haegeum

Ignoring how woke as a buzzword is meaningless besides "thing I don't like" the show has always been a critique. Literally always. I've been watching consistently since 2016, each one is an educational critique about something terrible and current. The show has made fun of itself for being The Everything Is Awful Show.

There's also a huge amount of research that goes into the show. Each segment has a lot of cited sources and material they're building off of. Like any good essay, he's working with a bank of information to trim down into a coherent point.

He's also shat on his own sponsors and hosted platform numerous times. There's a genuine integrity to not let where the money's coming from keep him from being critical. (There's an interview with I think Seth Meyers where he mentions it gets him into trouble when doing charity shows because he's so aware of what the hosting company has done and cannot shut up about it.)

But I always love the "humor is illegal" aspect the alt-right wants to claim because it's just wrong. You can be funny in a lot of ways. You can be funny in political and nonpolitical ways. You just have to be good at it. John Oliver and his crew has always been pretty good about using the dry sardonic humor to offset the load of information being delivered. I'm not saying all off the jokes are bangers or are the rib-busting laughs, but it's effective. (Which is a lot more than alt-right and dark humor comedians can do. Because they just want something said to be funny, not do any sort of build up or connecting themes.)

They are DORKS and they made me cry One Hundred Times.

The WGA is on fucking strike and not even fans of the most progressive late night show in the United States get it.

A strike is when shit stops so the people in need of said shit put pressure on the powers that be to meet the demands of the people who are not working on purpose so they can go back to work and we can all be happy.