Maybe John Oliver didn’t mention Donald Trump during every episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight over the past four years, but it felt like he did. Can you blame him? Trump dominated the news cycle in a way few others ever have, but now that the former-president has permanently left D.C. for Mar-a-Lago, Oliver is ready to cover other topics.
And boy is he relieved (he’s not the only one).
“It’s a complete myth and it’s kind of genuinely insulting,” Oliver told the Washington Post about the false belief that Trump was good for comedy. “Wow, how little do you think of me? Because partly it comes from, ‘Oh, it must’ve written itself.’ Really? You f*cking think that? You try injecting poison into your body every week and get a joke out the other side that Twitter hasn’t already come up with. The happiest I was at the end of last year was we finished our final show and started working on our new list of shows. And it was great to be able to think about wonky stories.” Finally, more time to obsess over Adam Driver.
Oliver also teased what his show plans to cover this season:
“The long gestating problems this virus has shone a spotlight on that have been ignored for a long time. Human history has shown we’re pretty adept at choosing to forget about them again as soon as it’s convenient. So I think the virus will be an interesting hook into some interesting stories this year.”
Last Week Tonight returns to HBO this Sunday, February 14.
(Via the Washington Post)
