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

Post by nacs » Mon, Jun 06, 2016, 3:41 PM UTC

lujim wrote: post #150

scrollaway wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus. The guy creates and hosts a weekly political comedy show, researches topics, has a network spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on those topics, and you think it's a fair comparison to someone whose activism extends to "clicking the Like button on facebook". And you're the one calling his attitude "holier than thou".

Ok slow down there. They don't SPEND hundreds of thousands on those topics, they MAKE hundreds of thousands on those topics. Comedy Central/Viacom is not UNICEF and John Oliver is not a career humanitarian. They entertain people. When that is too hard they just pander to the most prominent demographic to gain viewership because that's how they generate revenue.

Post by lujim » Mon, Jun 06, 2016, 3:43 PM UTC

scrollaway wrote: post #184

lujim wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok slow down there. They don't SPEND hundreds of thousands on those topics, they MAKE hundreds of thousands on those topics. Comedy Central/Viacom is not UNICEF and John Oliver is not a career humanitarian. They entertain people. When that is too hard they just pander to the most prominent demographic to gain viewership because that's how they generate revenue.

You're under the impression that all that matters is the final number. They're still spending that money, regardless of whether they make it all back. Let's say I win some lottery and I MAKE $100k. I decide to SPEND $90k of that by giving it to charity. My gesture doesn't count because I'm still in the net positive by your logic. Yes, he runs a profitable show. Nobody said he's a career humanitarian. But you said, qu…

Post by marxidad » Mon, Jun 06, 2016, 3:45 PM UTC

bko wrote: post #66

coderdude wrote: post #27

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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 mag…

Post by cataphract » Mon, Jun 06, 2016, 3:45 PM UTC

selimthegrim wrote: post #110

lujim wrote: post #86

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John was smart, likable, and funny. Even my most vocal right wing buddy watched him because he was informative and entertaining. Stewart was quick on his feet and could out think anyone Fox news could pit against him. Colbert was Stewart on steroids in a verbal battle of wits and watching him repeatedly dismantle Bill O'Riley and President Bush made my jaw drop. No one has to adhere to an arbitrary ratio of anything…

John Yoo pwned Stewart when he had him on. And what about the infamous "How are you holding up?" interview with Kerry?

Post by nacs » Mon, Jun 06, 2016, 3:47 PM UTC

tlrobinson wrote: post #148

evolve2k wrote: post #134

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Umm isn't that sort of the whole point.

It's not at all obvious how much they actually paid, and comparing it to Oprah's $8M car giveaway is certainly dramatic but pretty disingenuous. It's unlikely the debtors would have ever ended up repaying anything close to $15M (in fact, presumably closer to $60K)