John Oliver on Winning All the Emmys, Strike Force Five Podcast & Promising His Kids Pokémon Cards

Our first guest tonight is one of the funniest people on television. Last night he won his 499th and 500th Emmy Awards for her work on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, which returns Sunday, February 18 to HBO and Max, please welcome to John Oliver. I'm sitting on the strong beat oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, let's agree to disagree. I heard you backstage while reading the promos during commercial breaks. I'll read the promotions for the local affiliates and you're just laughing hysterically because there are a thousand of them. the patio staircase in your eyes just the complete emotional death of hello Gwen in Philadelphia, there is the hole of coming here tonight, it was worth it just to witness that emotional implosion, Barry in San Antonio, he's a good guy, Barry in San Antonio, yes, him.

Looks like he'll eventually make his way to Los Angeles, sure, and thanks by the way for helping K with his new business. He was very kind, of course. What I look forward to most is every year. Watching kmo and having the chaos because there's so much nonsense against the haters, so many people saying things they don't mean, like what you know, we love the show you go through and just having GMOs was a palette cleanser in the end, look . he looks you in the eyes and you say "I feel at home" to me, he exactly meant it last night, he means it even more now, but congratulations on the Emy, thank you, you are first of all, yes, you are just great, I want I mean, what you do is incredibly amazing. and I want you to know something.

I want to tell you something. I think you kind of have a hint of this, but oh yeah, I'm already in the corset position. Yes, if you had any idea how much. us and when I say we I mean the network talk show hosts and you know who I'm talking about all our friends complain about you being in our category because you like it I don't know 12 shows a year half an hour each is a lot more that's more than that I know I'm exaggerating and we think this is crazy it's not fair why we're in the category with him and then they kicked you out of our category guess what we all lost again yeah Oh it hurt a lot more when except when I was there there was an excuse and everyone could think they were in second place.

I know that's the point. Oh, it's not one away. I'm only one away. It was a healthier situation. I swear to god. I was washing the dishes this morning and I had that same thought, you know, if they released the rankings, if it was like the Olympics and you knew you didn't even get bronze, that would be a terrible thing, yeah, I think we made a terrible mistake. Yeah, I think it was much better to have me there as the villain to blame. Realize that you have to face your own mistakes. Do the people at HBO appreciate you and your show and what you do?

I think I'm very grateful that he won the emm CU. I think the Emmys are the only thing stopping them from getting rid of us, so at least every year at the Academy it gets harder for them to do it because every time they say congratulations, they do it through gritted teeth. in one more year I'll put the sword back in my sheet you say it jokingly but I know there's definitely something oh there's definitely some truth in that there's some real truth there yes I think I think there's a part of them that I would like us to leave because, but they can't, because golden things and people love the show and it's important for its credibility to keep you around and yet you bite the hand that feeds you very, very regularly, you know?

You know as well as I do that there is no hand tastier than the feet. I am like a dog that misbehaves. I'll take the treat but I'll also remove your nails. Hey, the lawyer? Have something? Is there a team? of attorneys specifically assigned to your program yes, definitely, yes, yes, and how often you meet with them. I mean, they, we, we, we interact with each other, we don't meet in the same place. I don't think that's safe, okay, but. Yeah, in the week leading up to the story, so we've been working on it for a month, we tell them what they're doing and there's usually a deep sigh on the other end of the phone.

Can you hear, oh, what are you? I'll say about Bezos, that's interesting, so you wait until the week before the show before you reveal it and then they have to figure things out. I think the tension between us comes from I think we have two different opinions on what they are. I think their job is to keep us from getting sued and I think their job is to make sure that when we get sued we win and the distance between those two things is where the fight is and also just on a human level there is no incentive for them to say that yeah, go ahead and do it because they're not up there getting emys, in fact you have a lot of emies, maybe throw those guys some, you know, some trophies to get them excited, I think the lawyers.

They are already adequately rewarded in this country. I think the last thing lawyers need is more encouragement to litigate to the death in this country. Do they ever do it? They laugh at these as zooms or whatever they have. No, no, no, there is more. I'm not trying to make lawyers laugh. I'm trying to bring them to a point of acceptance. Understand the things that cannot be changed and live with that. We'll take a break when we get back from break. I want to talk to them. about this

podcast

we did together during the

strike

and some of the things I learned about you during that time because we didn't know each other very well and I feel like we know each other a lot better now, John.

Oliver was with us last week tonight we'll be back whenever we come back with John Oliver Daniel Brooks and P Earner on the road John um about the

strike

we uh and when I say we I mean you, me Jimmy Fallon Stephen coar Seth Meers we made it a

podcast

we did together called Strike Force 5 Mike is in there somewhere, Seth Myers died inside, that's right. Seth hated the lightning or thunder sound effect so much and yet I think he somehow came to love the one I think he would have done. He was lost if he was gone, although I think he would go to his grave saying no, it was better without him.

I don't agree, but did you hesitate to do this? Oh, sure, yeah, because it sounds like a terrible idea. Five verbal steamrollers just crashing into each other. Otherwise he feels fine, this isn't going to go well, but it ended up being a lot of fun getting to know each other more. It took us a few episodes to figure it all out, but eventually each of us became different. character and then it became funny and then towards the end it started to get tense and it feels like we were one more show away from getting into a fight and I think that, in many ways, is the tragedy that the attack without rights finished when it did.

Another week and you might have seen something. There was also an episode where we invited Conan to be on the podcast with us and then we forgot to tell him to call the podcast and then he wasn't on the podcast. I know exactly and then. that could have been on the podcast and then basically Matt Damon took it down so oh yeah that's right well you're in good company I gotta say okay so what I learned about you was something I didn't I expected at all. You have a very youthful sense of humor, it's to the point because you do these shows and you really delve into these topics that most of us know nothing about and it never even occurred to us to know anything about these things and yet there was a moment . where the

five

of us are on Zoom looking at each other and you're laughing so hard your face isn't even on the zoom screen anymore.

All I see is your feet sticking out, you're like laughing so hard you're upside down. Yeah, it was like a complete Muppet reaction, like suddenly Kermit's feet went up again and then C went back up. Yes, I really was. I have to say that I fell in love with you, of course. I love any kind of moment of silliness or awkwardness that ever existed. There, yeah, that's why last night I was so inclined to beat him as soon as I realized that Anthony's mom was going to yell at you if you took too long, I thought, well, I'm definitely going to take too long because I want to get yelled at. those who didn't see it, Anthony Anderson's mom was in the audience at the Emmys, you know everyone was watching the football game so they missed everything last night and their job was to yell at people for going on too long, it's really cool.

Poll for the Academy there, if no one in this audience wants the haters, I mean no one, it could have just been a theatrical event of life, it's coming, it's going in that direction, but you always go until they tell you that you have to get off true, yes, because the best moment is the moment of awkwardness, yes, if there is a program, you know perfectly well, if there is something so polished, what you want is just a moment of genuine chaos, so as soon as I realized that she could, she would yell at you if you talk too much.

I don't know what I'm going to do with this speech. What I do know is that I will end up yelling at myself for one of the things you mentioned in the speech. that you promised your children a gift earlier uh oh yes yes you were going to go home but you had to bring home a gift how old are the children? They're

five

and eight five and 8 years old and you promised them yeah I left them yesterday when they were really sad when I left and he said can you bring me back a Pokémon card?

I'll totally do it and then it's gone. I don't know any place to get Pokémon

cards

in Los Angeles, so I was just join in, I thought, well, there's a big group of people here, maybe someone here knows. Did anyone say yes to you? A guy at the Governor's Ball said I have a Pokémon card for you and pulled out a single card. He pulled out the back of his phone and said here it is, yes, it was amazing and it touched me so much that I hugged him and then he disappeared into the crowd.

So I didn't realize to say why it's an adult who carries around a single Pokémon card. I guess, anticipating that one day I might fulfill someone's dream, does this fill the void in your life? Actually, yes, thank you very much. You can't have one you can't bring. at home a Pokémon card that would be a problem for you, right? I mean, you have two

kids

, yeah, so they each get half a Pokémon. We'll get you some. I don't know how you're going to achieve this. the carry-on, but we got you some pokem like, oh my gosh, you know, like the show O, here they are, um, they're going to learn all the wrong lessons for this and this is a fascinating look at commercial television.

If you just say something to the camera, does it materialize in front of you? I can't tell you how much I love the good people at Omega watches. I promised my 5 year old son on the front line watch. I guess someone backstage says "well." Here you go boy, will you, you can put that down. I won't be offended at all. You will start again on February 18. Yeah, does an election year make it more fun for you or considering everything that's going on? less I think, considering everything that's going on, significantly less, significantly less and sometimes, you know, normally America likes to put on a real circus show for a year, but we all know who these two men are, so it does not seem.

It needs to consume every moment of oxygen in the American media for the next 11 months, but I'm sure it will and it still will, yes, it will, yes, we can't help ourselves, yes, yes, you, do you? Do you ever accept a request like As for the topic, the topics it covers because I have a request, if you would be so kind. I wish I could and maybe this is it. Maybe wait until after the election. I know it might be, um, looking for adult coloring books. You know that they are? Have you seen them? I do What pot of gold do you think is at the end of that rainbow?

You do not know. I'm not thinking about the content from your point of view. I just want them to go away. I just see, so it's not the story, it's not if they exist, but how they can be gone forever, yes, yes, they exist. I want to know why and I want to find out how we can stop it. Not all books are positive, you know what? What I'm saying is I think we've learned that if we've learned anything from Governor D Santis it's that we have to draw the line somewhere, that's Jimmy Kimel's assurance that not every book is a positive child that your parents They are lying to you. you, you and one of our colleagues from Strike Force 5, yes, I am very disappointed in myself for being surprised by the fact that Seth Meyers is doing a monthly show together, every month we are doing a residency at the Beacon, you know Adele in Las Vegas, but it's not like you do it on a Sunday night on a Sunday night once a month, so you'll do your show, you'll run there and you'll do another show, yeah, yeah, exactly and then just get up together and then just play, it's very, very fun, it's great to have you here.

I appreciate you making time to stay the extra day. John Oliver Last Week Tonight with John Oliver returns Sunday February 18 HB on Max, we'll be right. Back with Danielle Brook he