When we last saw John Oliver behind the desk of “Last Week Tonight,” he was mocking Trump for sacrificing a number of members of his senior staff on a decoy plane amidst his peculiar catering truck escape in Turkey.
On Sunday night, the funnyman returned to his Emmy-winning HBO series after a monthlong summer break and aimed his ire at a variety of targets, from Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) getting loudly booed during an appearance on ESPN’s “College GameDay” in Austin, Texas, to UnitedHealthcare’s notorious history of denying health claims in advance of Luigi Mangione’s December sentencing for killing its CEO Brian Thompson.
Oliver was discussing UnitedHealthcare denial of Kate Weissman’s cancer treatments, forcing her parents to spend $95,000 for the treatments out-of-pocket (she’s now cancer-free), when he took a swipe at David Ellison (and his father Larry). The younger Ellison is, of course, the CEO of Paramount Skydance, whose $110.9 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — the parent company of HBO, which controls Oliver’s show “Last Week Tonight” — is making its way through the courts.
“Having access to wealthy parents just cannot be the system to get badly-needed health care — even if it is apparently the system that lets you be in charge of HBO,” cracked Oliver.
The comedian then aired a photo of David and Larry Ellison.
“Yeah. My soon-to-be business daddy has a literal business daddy,” said Oliver. “And to be very clear: I deeply respect that and I would never make fun of you for it, unlike that pesky Stephen Colbert.”
Oliver recently renewed his “Last Week Tonight” contract through 2027 in advance of the Ellisons’ probable acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.