Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Draining the Swamp

November 12, 2018 12:05 AM - Season 5, Episode 29

This week (yes, a timely LWT post!):

• The Republicans lose the US House of Representatives, an act which Trump actually said was "close to a complete victory" for him. Also, businessman Danny Darkanian loses his sixth straight election in Nevada, annoying his wife greatly. And three states voted to expand Medicaid, Flordia voted to restore voting rights to felons, and Utah voted to legalize medical marihuana.
• Update in Stupid Watergate: Trump fires Jeff Sessions and replaces him, as acting head of the Justice Department, with Matthew Whitaker, a man known for many stupid things, foremost among them serving as an advisor to a company that had to pay out a $25M judgement for scamming inventors.
• And Now: Steve Bannon's Election Night Coverage Went Just Great
• Main Story: Donald Trump (again), and his campaign promise to "drain the swamp." A noble sentiment, but, predictably, absolutely the opposite of what he's doing. Here's the piece on YouTube.
• And Now: Monday Night Football's Graphics Are Officially Out Of Hand
• Finally, an epidemic of unnotified promotion of products by influencers on social media has been going on, including DJ Khaled hawking alcohol to millions of followers. To help illustrate, LWT reveals something they've been doing (not been getting paid for it, but doing it anyway) concerning Scientology....

Notable moment:
John Oliver wearing a pair of "Supreme Diva Jeans," butt-enhancing pants, which he seemed to take just a little too much relish in wearing. Later, he showed off a pair of yoga pants worn over those jeans.

F. 37: "C," WWI ARMISTICE

posted by JHarris (5 comments total)

Glad to see Oliver and Minhaj take on the corruption in the US oil industry in the same week
posted by eustatic at 6:17 AM on November 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

Come on, John. Do a real piece on the church of Scientology, I'm begging you.
posted by Pendragon at 3:19 PM on November 12, 2018

Not draining the swamp is weird. You'd think that if there's one part of the job that Trump could do, it's destroying wetlands.
posted by ckape at 4:53 PM on November 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

The thing about the Monday Night Football graphics is that they're mostly showing activities that are more interesting than football, like Skee-Ball, bicycling, and... I think that was turning into bees?
posted by asperity at 5:56 PM on November 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

The last bit was a references to that Avengers movie where The Great Grape Ape Thanos snapped his fingers an disintegrated people, I think. A weird thing for popular culture to gravitate toward maybe, but at least it's not Batman's Bat Nipples (my go-to yardstick for horrible pop culture things).
posted by JHarris at 2:38 AM on November 13, 2018 [3 favorites]