TRIVIA CLUB COMEDY 100: #1 - John Oliver

March 27, 2015



1. John Oliver
Points: 1083
Ballots: 13
Highest Vote: 1st (Russel & Krissy)

HANNAH: I haven’t been on FaceBook in the last 6 months without seeing that someone has posted a Last Week Tonight clip. John Oliver took the Colbert-Stewart conventions and somehow made them new again? Don’t ask me how…I literally have no idea. But he did. So kudos.

John Oliver has had a fabulous year and I think we’re gonna see his popularity rise even more when lost Colbert fans look to fill the void that the end of his show will leave. I’ll be honest I was a little hesitant at first but J.O. won me over this year with his Real pets, fake paws Senate segment and footage that he posted to Youtube. It kills me.


SAM: John Oliver is high on this list because not only is what he's doing on his show completely hilarious, it's also incredibly important. In moving to HBO, Oliver this year created the Daily Show if Jon Stewart were less afraid to be political. Because Oliver makes a point of absolutely being political in an engaging, participatory way. He luxuriates in the extra time HBO gives him to really dig his teeth into the important stories that nobody is talking about.


He exposes hypocrisies, vents his frustrations and encourages others to stand up and do something about the state of the world in a real way. Maybe it is a comedy show, and maybe the kind of hashtag activism Oliver promotes is silly, but the conversations that his show starts are crucial to a younger generation more likely to get their news from him than from a CNN or MSNBC. And unlike Stewart, Oliver seems to know this and relish in it.

RUSSEL:

Hopefully that didn't burn you out on the comedic choices of John Oliver, as seen on Last Week Tonight. I really don't think it's a mistake that Colbert, and now Stewart, are leaving the fake news game for something new. John Oliver RUNS THIS TOWN now!

As I noted in the 2014 Quarterly Awards:
“What can I say about John Oliver that Rolling Stone already hasn't? 
 Wait... what? Yes, the Fake News that Oliver learned at the desk of Jon Stewart and the Daily Show has taken him so far in his first season at HBO, it's put him on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. Don't worry he's made fun of it in the wonderful long form podcast that he does with his best mate across the pond, called The Bugle, but over the summer John Oliver also made fun of the Supreme Court, Food labels, FIFA, and net neutrality, to name just a few. 
 On HBO's Last Week Tonight, John Oliver has taken the familiar format created by the Daily Show and perfected by the Colbert Report and reformed it for the Internet. Making use of HBO's lack of commercials (and therefore commercial sponsors), lax on language, and free reign on its allotted time, he has created the most watched show that so few people have likely watched a full episode of. 
 With the next day delivery of Oliver's long form segments in HD, Last Week Tonight has taken 15 to 20 minutes monologues (more or less) that tackle hard subjects and made them viral videos. Keep up the good word.”

Ladies and gentlemen, our first Trivia Club Comedy 100 has come to an end! It's been a celebrating the best and the funniest. Again, share and talk alike about the entire list! You can talk about it here on the blog, or on our Facebook page and Twitter, as well!

TCC100 #2 - Chris Pratt
TCC100 #3 - Amy Poehler
TCC100 #4 - Louis C.K.
TCC100 #5 - Aziz Ansari
TCC100 #6 to #10
TCC100 #11 to #25
TCC100 #26 to #50
TCC100 #51 to #75
TCC100 #76 to #100

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