Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
In August 2017, it’s hard to make the news funny. It is a real challenge, one that late night hosts are struggling with every day, some better than others. Hell, even Tina Fey couldn’t eat a cake and declare all Nazis bad without getting blowback from the internet.
So for a show like Last Week Tonight, which aims to inform its audience just as much as it hopes to make them laugh, well, things have probably seemed a bit grim lately. But there’s been a teeny tiny adjustment the show has made that is proving to be absolutely essential for it to remain a watchable comedy program and not just another depressing news dump.
This summer, the show began to mix it up during the “And Now, This” segments to positive results. That’s simply because the brief bites are about as positive as it gets. For instance, this gardening expert, who is as jubilant as they come:
Or this clip from Robocup 2017:
Yes, those are robots playing soccer! Seeing, and hearing, that there are still people on this Earth who are able to find joy and happiness in everyday activities is a lovely reminder that whatever news the show is about to present to you next, everything just might be ok.
While the segment is usually reserved for a compilation of a news anchor (or many) saying asinine comments, taking a step back from directly making fun of the media is a smart move. While nearly everything on TV gets labeled as “fake news,” a pivot towards what is surely real news (gardening, soccer playing robots, etc.) is something everyone can agree on. Plus, we spend enough time looking at the faces of news anchors these days. We know what they look like, and for the most part, we know what they’re saying.
Oliver starts his show with the pressing news of the week, aka, the latest “Can you believe it?” news from Trump, and squeezes in an “And Now, This” segment right before moving on to his large piece of the night, which lately has tackled North Korea, the Border Patrol, vaccines, and coal. Not necessarily fluff pieces, is all. So by adding a light-hearted break in between, and ensuring the audience gets a bit of comic relief, it makes the bleak, heavier, info-packed bits that much more tolerable and even effective.
Last Week Tonight will continue to be the most comprehensive comedy program on the air, as the research and reporting that go into the segments are unmatched, continuing to be some of the most thorough examinations of today’s most important issues available on any platform. But the fact that they know to insert a necessary smile and a little laugh in between depressing fact after depressing fact is what truly makes this show stand out and remain as important as it is.
