What do you call a man who has won 19 Emmys, nine Producers Guild Awards, seven WGA Awards, three Peabody Awards, a Grammy, and whose political satire has influenced American legislatures? Certainly not "just a comedian." John Oliver is all of those things and more.
Hospice: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
The state of American politics over the last few years has left many feeling like we’re trapped in a bad TV show, where the twists are so crazy it’s hard to believe they’re real. While that might be a gift of endless material for comedians, Oliver sees it quite differently.
"It's not necessarily a gift that you want, honestly," says the executive producer and host of "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver," which has six Emmy nominations. "Technically it is a gift, but it's not a great gift. I think the tendency is often to think that it writes itself. I promise you, it doesn't. Everything is so fast these days, you can find jokes online very quickly on the first try, so you don't have to write the most obvious joke to make something surprising. And things are very bleak," he adds. "When you're writing jokes, you want to try to deal with that bleakness, which is not some kind of fumbling around while Rome burns."
The British import first reached American homes in 2006 as a correspondent for "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart." There, his smart, funny, biting but always fiercely passionate commentary on government opened eyes that had previously been closed and he's credited with inspiring lawmakers to enact change, or as Time magazine called it, "the John Oliver Effect." The idea makes him laugh. "I think [the John Oliver Effect] can mean different things to different people. I think for some people, that 'effect' is being depressed."
