Five years ago, a friend's production company was developing a comedy and looking for a British comedian. I recommended a little known guy -- John Oliver. I got a friend who was then working on The Daily Show to send me some clips of Oliver and then passed them along. The project hasn't gone forward, though I don't think my suggestion was taken too seriously.
(This was my second Daily Show recommendation to him. About 12 years ago, they had sold a pilot for a sitcom to a network and hadn't yet cast the dad. He asked for my thoughts, and I recommended a very low-level supporting actor on The Daily Show, who I said was wonderful and even had a background with Second City. My friend was intrigued, but said -- rightly, I suspect -- that a network wasn't going to hire an unknown actor to star in one of their series. They went with someone else and the series went on the air. It did fair at first, and lasted about a year but got cancelled. The little-known actor, by the way, was Steve Carell.)
In fairness, my friend actually does listen to my suggestion, most especially nowadays...
All this is to say with preamble that I've long been a big fan of John Oliver, and have loved his hosting of The Daily Show. This clip below isn't a quintessential example of his work as host. It's just quintessential Daily Show. And the line leading into the Gotcha Moment is as funny as they get.
(This was my second Daily Show recommendation to him. About 12 years ago, they had sold a pilot for a sitcom to a network and hadn't yet cast the dad. He asked for my thoughts, and I recommended a very low-level supporting actor on The Daily Show, who I said was wonderful and even had a background with Second City. My friend was intrigued, but said -- rightly, I suspect -- that a network wasn't going to hire an unknown actor to star in one of their series. They went with someone else and the series went on the air. It did fair at first, and lasted about a year but got cancelled. The little-known actor, by the way, was Steve Carell.)
In fairness, my friend actually does listen to my suggestion, most especially nowadays...
All this is to say with preamble that I've long been a big fan of John Oliver, and have loved his hosting of The Daily Show. This clip below isn't a quintessential example of his work as host. It's just quintessential Daily Show. And the line leading into the Gotcha Moment is as funny as they get.
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