John Oliver and Elon Musk have been trading remarks lately, and now John is responding.
Elon called John “woke” and labeled him “weak sauce,” perhaps because John talked about him on his show last month. Elon’s criticism followed an article that also criticized John’s ‘Last Week Tonight’ segment, where he delved deep into Elon’s matters.
Elon mentioned he doesn’t find John as funny anymore because John leans towards “wokeness,” which Elon believes isn’t true. Elon thinks good humor should reveal the truth. Now, John is addressing Elon’s comments, especially the “woke” accusation Elon frequently uses. When we chatted with John at LAX, he didn’t seem bothered by what Elon might think of him.
John is sure about one thing – Elon is quite sensitive. However, when it comes to Elon’s “woke” argument, John says he can’t understand what Elon is trying to say. John isn’t even sure if Elon understands his own point!
When asked if the feud would continue, John gave a witty response. To us, it seems to contradict Elon’s views on humor.
John Oliver took aim at Elon Musk
In a recent episode of his HBO show on October 18, John Oliver talked about Elon Musk, making fun of Musk’s shift towards right-leaning politics and his habit of posting controversial things on social media. In the show, Oliver brought up Musk’s notable moments from the year, like launching powerful rockets and recalling 2 million cars due to safety issues.
Oliver specifically criticized Musk for posting something that many people saw as antisemitic and for boldly responding to companies that stopped advertising on a platform he was associated with.
Musk’s management of the platform formerly known as Twitter also came under scrutiny, with Oliver calling it a series of mishaps, including Musk agreeing with an antisemitic post and joking with sponsors who were leaving.
Continuing his criticism, Oliver talked about Musk’s behavior, comparing his response to losing advertisers to a rich person saying, “You’re not breaking up with me; I’m breaking up with you.” Oliver also made jokes about Musk’s fashion choices during these events, saying it seemed like he was wearing clothes from Ralph Lauren’s midlife crisis collection.
John Oliver compared Elon Musk to famous people from the past like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Steve Jobs. But there’s a big difference, according to Oliver – Musk allows everyone to see what’s going on inside his mind all the time.
‘Last Week Tonight’ pulls off Emmy win after switching categories
At this year’s Emmy Awards, Saturday Night Live and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, both with impressive winning streaks, competed in a new category. Last Week Tonight won in the freshly created scripted variety series category, ending SNL’s six-year streak.
This change happened because of a rule adjustment that grouped Last Week Tonight with sketch comedy shows SNL and A Black Lady Sketch Show. It moved Last Week Tonight away from the talk show category it usually dominated. The Television Academy recognized its differences from programs like Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, CBS’ Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers.
Despite the shift, Last Week Tonight still won an Outstanding Series Emmy for the eighth consecutive year. During his speech, John Oliver thanked the show’s staff and jokingly acknowledged their lawyers, who always seemed displeased.
To add some fun to the awards, Oliver did a “play-off mama” bit, filling the rest of his speech with names of Liverpool FC players. Anthony Anderson’s mom, Doris, stepped in, indicating Oliver’s time was up. Following Anderson’s instructions, Oliver closed his speech with, “Thank you to Jesus and my family.”
According to the TV Academy rules, scripted variety series are shows that are mostly scripted or include loosely scripted improvisation, with scenes, musical numbers, monologues, comedy stand-ups, sketches, and more.
This is different from a variety talk series, mainly composed of host-guest interviews. Notably, Last Week Tonight airs weekly, setting it apart from four of the five variety talk series in contention.
More about John Oliver
John Oliver is a funny guy who does a lot of things – he’s British and American. He started making people laugh by doing stand-up comedy in the UK. Later, he got noticed in the US when he worked as the Senior British Correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 2006 to 2013.
Oliver won three awards for writing on The Daily Show, and in 2013, he even hosted the show for eight weeks. He also did a comedy podcast called The Bugle with Andy Zaltzman, his pal from the radio series Political Animal. Between 2010 and 2013, Oliver had his own stand-up show called John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show on Comedy Central.
