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John Oliver vs Russell Crowe

58K views 824 replies 51 participants last post by  astrohip 
#1 ·
Who would have thought Russell Crowe would win?!? :D

(If you didn't watch it, you have to...no description could do it justice. But a while back John Oliver pranked Russell Crowe, and now Russell Crowe has pranked him back so well, John Oliver has declared there's no point in going on and closed down his show...although since there's another episode next week I'm not entirely convinced of his sincerity. I'm sure it will be on YouTube shortly and somebody will post the video.)
 
#681 ·
Re: Last night's episode

When he started on the time share piece I expected to be bored and to basically tune out. But it was pretty interesting. I've never even been drawn in at all by a time share thing. I didn't know about all these companies that also take a lot of money from people trying to get out of time share contracts and that they are also scams.

The following piece with Rachel Dratch I didn't find entertaining, but then she's not a favorite as her characters tend to be creepy-weird for me. Weird is one thing. Creepy-weird - no thanks.
 
#682 ·
Re: Last night's episode

When he started on the time share piece I expected to be bored and to basically tune out. But it was pretty interesting. I've never even been drawn in at all by a time share thing. I didn't know about all these companies that also take a lot of money from people trying to get out of time share contracts and that they are also scams.
It seems odd to me that it is so hard to get out of a bad time share. Seems very shady to me.


I've mentioned this a couple of times before and apparently I'm the only one who cares but this show's canned laughter bugs me. I know that LWT supposedly has a live audience but I've never heard a live audience sound like a canned 1990s sitcom laugh track before. No other late night talk show I watch has fake laughter like this one.
 
#690 ·
Oliver may end up having a new business daddy if Disney sues HBO's pants off.

I can see how solitary confinement is inhumane but I also know there are some really, really, really bad people in prison that practically force prisons to isolate them for everybody else's safety.

I don't know how this show picks its in-depth topics but a lot of them seem to off the beaten path when there are a lot juicier things to talk about.
 
#691 ·
Oliver may end up having a new business daddy if Disney sues HBO's pants off.
That's why I would loive to have heard the lawyer meetings. Because it seemed that he went way too far, but I doubt they would have let him. I wonder what lines he was skirting up against without crossing...
 
#734 ·
No one does. But HOAs have a tendency to attract people who are control freaks or busybodies. Every neighbourhood has at least one person who's somehow into everyone's business or complaining about everything. Those people end up running for HOA boards and before you know it, they have taken over and are imposing their rules on everyone.

If you're living in an HOA that's doing well, appreciate it and make sure you stay vigilant in keeping it that way. It just takes a few people to be complacent and not care during HOA elections to get a busy body elected who wants to remake their neighbourhood in their image.
 
#754 ·
Last night's episode had a strange structure...the main story started right away (on abortion rights), so if you tuned out you missed one of the funniest segments he's ever done, on a bird election in New Zealand. The highlight of which involved a parrot shagging a zoologist's head while Stephen Fry watches, not even trying to stifle his laughter.

A sentence I never thought I'd type.
 
#755 ·
I'm usually one to not like when he does a super serious main story, but I thought that one was well done and spot on. But the bird story had us rolling. Not only the bird shagging, but the bird they chose, the names of some of those birds and the bird calls at the "debate" was hysterical. And of course John's comments about all of the above were awesome.
 
#783 ·
OT but I went to see John Oliver's stand up show on Sunday and he was hilarious 😂
Brooks Whelan (one season SNL cast member) was his opening act and he was funny too! If you have a chance to see John, go!
P.S. John taped his 12/3 show on Saturday night then got on a plane to Indiana. In case you were wondering 🤔
 
#785 ·
OT but I went to see John Oliver's stand up show on Sunday and he was hilarious 😂
Brooks Whelan (one season SNL cast member) was his opening act and he was funny too! If you have a chance to see John, go!
P.S. John taped his 12/3 show on Saturday night then got on a plane to Indiana. In case you were wondering 🤔
Brooks Whelan. Good to hear he is working.
 
#809 ·
Agree, there's no way he takes it. If he did, it would prove to everyone, including his colleagues that all he cares about is the money, and this would be money he doesn't even have to "work" for. The only way he takes it is if he planned on retiring anyway. I'm sure John knows he's not going to take it,but I'm sure if he did, Thomas would find a way to make them look bad and wriggle out of it. I wonder i Ginni is already concocting a scheme to make them look bad?
 
#753 ·
It's the truth about the penal system in America. American attitudes towards convicts is, shall we say, retribution. The whole point of the American penal system is retribution and punishment. Contrast it to say, Europe, who tends to treat convicts as those needing rehabilitation and you can see the differences. Prisons in the US are basically just little concrete rooms where people waste away their days. While those in Europe are more resort like - where even prisoners have access to things like cable TV, Internet and other things. The goal in Europe is not punishment, but rehabilitation to turn the convict back into a productive (tax-paying) member of society.

In the US, it's more like "lock them up, throw away the key". So the nurse is not wrong - very few people care if a convict dies. Even after release, most ex-convicts wear the label for life - ineligble for most jobs (sure, some jobs you won't be able to have, but there's a lot of jobs where you don't care), and you're looked on with disgust, and forget about reform, as most ex-cons can't even vote. It's no wonder recidivism rates are quite high in the US. There is no incentive to turn them into productive members of society that pay their taxes and everything else.

It's the lucky few that get out, manage to find a job and actually want to better themselves in the end. But for the general public - the nurse is right. No one cares if they die. Sh*t happens. The only people who care would the prison CEO who now has one less prisoner they can charge the state for room and board (and thus less profit), and maybe his room mate who has for a few hours a slightly less crowded cell.
 
#768 ·
The only dollar store I know of is Part Of The Problem.

I manage a couple of buildings my father owns that have become a catastrophe after the George Floyd riots. The cops, in a fit of pique, pulled off the streets of Minneapolis (presumably to teach us a lesson about how much we need them). And then they started quitting in droves. So for the past three plus years, there has been very little police presence on the streets, especially in the neighborhood these buildings are in (which used to have a beat patrol, two cops who walked the streets all day every day; they no longer have the manpower to have beat patrols).

As a result, drug dealers have taken over the block alongside one of the buildings, and they have owned it ever since. The day crew isn't so bad...pot dealers, pretty mellow, my caretaker knows them by now and gets along with them fairly well. But the night crew is hard-drugs dealers from competing gang, so they are loud, abusive, and there is gunfire, sometimes daily for months on end. Obviously, it is difficult to keep tenants under these circumstances, and the buildings are down to under 60% vacancies and falling. We're losing a fortune there, and the buildings are about to drive us out of business. About a year ago the cops started showing some interest, raiding the block a couple of times and occasionally parking a squad car there. But the dealers just scatter like roaches, and when the cops leave, the dealers come back.

The dollar store comes into the picture because there's one at the other end of the block, and the drug dealers have in effect taken it over. The sidewalk in front of its entrance is their headquarters, and they are now the store's only customers. The neighborhood has been trying to get it shut down, but unfortunately the Minneapolis City Council hates the police, and is convinced the only way to solve the crime issue is by getting rid of the cops altogether. In fact just this week they voted down a proposal by the mayor to fund retention and signing bonuses to bolster the police force (which is currently at barely half strength).

Forgive my rambling, but my father died last night and I haven't gotten much sleep. I guess the only good thing to come out of that is that now my brother and I can sell the buildings. Dad couldn't (or wouldn't) for tax reasons; he technically got the buildings for free when the person he sold them to in the 80s defaulted, so he would have to pay capital gains taxes on the full sale price, whereas we will only have to pay based on their value as of today...and given the crime situation in the neighborhood, we won't be able to get anywhere near the buildings' assessed value.
 
#3 ·
One of the better episodes. Having known all about Giuliani's past, none of it surprises me. He's the perfect example of a guy who was in the right place at the right time (9/11) and it made him a celebrity of sorts.

The Russell Crowe stuff was great. And JO just loved it, you could tell.
 
#6 ·
I loved the bit in last night's episode. But I'm not sure I'd say what John Oliver did that led up to this would be considered a "prank" on Russell Crowe. Crowe was selling memorabilia in an auction, LWT bought it and donated it to one of the last operating Blockbuster stores. Doesn't seem like a prank to me. Just something silly like giving the massive train set to Scranton, PA.
 
#7 ·
It wasn't a prank- at least not at the same level as the Catheter Cowboy ads or the Marlon Bundo book. A Russell Crowe jockstrap begs to be made fun of and Oliver was obliging.
 
#8 ·
... closed down his show...although since there's another episode next week I'm not entirely convinced of his sincerity.
I worried for a moment. I mean, not the Koala thing, but I can imagine him ending the show in just such a way, whenever it does end. Maybe even with more episodes listed on the schedule, just to throw us off.

(But he didn't say "And this is real"...)
 
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