John Oliver, Daily Show’s fill-in host, provides hard, juicy satire in hot seat debut
JOHN OLIVER, the British comedian who has taken over, temporarily, as host of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, has earned rave reviews for his first appearance.
Birmingham-born Oliver, 36, lives in New York and has been a correspondent on The Daily Show for seven years. He is sitting in for Stewart for the next three months while the American directs his first movie.
Some commentators had wondered if Oliver was “too nice” to fill the seat occupied by one of American TV’s most acerbic commentators. But the Briton took just “90 seconds” to find his stride on Monday night’s show, according to Wrap TV.
Referring to revelations that the NSA was monitoring the phone and internet activity of millions of Americans, he said the US government was building a new facility to house “five zetabytes” of information.
“Zetabytes? You’ve got to be careful of those. I think that’s how Michael Douglas got throat cancer,” said Oliver, as a picture of the actor and his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones appeared.
The joke was “pure Daily Show: silly, smart, a little risque, perfect”, writes The Wrap’s Tim Molloy. Oliver was off to a perfect start.
The Times’ Tim Teeman says Oliver’s interview with his guest, the Hollywood actor Seth Rogen, was a “fluffy dud” that is best forgotten. But the Englishman’s scripted satire “bit hard and juicily”. It was a reminder, Teeman says, that “the English do pointed, comic outrage with a particular élan”.
Oliver made the most of his Englishness and his relative obscurity. He apologised to his audience for not being Jon Stewart and offered a “florid side-dish of self-negation” for having the temerity to occupy the American’s seat.
Of course, Oliver’s “I’m really rubbish” shtick disguised the sharp comedic skills he honed initially as a member of the Cambridge Footlights.
“Let’s allow him one introductory night of playing the apologetic impostor but hope he subsequently occupies the host’s chair with more confidence,” writes Teeman.
