Puppeteers on the set of the May 2017 appearance.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is a comedy news program that airs on HBO. The half-hour show premiered on April 27, 2014, and is hosted by comedian John Oliver. Last Week Tonight shares some similarities with Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where Oliver was previously featured as a correspondent and fill-in host, as it takes a satirical look at news, politics and current events, but on a weekly basis.
"Mupfront" demo from The Muppets Take the Bowl
References[]
- In a segment of The Muppets Take the Bowl, Kermit the Frog presents a series of "Mupfront" demos of series they've been working on, presented as a Netflix queue. One of the titles passed by is a Beaker vehicle, entitled "Last Meep Tonight."
- In episode 111 of The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo, Grover tries finding his way to the stage. He instead winds up on the Last Week Tonight set and briefly interacts with Oliver. In episode 113, Grover again mistakenly returns to Oliver's set, this time as an usher trying to bring Mr. Johnson to his seat.
- Oliver appears with Big Bird in the 2021 Sesame Workshop Benefit Gala in a feature modeled after his show's "And Now This" segment.
Muppet Appearances[]
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September 2, 2014 A web-exclusive video was produced and released on the show's official YouTube channel to promote "W-ORD Channel 7 News With John Oliver & Cookie Monster," a video distributed by Mashable in support of Sesame Workshop's "Words Are Here, There, and Everywhere" initiative. (YouTube) (YouTube) |
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April 17, 2016 Elmo, Rosita and Oscar the Grouch (performed by Eric Jacobson) appeared in a piece about lead, wherein the 1996 resource video Lead Away! was referenced. (YouTube) |
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May 21, 2017 The episode concludes with an appearance by four Sesame Street penguins (performed by Pam Arciero, John Kennedy, Stephanie D'Abruzzo and Tyler Bunch). A clip of them from Leslie Feist's "1234" parody is used earlier in an abridged 3 minute segment on the TSA, which John Oliver assures would have been funny in context. |
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November 12, 2017 The Sesame Street penguins return for the season finale (performed by Ryan Dillon, Frankie Cordero, Peter Linz and Carmen Osbahr). |
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August 1, 2021 Kermit the Frog makes a brief appearance, after George Clooney (accidentally summoned by John Oliver in a running gag of the season) claims in a disgruntled manner "You know, I got the power to just clap my hands and summon Kermit the Frog, anytime I want. Do you think I use it? No, I do not. Because I respect Kermit!" Pressed by Oliver to "Do it now, please!" the frog appears amid a banjo-strum. Kermit exclaims "This better be good, George!" and Clooney replies "It's not!", to which Kermit claps his hands and disappears again. Notable for the appearance, since Kermit is Disney-owned, and his appearance would've been greenlit by the company, is the fact that Oliver showed a Last Week Tonight-produced animation of Mickey Mouse having sexual intercourse with Goofy just a bit earlier in the very same segment, and once more at the very end. (YouTube) |
Muppet Mentions[]
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June 20, 2014 A segment on the United States prison system included a clip of Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration. Oliver commented on the initiative stating: "Just think about that, we now need adorable singing puppets to explain prison to children, in the same way that they explain the number 7, or what the moon is." (YouTube) The segment culminated with a Sesame Street parody featuring a song about the prison system's flaws. The puppeteers featured included Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Noel MacNeal, and James Wojtal. On the show's first season finale, Oliver looked back on the best moments of the season, including the "Prisons" segment. The characters from that segment returned to say goodbye, while also claiming that Jimmy Fallon works harder. The original three puppeteers were credited, as well as Haley Jenkins, Paul McGinnis and Michael Schupbach. | ||
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June 29, 2014 In a segment about LGBT rights in Uganda, Oliver plays a song written by a religious group in an attempt to "take back" the symbol of the rainbow from the LGBT community. After playing the song, Oliver commented that "if Kermit ever heard that song, he would immediately insist on one fewer 'songs about rainbows'." (YouTube) | ||
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November 9, 2014 Oliver presented a segment about state lotteries, calling them "the second best use of magic marker on ping-pong balls after Kermit the Frog's eyes." (YouTube) | ||
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July 26, 2015 In a segment on mandatory minimums, Oliver showed a clip of Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue featuring the Muppet Babies; Oliver commented on the clip calling it a "loud and clear message to kids" that "if you do drugs, all of your favorite cartoon characters will show up and talk to you." (YouTube) | ||
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September 13, 2015 In a segment on public defenders, Oliver stated: "A study in New Orleans, a few years back, found that the city had some part-time defenders who could only spend an average of seven minutes per case. And that is not long enough to prepare anything. If I only had seven minutes to prepare this show, I definitely would not be talking about public defenders right now. I'd be desperately trying to fill time by listing the Muppets in order of fuckability. And I'll do it now: Fozzie first, obviously. Obviously, you go Fozzie first; most attractive thing is a sense of humor. Then you got to go Rowlf, you've got to go Rowlf. Then, you know what? I'm going Swedish Chef. And I'm finishing up with Sam the Eagle, 'cause you know, he's into some freaky business. Freaky." (YouTube) | ||
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November 22, 2015 In a segment on pennies, Oliver commented: "pennies don't circulate, and yet the penny hangs around for no reason like the appendix or the new Muppets TV show. How is this still on? And how did someone somewhere think 'you know what the problem with the Muppets is? Kermit doesn't fuck enough pigs. Let's have him fuck a different pig! Let's do that.'" A picture of Kermit, Miss Piggy and Denise is shown. (YouTube) | ||
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May 10, 2016 In a segment on scientific studies, Oliver mentions Al Pacino while showing an image of Beaker. (YouTube) | ||
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June 19, 2016 In a segment on the NRA, Oliver compared the 96% drop in funding towards gun control research to Lycos and Tickle Me Elmo stampedes. (YouTube) | ||
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August 6, 2016 Oliver introduced a segment on journalism by saying "Journalists: the heroes that we root for in movies like All The President's Men, The Great Muppet Caper, and—most recently—Spotlight." (YouTube) | ||
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September 25, 2017 In a segment on Corporate Consolidation, Oliver referred to JetBlue's Terra Blues potato chips as being made out of Grover's arms. This claim was later retracted in a web-exclusive clip that was uploaded on August 26, 2018. (YouTube) | ||
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October 15, 2017 Oliver criticized Equifax for not being concerned when hundreds of credit reports were being mailed to the same address stating "what exactly did you think had happened there? That every single Fraggle checked their credit at once down at Fraggle Rock, (clap clap) down at Fraggle Rock?" (YouTube) | ||
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April 1, 2018 Oliver reported on an immigration judge who claimed to be able to explain immigration law to three-year-olds who lack legal representation: "You can't teach immigration law to a three-year-old. You can't even explain to a child that age that Elmo isn't his best friend. Elmo's not only a puppet, he's a celebrity. He's never even heard of you. Your relationship is completely asymmetrical." (YouTube) | ||
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August 5, 2018 In a segment on prosecutors, a clip of a 1993 episode of Sesame Street with Count von Count as a judge and a penguin jury is shown. Oliver notes disbelief that the penguin jury wrongly convicted the Central Park Five. (YouTube) | ||
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August 12, 2018 Oliver says Trump's racism is a brand in the same way Kermit being a frog is. | ||
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April 14, 2019 In a segment on opioids, Oliver says the town Kermit, West Virginia, is named that because Kermit lives there with his "secret second family," a pair of salamanders named Francois and Gary. "It was never you, Miss Piggy. It was him."(YouTube) | ||
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November 17, 2019 In a pre-filmed segment, Shinjo-kun and Chiijohn (two Japanese otter mascots) travel to New York to find Oliver. Their New York escapades include a montage of them in Times Square holding up photos of Oliver to various people, including a costumed Elmo who shrugs. (YouTube) | ||
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February 23, 2020 In a segment on Narendra Modi, Oliver says Modi not disavowing Mit Shah's statements is like Jim Henson not disavowing Kermit's statement on Charles Lindbergh losing his child. (YouTube) | ||
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March 1, 2020 In a segment on the novel coronavirus, Oliver says Vietnam's pop song promoting handwashing makes all other songs about cleaning yourself look like trash... "and I'm talkin' to you, here, Ernie. ... [W]hile other artists were out there innovating, you kept singing the same old duckie song. You lost the hunger, son!" (YouTube) | ||
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June 14, 2020 In a segment on the worldwide protests against systemic racism, Oliver brings up Coming Together: Standing Up to Racism as one of the responses against systemic racism. | ||
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October 25, 2020 In a segment on asylum seekers, Oliver says a Trump official said that his actions have nothing to do with immigration is about as believable as Cookie Monster saying his actions have nothing to do with cookies. (YouTube) | ||
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February 14, 2021 In a segment on the 2nd Impeachment trial of Donald Trump, Oliver compared the way one rioter talked to an alt-right Elmo. | ||
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February 21, 2021 In a segment on the Meat Packing industry, Oliver notes a mix of pork and urine is just as disgusting as Miss Piggy's sex tape which shows Miss Piggy having sex with Pepe the King Prawn. The title on the sex tape is a reference to The Muppets Take Manhattan. (YouTube) | ||
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March 7, 2021 In a segment on unemployment, Oliver shows a clip from Families Stand Together where Elmo's mother Mae loses her job. Oliver blaming Elmo on unemployment is a running gag throughout the segment. (YouTube) | ||
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June 20, 2021 In a segment on PACE, Oliver states that the name of green-home-improvement financing company Ygrene is "objectively a stupid name. It sounds like a contemplative jazz album from Kermit the Frog." (YouTube) | ||
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October 3, 2021 In a segment on PFAS, Oliver shows examples of leather. One of them is Elmo in a gimp suit. Oliver later mentions and shows an image of the Cookie Monster rock. (YouTube) | ||
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October 17, 2021 In an online-exclusive segment on local car commercials, Oliver, at one point, says "if I may quote my favorite pig fucker, it's not easy being green," while briefly showing a promotional image of Kermit from The Muppets. (YouTube) | ||
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May 8, 2022 When discussing abortion rights, Oliver made a joke about Elmo being exempt from bodily autonomy when he "literally cannot function unless someone else is arm-fucking him below." (YouTube) | ||
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July 24, 2022 In a segment on inflation, one of the portmanteaus Oliver uses is "Renzo", the celebrity couple name for Ron Howard and Gonzo. (YouTube) | ||
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October 9, 2022 In a segment on crime reporting, Oliver reframes the insult "fucking pig" as a statement of empowerment for Miss Piggy: "Out of the way, boys! She's got fashion to work and frog dick to slurp!" | ||
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February 19, 2023 In a segment on Fox News, Oliver makes a comparison to the internal communications of the network anchors acting with contempt for their viewers, stating "it's like finding out that Big Bird regularly texts Elmo, 'Fuck them kids' and Elmo agrees." | ||
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February 26, 2023 In a discussion about A.I. sampling photos to generate manufactured imagery, Oliver contends that it shouldn't be necessary to mine private medical data just to create an image like "John Oliver and Miss Piggy grow old together." He describes the picture as a stunningly accurate depiction of Miss Piggy in about five decades and himself in about a year and a half. | ||
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March 19, 2023 Oliver comments on a clip stating "In terms of things that have aged badly, I'd have to say this falls somewhere between mid-aughts Gwen Stefani, my actual body, and the October 1976 cover of Sesame Street Magazine." When the cover (which depicts Cookie Monster destroying the World Trade Center) is shown and the audience reacts, Oliver states "They didn't know! They didn't know... I'm assuming they didn't know." | ||
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August 11, 2024 When discussing Venn diagrams, Oliver shows a diagram of him and Big Bird, with the overlap being “squawks educational lessons on television.” | ||
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October 13, 2024 While discussing Georgia’s state elections board in a segment on election subversion, Oliver follows a clip by commenting that having each precinct count each individual ballot through stacks of paper and expecting them to have the same answer would result in “a scenario that’d give most people a panic attack and the Count an instant orgasm.” |
Connections[]
- Rachel Dratch appeared in a recurring role as John's fictitious wife, Wanda Jo Oliver.
- Bob Flanagan built puppets for the show.
- Noel MacNeal is the show's resident puppeteer; his characters include "Mr. Nutterbutter".