Last Week Tonight Episode Review: John Oliver Covers the Field

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As we should expect, the steadily looming election of 2016 dominated John Oliver’s most recent edition of Last Week Tonight and will probably continue to do so until the next show after November 28th. Remember that date, Trump fans. It is very important, and I think you know why.

Part, but a smaller part of the show was about Mr. Trump, with a few odd notes about the ladies who either manage what passes for his campaign or oppose him under the Democratic Party Standard. It was witty, as we might expect, and available for your immediate consideration, below, if you happened not to catch it at airtime.

Most of the show dealt with topics that have received scant notice during this election cycle, by which I mean an in-depth look at the candidates who do not have a chance.

So thorough was the show’s research that they and Oliver found a handful of imagined candidates who are even more out-of-the-picture than the two we know about. That said, he concentrated most of this segment on Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, the former Governor of New Mexico, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, the former folk singer who may have been the single biggest reason why folk music has become so scarce in our modern culture. WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! You will get, not one, but two tastes of her horrible music during her segment. That of course, is not a sufficient resent to dismiss her from consideration, but it certainly does not help her cause.

Ms. Stein was up first, but Mr. Johnson got the longer segment. I am not at all sure he would consider that to be a good thing. In both profiles, the host showed these two contenders’ positions to be highly impractical, to the point where Gary Johnson being the first contestant eliminated in the candidate geography bee, paled into insignificance.

The point Oliver wanted to make (and, in fact, did make) is that voting for either Johnson or Stein may not be as much of a salve to the conscience of those who cannot bring themselves to vote for either major party candidate as they might think. It is important to note that Oliver did not entirely dismiss the idea of the third-party candidate, even though in the past, they have only served to be spoilers. What he was saying was, if you want to run from the fringe, it might be nice if you had the slightest idea what you were doing.

Sources

Last Week Tonight, HBO, October 16, 2016

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Thomas Cleveland Lane

Thomas Cleveland Lane is a semi-retired freelance writer for pay and a stage actor for nothing more than the opportunity to make a fool of himself. Well, he does get a small stipend from the Washington Area Decency League, after playing the role of Hinezie in The Pajama Game, to never, ever appear on stage in his underpants again. When he has not managed to buffalo some director into casting him, Thomas can often be found at his favorite piano bar, annoying the patrons with his caterwauling. Thomas is the author of an anthology called Shaggy Dogs, a Collection of Not-So-Short Stories (destined to become a cult classic, shortly after he croaks). He is also the alter-ego to a very unbalanced Czech poet named Glub Dzmc. Mr. Lane generally resides in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and was last seen in the mirror, three days ago.
Thomas Cleveland Lane
Thomas Cleveland Lane
Thomas Cleveland Lane is a semi-retired freelance writer for pay and a stage actor for nothing more than the opportunity to make a fool of himself. Well, he does get a small stipend from the Washington Area Decency League, after playing the role of Hinezie in The Pajama Game, to never, ever appear on stage in his underpants again. When he has not managed to buffalo some director into casting him, Thomas can often be found at his favorite piano bar, annoying the patrons with his caterwauling. Thomas is the author of an anthology called Shaggy Dogs, a Collection of Not-So-Short Stories (destined to become a cult classic, shortly after he croaks). He is also the alter-ego to a very unbalanced Czech poet named Glub Dzmc. Mr. Lane generally resides in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and was last seen in the mirror, three days ago.