I love your show, but now, this is very exciting,
you're going to be in the remake
of "The Lion King." -I'm a movie star.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Yes. -You respect me?
You respect me, Jimmy, I'm a movie star now.
-Yes. I respect you. -Things have changed.
-Things have really changed.
-Some [bleep] about to change around here Jimmy.
I'm a movie star now. -You are a movie star now and --
-Yeah. -You play Zazu.
-I'm Zazu the bird. [ Cheers and applause ]
-That's a big role. That's a big role.
-Yeah, it's an important -- it's a key role.
It's a key role. -Well, I don't know.
I wouldn't go that crazy. -Nothing happens without Zazu.
[ Laughter ] -That's not true at all,
but Zazu, if I remember, sings in "The Lion King."
-He does, he did, he might again.
[ Laughter ]
It depends. -It depends, wait,
but did you sing -- -Right, he sings on
"I Just Can't Wait to Be King." -Yes.
-Yeah. -And do you sing at all?
-That is a legitimate question.
[ Laughter ]
And one that they might have
wanted to find out before they cast me.
But they found out now. I sang. We recorded it.
I sang, and they said, "That sounded great."
And I said, "That sounds like Hollywood bull[bleep] to me,"
and they did not correct me.
[ Laughter ]
So, it was very fun though.
-How great is that, man? -It's going to be amazing.
-Jon Favreau, oh, I just love the whole --
-Yeah. It's going to be -- it's going to be really, really good.
-Good for you man, I'm psyched. -Thank you.
-Now, "Last Week Tonight," which I still think
is the best title of any show ever, still.
-Is that the best title? Wow, that sounds like
damning me with faint praise, Jimmy.
-Thank you, yeah. [ Laughter ]
-"I really love the title.
It goes downhill once that's finished."
[ Laughter ] -No, I love the title.
It's a joke before the even show starts, I'm laughing.
-It's so dumb. It makes no sense.
-And I like all the posters I see around the city of you.
-That's right. It's beautiful, because it means --
it's how I feel inside, and also it means my face
doesn't have to be on things.
Which is good for me,
and it's good for anyone with eyes.
-But you guys do so much research --
-We do. -And you do you a lot of work
for these stories that you cover, and gosh, it's so funny.
Are there any stories that are just like, it just happened
that there's too much work to get into that we never
got around to attacking or getting?
-Not really. Not really.
We -- sometimes we spend months on stories.
So anything that we've not managed to execute yet
will probably -- we'll probably get to at some point.
It's just that -- some of our stories can get
a little legally spicy.
-All right. Yeah, exactly, so it's a big legal thing.
-It can be. Yeah, there's a couple
of big legal things that I can't really talk about right now.
-Oh, my gosh. -A couple of -- yeah.
-That means you're doing well though, right?
-Well, yeah, I think so.
I don't think we did anything wrong,
but there's someone in particular
who really disagrees with me on that one.
[ Laughter ]
-When we were talking backstage, you said,
"Oh, you know what? We can't even get around
to Barbra Streisand cloning her dogs?"
-Oh, yeah. So, yeah.
I mean that -- last week was so busy with so much news,
it felt awful that we couldn't spend a long time talking about
the fact that Barbra Streisand cloned her dogs,
which was all I, deep down, really wanted to talk about.
It's all I really want to talk about now.
I'm slightly confused why you've talked about
anything else tonight. [ Laughter ]
I still can't get my head around it.
Barbra Streisand cloned her dogs.
And I don't know whether that's terrifying, amazing,
unexpected, or what I should have deep down felt
was always going to happen. [ Laughter ]
She's an odd lady, have you met --
-Yes, I've met -- yeah, absolutely.
-You've met Barbra Streisand? -Absolutely, yes.
Barbra Streisand, yes, completely.
We've done bits together. -What's she like?
Is she as high maintenance as she appears at first, second,
and 35th glance? [ Laughter ]
-No. No, no, no.
-No, no!
Oh, really, she's a walk in the park, is she?
[ Laughter ]
Jimmy -- Was Barbra -- -I love the title.
I love the tile. [ Laughter ]
"Last Week Tonight," I get it! I get it.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Look me in the eyes.
Look me in the eyes, Jimmy. Look me in the eyes.
-Yeah. -Was Barbra Streisand
easy to be around here?
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
I rest my case. -Yes, she was.
-No, but, I hope she was high maintenance, right,
because -- -She wasn't really.
-There's certain people -- Bull[bleep]
There's certain people -- there's certain people
that you want, their legacy is so huge,
you don't want them to let you down.
-I see what you're saying, like who --
-Mariah Carey. If Mariah Carey
was anything less than a human nightmare,
I would be really, really disappointed.
[ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ] Because she gets a pass.
She gets a lifetime pass.
-She's allowed to be. -She's not just allowed to be,
she should be encouraged to be.
It's her at her best.
The thing -- New Year's, when she was said --
She started complaining about not having tea,
and said, "I'm just going to have to be like the rest of you,
and not have tea." Like we're peasants,
and I was not remotely angry.
It was appropriate that she spoke down to America
on New Year's Eve. It's appropriate.
[ Cheers and applause ] If she ever --
If she ever turned up -- if she ever turned up
and was nice to her immediate surroundings,
I'd be heartbroken.
[ Laughter ]
-How about Oprah? Is Oprah allowed to be --
-Oh, Oprah. Lifetime pass to Oprah.
Lifetime. I met her. I met her at the Emmys.
-Was she nice? -She was amazing.
-John, look at me. -Oh, she was great.
She was Oprah. -Yeah, yeah.
-So, what happened, I met her backstage.
What had happened was I was onstage at one point
accepting an award, and I was starting to thank my staff,
and so on, and she was in the front row, and I saw her.
Oprah. Like just like ten feet from me,
so I just thanked her, as well. [ Laughter ]
It seemed inappropriate not to.
-Why not? Everyone should thank Oprah.
Yeah. -Yeah, so I left,
and then she came round backstage, and she hugged me.
She hugged me, and it was amazing,
and then I released my part of the hug, and she continued.
[ Laughter ]
So at this point I've gone limp, and she's just holding me,
and she has successfully obtained the power position.
[ Laughter ]
So...
[ Applause ]
She eventually releases me,
but holds my hand and starts walking with me
in the opposite direction that I needed to go in.
[ Laughter ] So I followed her
until the point that it became problematic that I was going
the wrong way, and I said, "Oprah, I'm sorry,
I need to go that way," and she gently released my hand,
and looked to me as if to say, "Be free."
[ Laughter ] -That's the power that she has.
-She is the best. -You are the best.
John Oliver, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ]
"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,"
Sundays at 11:00 p.m. on HBO.
I love you, buddy!
[ Cheers and applause ]
[ Laughter ]
-Lucy Hale is back!
Lucy Hale! Lucy Hale! Lucy Hale!
Lucy Hale is next. Stick around.
[ Cheers and applause ] We'll be right back!