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John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

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Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#61

Post by JazCE »

daveguy wrote: post #23
mhurron wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trevor Noah is too nice though.

He is growing into the role.

is he? It's been a little while since i've watched [his] show, maybe the last one was with Ricky Gervais. I don't have the same urgency, there isn't a bite to the way he presents. I miss watching the correspondents though, Jessica Williams and Jordan Klepper are both awesome and they have been put to use a lot more.

Sam Bee's full frontal and Oliver's Last Week Tonight are now both my staples of american news consumption.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#62

Post by ssmoot »

sergiotapia wrote: post #24

I don't get how an insurance won't cover something. Isn't that the point of Obama forcing you to buy insurance these days?

There's still annual maximums, in-network coverage, PMO, HMO, etc. The minimums can be pretty basic.

It looks like the ACA doesn't really do anything to change the picture for a $474,000 medical bill. The guy got charged $39 each for over 200 glucose checks. That's the price of a new meter for every check.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#63

Post by ColinWright »

Georestricted:

    The uploader has not made this
    video available in your country
Someone else provided a different link:

https://facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=912968418832168&id...

That returns with:

    Sorry, this page isn't available

    The link you followed may be broken,
    or the page may have been removed.
I look forward to the day we finally realise we are out of the transition period between not having the web at all, and the web working properly, with content makers being properly resourced and rewarded. Good job I'll live forever - if I have a normal lifespan I doubt I'd see it.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#64

Post by dannypgh »

dvcc wrote: post #4
zimpenfish wrote: post #2

The baffling thing to me is that this is already discharged debt - "out of statute medical debt from Texas", "medical debt they no longer had to pay" - and how on earth is it legal to try and collect that?

It's still debt, it's not as if the money is not owed it's just debt that has no legal repercussions for not paying. From my understanding at least. So really he saved them from harassing phone calls, not really the money itself.

Except you have the right to tell debt collectors to stop contacting you (sue or get off the pot, essentially) over any given debt, and they face statutory damages if they ignore that.

See paragraph c of https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1692c or https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Debt_Collection_Practic...

IANAL.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#66

Post by bko »

coderdude wrote: post #27
sethbannon wrote: post #18

I'm not aware of any other show that so seamlessly combines rip-roaringly funny comedy with essential insight into the way our society and system of government is deeply flawed. And on top of that, he even manages to direct action to fix the issues he draws attention to -- taking down the FCC website being one example[1]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/03/john-oliv...

It's a good show (he's funny and you learn stuff) but it's way too preachy. He gets just a little too excited about things that are basically impossible for anyone to get excited about. Clearly pandering to the young, left crowd. I'm sure it makes some people feel very warm at night but it gives me a bad taste in my mouth after binge watching.

My main problem with John Oliver is that he often chimes in on subjects he doesn't know anything about with folksy common sense logic that is often wrong. I remember him mocking some system for using tapes for storage on the belief that a technology that is so old cannot possibly be useful in modern technologies. In his latest clip, he mocks information being passed by Excel. How does he think things happen? Some magical global technological system with perfect information and transparency? Perhaps he should try to build such a system.

By critiquing a system that he knows nothing about makes the criticism ring hollow.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#67

Post by EGreg »

dannypgh wrote: post #44
qmr wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't felt urge to watch a single episode with him.

You're proud of the fact you've pre-judged Trevor Noah's performance without watching a single episode?

I think he means that, after watching show X, he wasn't feeling an urge to watch show X+N, for multiple values of X.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#68

Post by Alphasite_ »

onion2k wrote: post #52
coderdude wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good show (he's funny and you learn stuff) but it's way too preachy. He gets just a little too excited about things that are basically impossible for anyone to get excited about. Clearly pandering to the young, left crowd. I'm sure it makes some people feel very warm at night but it gives me a bad taste in my mouth after binge watching.

Clearly pandering to the young, left crowd. John Oliver was on UK television a lot before moving to the US. He was doing the same sort of material back then - left-leaning, political, and insightful. He isn't pandering. He (and his team) is broadcasting what he actually believes.

The US is a lot more right in many regards than the UK, so it likely co Es across as more extreme there.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#69

Post by agildehaus »

rev_null wrote: post #20
sethbannon wrote: post #18

I'm not aware of any other show that so seamlessly combines rip-roaringly funny comedy with essential insight into the way our society and system of government is deeply flawed. And on top of that, he even manages to direct action to fix the issues he draws attention to -- taking down the FCC website being one example[1]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/03/john-oliv...

The only other show that comes to mind is The Daily Show, of which John Oliver is an alumnus.

Last Week Tonight is a direct spinoff of The Daily Show. Oliver took the Comedy Central format and applied HBO to it to rid it of its problems (commercials, crappy celebrity interviews).

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#70

Post by zymhan »

lujim wrote: post #56
Justsignedup wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is very preachy but the problem is that often he talks about highly abused topics. - debt collection - voter identification and voter fraud - abortion clinic laws - trump And he doesn't ever state things as "fact" when it is speculation. He only specifies facts when they are facts. And he never tries to push opinions into sort-of-kind-of factual sounding things like most news sites. How would you talk about a topi…

Not saying I do or don't agree with him, but you don't have to be wrong to be preachy. When you're a comedian you need to be at least 80% funny. If you're 50% funny 50% preachy I'm not going to bother. Southpark use to danced this line pretty successfully.

People used the "You're a comedian so just tell jokes" line against Jon Stewart for years.

There's absolutely no reason someone has to adhere to some arbitrary ratio of comedy to seriousness (edit: or preachiness, etc).

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