing?
-Yeah, my wife was -- She -- I watched it soup to nuts,
the whole thing.
And, yeah, it was -- It was amazing?
I mean, I will say, I didn't find any of it surprising.
That was kind of what I felt like, sadly,
her experience was going to be going in,
because, you know, I grew up --
I know the royal family from a distance,
and they seemed like flawed people.
That's literally the kindest way I could possibly put it.
-Nothing shocked you at all about the interview?
-The only thing that shocked me afterwards was that
Oprah, the next day, saying, "Oh, Prince Harry
wants to make it clear that it wasn't
Prince Philip being racist," which made me think, "Really?
Okay, that -- that is actually surprising."
I think was assumed,
And I guess people just didn't hear him.
-Do you think any change will come from this interview?
-I don't -- I mean, it's hard to say, isn't it?
Because the royal family --
its whole selling point is that it doesn't change.
That was kind of the point of it over centuries,
that, you know, times come and go,
governments rise and fall, but the royal family
will always be there, unyielding,
the stiff upper lip that doesn't wobble.
So that's their selling point.
As years go by, you realize that not changing
is not entirely a good thing, because that means
the times might be changing around you,
and you are refusing to evolve.
So I don't think they will change,
because I don't think they have the capacity to,
but they obviously should.
The one person who I think has been really happy
about all of this is Prince Andrew.
I'm guessing that he has been nudging
the royal family like, "Can you believe what Meghan did, huh?
Can you believe it?
Dragging this family's name into disrepute,
shaming us, right?"
-"Everyone is talking about this and only this."
-"She's ruined our reputation. She has, right, guys?"
Wow. -Wow.
The other week on your show, you briefly talked about
Ted Cruz going to Cancun.
And I got the feeling that there was more you wanted to say
but didn't have the time.
We have the time now. Is there --
-Oh, I mean, the thing that was most tantalizing to me
about that regretful episode
was Heidi Cruz's group chat leaking,
Because I think it just really drilled home to me
that nothing good comes from a group chat.
I don't mess with group chats, Jimmy.
-I wonder if she found out which friend it was.
-Oh, she definitely found out which friend it was.
I think she knew going in.
You know what the weak link in a group chat is.
She knows -- She didn't need to find out.
She knew.
-Do you think there's another group chat
that's talking about Heidi Cruz?
-Oh, 100%. There is absolutely.
The group chat with Heidi Cruz on it,
and then there's the same group chat without Heidi Cruz on it.
And that is the group chat that I want to see.
I want to see the "Can you believe this [bleep]"
from the rest of the neighbors.
That's the group chat with the good stuff in.
That is the one group chat I will join.
-Yeah. Oh, really? Okay.
-Heidi Cruz's neighbors's group chat that she's not on.
That. Invite me. I'm there.
-This past year has been tough for a lot of people.
And I just want to say one thing I love about your show
is that you're continuously finding ways to give and donate.
And you donate in interesting ways to food banks.
-I think what we were really doing is kind of
money-laundering HBO's production budget
to food banks over the last year.
So it felt like we were just -- each week,
we were trying to come up with different ways
to kind of force a donation to a food bank.
"No, sell us this painting.
We'll give you -- Name your sewage plant after me.
Give it to a food bank." -That was the best.
The sewage plant was the best.
So, wait. So, you just go like this.
"We're just making a show.
We needed a budget for that,
and the money will go to the food bank."
-Yeah, that's right.
"You've given us this money, HBO, for a reason.
We're gonna use it for something else now."
Is that the definition of fraud?
Seems to be, but let's just assume that charity
has happened and not an actual crime.
-That's a better way to put it.
John, we love everything you're doing.
We always -- I personally, I love every single time
you come on, and thank you for being so funny
and for doing those shows and just getting us through
the trickiest political times and making us all laugh.
Really, it doesn't fall on deaf ears.
-I appreciate it, mate. Thanks. -John Oliver, everybody.
"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver"
airs Sundays at 11:00 p.m. on HBO.