Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: PACE Loans

June 21, 2021 5:42 PM - Season 8, Episode 16

Another entry from the void. Biden holds a summit with that notorious jokester, Vladimir Putin. Japan is set to host the Olympics in 2021, making up for their not being held in 2020, but still against the advice of many considering their vaccination rate is just 6%. Shown is a Japanese condom commercial with an anime styling. And Now: Please Enjoy Some Better Names For The Dogs From This Year's Westminster Dog Show. Main Story (22m): PACE loans, intended as a way for people to cheaply renovate houses for energy savings, are sometimes handed out by predatory contractors to people unaware of their costs and consequences, resulting in them losing their homes. And Now: The Winner Of Best In Show At The Westminster Dog Show Breaks Newscasters' Brains.

F.37: "Replyallus Maximus," HBO MAX EMAIL

posted by JHarris (4 comments total)

I follow Jill Twiss, one of the LWT writers, on twitter, and renaming the dog show entrants is one of my favorite of her bits. Her twitter thread had much better names than the ones that made the show.

I don't know if it's my pandemic fatigue or the show's, maybe both, but I feel like the depressing to funny ratio has been out of whack for me for most of this year. This info on the PACE program is the kind of wonky, informative stuff they do best, but it still just left me sad and not much of anything else.
posted by the primroses were over at 1:10 PM on June 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

To not abuse the edit window - I completely forgot about the absolutely bonkers Japanese condom commercial even though I watched this episode last night. This leads me to suspect the problem is with me, and not the show. They are still bringing the bizarre commercials as strong as ever.
posted by the primroses were over at 1:15 PM on June 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

"Priority lien."

Fuck regulatory capture and capital influence on legislation.
posted by porpoise at 12:40 AM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]

I think it's just that funny has been relatively steady while depressing is in a boom time.
posted by Marticus at 4:56 PM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]