Well, I mean, there was also the one time he ran an anti-smoking campaign... In several countries... That had been bullied by big companies into not passing plain packaging laws. That was a good one too.

10 minutes from the end we’re bringing religion in as an argument/justification….he plays both sides of everything and loves to stand as THE POINT….gay

Just second to the Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov horse cake.

Don’t forget the time he bought a ton of medical debt and forgave it.

If it doesn't work, they can always keep going. Add a couple more ads... get a few more Congress people... hint to us who they are (or tell us. They could just tell us, right?)

The John Poliver Protection Creep Act. JOPPCA

And make a clause where, once invoked, one has to yell "To the JOPPA!"

I'm all for this xD

Well, it sounds like "ASSS" in Russian, and I am twisting my mind to understand is this what the joke is. Did our word for жопа became deservingly famous at last.

@@Spiderkote LMAO! I don't know how I missed that. My wife is Russian.

anyone get any updates on this?

@@paulallen3753 I'm curious about this too... Any updates?

It's called a staccato beat, and I think all shower heads should have it, because I agree with you wholeheartedly. It's like a non-aggressive massage.

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/as6CfsWjrbqdeKM.html

I can only imagine the emails. Hi law department, this week we’re gonna blackmail congress with Ted Cruz erotica. That sound good and legal? Thanks, J Oliver

@@helena8999 Hi John, after reviewing the laws and precedent we've come to the following judgment: very legal and very cool

I would want those lawyers for a traffic ticket

Yes! We all thank all of them

GIGA CHAD

Legend

All the men at least. LOL

This resembles a south park episode with the troll hunter plot 😉.

I just don't feel that they went far enough. "We might do something with this information." Do something instead. Congress won't act unless there is something already affecting them.

Honestly? With the websites I use regularly, I usually know which buttons to click, it takes maybe ten seconds. And if a search leads me to a website that plays dirty and hides the "cut it out with the cookies" option, I just use another one. How often have you googled for something and got only _one_ site as a result? I don't think that declining cookies will solve this whole problem, but I bloody well don't have to roll out a red carpet for data brokers.

There are add-ons for chrome and Firefox which either automatically decline the cookies, or delete the "cookie information box" from the visible part of the site. Unless your explicitly accept the cookies, they may mustn't collect data.

@@vffa Oh that's useful to know. Thx :)

That's how you get stuff done.

Doesn't give them any chance to bullshit their way out of it

Correct. Making threats is weak. Wreaking vengeance is strong.

I mean, he stopped short of identifying them.

They will just pass a law protecting themselves. National security of highly sensitive individuals or somesht

I'm thinking of seniors, vulnerable to targeted scams. Kids who might be home alone. Or....teen girls with self esteem issues. If you can create a demographic, and a location, it's pretty much like shooting ducks in a barrel. What if someone was, say, violently pro-life, searching for women who'd searched online for abortion pills, or how long you have to get an abortion?

Thank you for being open to change your mind. ☺️☺️☺️

Fuck yeah, great example!

Imagine someone buying your data and reading it back to you

Right on, man

He's probably worried he'll have to provide the Ted Cruz fanfic. The dude's an ahole, but I want to know what the fanfic is.

We're too busy with other kinds of corruption.

Especially if he makes their hands sweat!

Praise be!

I want to see it leaked. Forget making their hands sweat, throw them under the frickin' bus and let us start over 😆

The german equivalent is jan böhmermann and he's just as good hahahaha

Yeah I'm sure they are super-worried

If anyone would watch the 1942 USDA video *Hemp For Victory,* all of you would threaten the US government.

And the void. Don't forget about the void.

He can threaten At&t and foreign dictator, of course he can threaten whole US government

I mean when you get a socio-political effect named after you, you know you're doing good 😂

He's really opened the floodgates here

Really, nothing happened? That should be impossible! I have no reason to doubt you, except for for my strong hope that something would and will be done. Maybe LWT will simply have to step up their game on this one.

If they de anonymised the congressmen it may have done more

@@liam6550That would be doxxing which is actually illegal, so unfortunately they couldn’t have done that.

​@@geekgirl_luv4262if you recognise a person from data that was legally sold to you along with what they've done, I wouldn't think that would be considered doxxing

I think we should first blackmail them on all sorts of other stuff. They will enact privacy laws soon enough. But I'd really like tuition free university and weed legalized by the feds first. So we can blackmail them on that and they will eventually figure out how we knew half the republicans have an interest in Ted Cruz erotica.

@@user-lv7ph7hs7l The real question is: how many who might be interested in Ted Cruz erotica only wanted it to blackmail Ted Cruz with?

@@serendipityshopnyc I'm sure we could design adds to filter it more precisely. One that frames it as a scandal and one that frames it as the hottest new republican love story or something like that.

He blackmailed all 538 of them ... 100% and pretty much everyone in DC. ALSO, the fake ads used to collect clicks were ... still can't stop laughing

@@petercibulskis I belive 144 seats are held by women and a few of the men are under 45, but I get your point.

I think that's the intention... it's the genie you can't put back in the bottle

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/as6CfsWjrbqdeKM.html

Exactly that. Its not about what can John Oliver do its about oh shit now everyone knows its doable

That is, to begin with, some pretty damaging data ewwwww

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/g9OohLVi1tiaomg.html

I was truly having a blast the last 4 minutes 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

I can't tell, is this story about the dangers of targeting marketing or pre-marital co-habitation?

Well that's a bummer. Way to ruin the surprise, eh..

Yikes! What if you had said no? He would still have been bombarded with wedding ads.

I've heard similar from others; ruined surprised engagements from marketing campaigns. So sorry.

That's disheartening

Dang you're right. Oh crap. Worst time line, here we come.

Great point!

You're exactly right and the manipulation aspect needs to be escalated as a major concern.

and to create distrust to a politician and to the whole political system in general, by claiming an incorrect claim to be an actual position of people. *The actual danger is the narrative* For example "wokeness". the large majority of people are not woke and even see the whole term with hostility and open hate. It became a scapegoat to call other disliked and potential options to be "woke" to thereby brand these options in general as bad. Wokeness got a bad narrative stamped to this term, maybe just on the internet. Another example would be the actual Russians, who would support the War of Putin in Ukraine. these Russians are stupidly rare, the majority simply don't care about this war and just agree with Russian politics, because they don't want to have a problem, they worry more about a damn sugar shortage in the local supermarket. and even the soldiers right now in Ukraine are often pissed about Putin and his war, while "fighting for him". But the whole subject is a war and thereby enforce an easy to understand NARRATIVE of THESE GOOD GUYS and US and THESE BAD ONES. In reality the Russian people don't want to make an European war, there are just some political influential people in power in Russia, who perverted Russian politics to a degree, that they will invade their neighbour countries. Or a more personal notch. In reality the American people didn't wanted to invade Iraq, there were just some political influential people in power in the USA, who perverted US traditions to a degree, that they were able to lead US soldiers into an invasion of a far away nation in Asia. Narratives are dangerous. social instability is not even close to the narratives and their dangerous effects on humans.

Swindling 101

Rat erotica...? I'm concerned

We can't say we didn't see it coming. Game of Thrones producers, take note!

@@NightZoneDE brian sword's surfacing (the art piece in question) was showed on this show in march 2020 I think.

I would also say him doing a whole mini episode hating on Pom Wonderful after reciving a fridge of the stuff was a special step into his villian arch.

Less like a villain arc and more like late-stage capitalism Robin Hood.

He didn't blackmail the US Government. He manillamailed them.

No, doesn't matter how he got the information, blackmail is blackmail, he better be careful.

@@mgpars01 And? The government SHOULD be afraid of it's people. How else are the people going to get what the people want from the government? The fact that you honestly believe that Blackmailing government officials with their browsing data is so off the deep end that it shouldn't be allowed? (Data that they themselves have likely allowed companies to keep gathering) Welcome to your first fucking steps to the hypocrisy of the US Government.

@@mgpars01 there was no blackmail, just a painfully funny bit

@@mgpars01 Not really. Blackmail is using information that is not widely known, and that is illegally attained. This information here at current, because the powers that be choose, is currently perfectly legal to obtain, and available to anyone to purchase. Really rather disgusting and someone should really do something about it.

How?

@@anjsjaafffjs This just in, Forida and Texas have teamed up to pass laws making it illegal to research abortion services out of state, and to purchase user data on everyone within their states who has done so.

@@ShuRugal oh okay I see

@@anjsjaafffjs and even if a person had a natural miscarriage, if they used a period tracking app, a couple of nonexistent cycles followed by a return to regular cycles (oversimplified for sake of argument) looks the same wether someone experienced a horrible tragedy, or just had an illegal abortion, and if the government got that data they could then charge them with terminating a pregnancy

Shut up

😂🤣

I wish I could like this twice! 😂

@@anne637i 'Can YOU vote twice' ad coming your way.

How long will it take for HBO to be like “I’m not even shocked anymore by your outlandish requests-just take the fucking money.” 🤣🤣🤣

HBO’s legal executive had to sign off on the Eat Shit Bob song. He’s in way too deep to say no.

I'm surprised he's never used that before lol

Man describes all the issues of capitalism WITHOUT blaming capitalism tonight

That was the working title, but they had to shorten so it would fit on websites.

Legalized Blackmail Tonight

@@sims794 believe me I’m not saying capitalism is the best in anyway. But what is the best economic system? I feel like a heavily regulated capitalist system with a liberal leaning democracy is the most fair way

That's not a very high bar, most networks have the investigative capacity of your grandma reposting memes on facebook

And can they write a song about It? Sorry, that "Eat Shit Bob" number was amazing.

I would pay good money for something like that

The network behind "The Larry Sanders Show" absolutely WOULD run this, and I think it could be brilliant.

I'd watch that... but probably on TLC...

No kidding!

You mean cookie? The cake is a lie!

This one made my day. I can't wait to see the news little later today.

This is the fucking bomb. What a hero, this is next level.

completely agree.

I take it you missed the episode with the giant cake?

He legally wouldn't be able to go any further

@@Coolsomeone234incorrect. He could publish all that data, or even do the work deanonymizing it and then publish, completely legally. There are just ZERO protections in this area.

@@Coolsomeone234 If he can't, how are the other companies able to? Could he, for instance, sell that information on to other advertisers? Let them know which IP addresses in the DC area might be interested in getting bombarded with ads for 50 Shades of Cruz? Could news organizations buy the data and then do their own investigations? If they can't, then the law needs to crack down on the companies that do such things. If they can...well, that would prove the point, no?

@@Coolsomeone234 you didn't watched the video, did you? Or you are simply functionally illiterate...

@@Coolsomeone234 seeing that millions of companies do it every 5 secs.. what makes you think he cant

Joke-gasm. The blissful crescendo of a long build up.

Stream Young Loud.

But you HAD to know it was coming, with how specific he was about the details leading up to it!

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/acBpdNZkypucZH0.html BRAND

Not gonna lie, he had us in the first half of that statement.

Hail Hydra

Hail Hydra ✊✊

LMAO That’s literally the most amazing comment here. Winter Soldier is one of my favorite movies and I just- I need to go watch it again now

I'm sorry, what was your name again? Let me just write that down here..... (hail Hydra).

My freaking goodness, you're right! And it was enough to make Goody Two Shoes Cap begin to distrust his own agency and the government.

It was probably relatively cheap to get all of that info and run those ads.

@@rring44 it's not so much the amount as what they allow to count as 'research' or something :) Other episodes have had some ridiculous purchases too But also yes, the data prob was cheap, sadly

This very possibly also never actually happened. Very easy to just draw a circle, add lots of faces and pretend.

@@niklasheuser1706 r/NothingEverHappens

I'm almost positive that at this point HBO just gives him a blank check.

He definitely wasn't allowed to label specific people because of the legal team

@@Coolsomeone234 We all know that he wanted to, and it's not unlikely that he could have.

I did notice he only mentioned 'men' in the congress bit...

@@greendragonpublishing well they only searched for men.

@@greendragonpublishing Mitch McConnell ?

It's not that much more heinous than the people scamming old people who usually have no clue about technology out of their last bit of a pension, which happens on a massive scale.

@@ainumahtar As someone who has to prevent elderly relatives and neighbors (age range 70-95) from falling for that crap (or try to mitigate the damage when they do get suckered in) almost every day for the last 5-10 years... yeah, those scammers can go choke on a five-foot barbed cock.

When my dad died in 1985 my mother got a letter from some company he had interacted with addressed to Deceased (last name)

My heart goes out to that dad. More so when that envelop came with a (10% off) like... seriously?!?

If you mean come at you to agree, then yes. It was horrendous.

🤡🤡🤡

You must be a bot...I literally seen the same reply to a CNN video...either that or you are not original

Jesus is our one and only savior!!! He loves us all, so it pains him to see his followers turn against him!!! Reject 🏳️‍🌈!!!!

It's information overload though. It's like he's doing a 20 min infomercial pitch to get us to think about something only to forget how important it is within a week. And he STILL hasn't done anything on Ukraine yet.

@@heyheytaytay It's not exactly easy to do a comedy piece on an international tragedy... give him a break. If he does do a piece on it it will be with all seriousness. It's not what the show is for.

He never uses his privacy skills for ballistic family protection devices.

@@illumitommy kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iq14mLeLp67YoWQ.html

lol. Well put.

More like "My production team and I have a very special set of skills..." if we're giving credit where credit is due, and we should. He and his team did some great work for this segment! And I too am here for it.

@@daisykid3 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bbRzbKuWtMqod4U.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iq14mLeLp67YoWQ.html

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/g9OohLVi1tiaomg.html

Precisely why many of us were laughing at the anti-vaxxers who were so concerned about Bill Gates microchip trackers. There’s nothing a tracker implanted into your body could tell the government that Google already doesn’t know.

The corporate surveillance is incredibly frightening. especially when there is nothing to stop them from gathering the information, and nothing to stop them from using "neural marketing" to target your neediest psychological points. It's like the abusive parent who's installed all the "buttons" that hurt and we have no recourse.

Gonna say the most badass thing he’s done is “eat shit bob” but this is a close second

Hey are you going to the secret meeting this week?

There was also the week he set up an automated telemarketing system to call the FCC commissioners continuously until they made robocallers illegal.

@@AlexandarHullRichter Did that actually work

@@mostlyimportant4212 not yet... But I'm pretty sure the robocaller is easy enough to maintain that he's probably still got it running. And thanks to how easy it was for him to find congressmen information this week is probably still reaching the fcc commissioners even if they've changed their phone numbers.

a BJ ?

I agree

unfortunately, the highest award in journalism is being murdered by the government

@@ronikeene9253 Sadly, this s true.

I think Daniel O'Brien, prince of internet comedy, is still one of the comedy voices behind the scenes. His influence is highly evident in the quips, even if just thru his effect on other writers.

It’s funny how this is pretty much the only way you can get Congress to have bilateral support for any bill. It has to affect the billionaires and multimillionaire for them to do anything for us. Kinda sad. So I hope he lets there data fly. Hell sell it to the next presidential candidate see if we can really get some juicy news out of this!

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/acBpdNZkypucZH0.html

@@annakamura2971 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iq14mLeLp67YoWQ.html

They took immediate action when congress people were privately recorded against their knowledge to accepting bribes by lobbies and large donors, behind closed doors. Rather than oust the corruption, they passed a bill making it illegal with harsh penalties and making it almost inadmissible in court if they're being recorded doing corrupt things.

you new here?

journos are supposed to be impartial , and report facts. he does neither ; his ego's bigger 'n a house mind . no wonder he high tailed it outta England sharpish

@@mickyvionsellinas6743 he's not a journalist. he's a comedian. nice try muppet.

The only journalists left today are the “comedians”. Won’t be long before they can’t slip through the cracks anymore either…

Anti-hero nothing. This man's a straight up hero, he just doesn't wait for people to do the job for him.

You're right. It's sad. That so-called comedy shows do better journalism. Than CNN FOX ect.

A lot of my friends will turn their nose up at literally any MSM late-night host. Their loss.

"Journalism." Most of what they do is collect stories from actual journalists. Pretty sure he even did an episode on it

@@Dr.Spatula he vigorously insists that his work is not journalism and it is an affront to journalists to call it that

I believe the part you like is not journalism but rather activism.

You’re getting targeted episodes instead of targeted ads :)

What was the paper?

I would understand you don't want to share the paper on here due to privacy, but is there a way you can send it to me privately?

I'm a little more curious when you're suggested products you've only thought about, and haven't actually talked about that day; how the hell do they do that?

@@BeRandom2012 No idea, but it's the reverse for me. I almost never get commercials I care the least about.

The channel Some More News does roughly the same quality research on similar topics, just less budget and different humor

@@roguebantha7324 Excellent, Oliver set the example and I'd bet he's not mad others are doing the same thing. Competition keeps everyone sharp here.

I'll have to finish this to see if you're correct, but very often he offers no possible solution and just says "haha doesn't society suck?"

@@blossom357 almost every topic is divided into the three parts, the third often being "how can we fix this?" So I'm not sure what you're talking about

Honestly, I like the news and jokes but most of all the absolutely beautiful slurry of fuckery.

I think spying on commoners is very good for business, intelligence and politics and most importantly: insuring of no public revolt or rebellion in the making. HOWEVER spying on the elites in Washington DC is EXTREMELY ANTI-SEMITIC

That’s my favorite part as well.

@Cassie I really hope he follows up on this, I have the screenshots to prove his case on my own personal level of experiencing this.

hes an obnoxious little toady . end of!

@@Universal_exports87 watching this a few months later. anyone update on this? maybe it will be revisited at the season finale, but that's wishful thinking

#screenshot

Lots of people do create things for the good of humanity, it's called GNU/Linux. Sadly not very many of them are skilled User Interface designers. Would you rather learn how to use your computer, or have your computer to learn how to use you?

Chaotic greatness grin

True. Publicly blackmailing Washington insiders takes some balls.

Maybe John Oliver may want to make a venn-diagram for how many of those people looked up Child-Pornography... hmm.... i wonder how many hits.....

No they only made law so data brokers can't sell to foreigners

Did you click any of those 3 ads recently? Do you think the legislators are able to either remember as much, or purchase (for i guess 45 usd) the datasets to see if they did? He ruined his own threat. It almost feels like its bread and circus. Throw some "haha yeah, we got you!" to the masses under foot and they will feel smug and satisfied, instead of rebellious. Why actually SHOW the ads he phished with? Why not say "we ran a large amount of unspecified ads to gain access to entirely legal identifiable information"? The doubt would seal the deal and legislation protecting the citizens would be rushed through faster than a microwave tv dinner. Anyone with any related aptitude should be able to tell you how this "attack" was an entirely performative non-attack, that took a lot of added work to be understood as toothless. Crusade indeed.

@@narfle I have the related aptitude. You're wrong. Lucky for me the original assertion, therefore burden of proof, is yours.

@@narfle but now the people who clicked on those ads (or think they might have) are nervous. John and his crew can always use more ads, in the future. Hell, they probably already are.

@@narfle It's important to remember (and I don't think John did a good job of pointing this out, either) that you don't have to have clicked on the ads for the folder to contain your information. They got a list of "users likely to be government officials" and aimed the ads at those people, but the other information included in that list is still available even if they didn't click. Honestly I think the whole segment, while funny, could have been handled better. The Internet tracks you, even if you don't click on dumb funny ads, and de-anonymizing users isn't a thing that happens because the user was careless. Acting like people whose data is sold down the river "just needed to not click sketchy ads" verges on victim-blaming.

@@narfle you're right. It was a performative nonattack... with a different purpose than attack. Just to demonstrate it can be done. Which he did with great success, in one the most highly educated neighborhoods in the nation.

If they come for him, I'm sure he's entrusted staff to leak the info.

@@misterjoey3384 Hillary has entered the chat... :D

He will be fine. He is under the prayers of his fake wife Wand Jo Oliver and his real wife is army strong. They will protect their British parrot.

@@misterjoey3384 gonna be an interesting day if they do release the info… times are changing and I’m glad Johnny stood up against the corrupt establishment and exposed them for the trash they are both side*** both have pockets lined with dirty oil money

@@JohnKimbler ...hope so.

He usually already wins everything, have since they started this show.

@@martinrotvig that’s true. Well deserved in my opinion

He already does, much to Stephen Colbert's chagrin.

Except it's not a late night talk show. No pointless interviews with authors, actors or musicians. No promoting other shows or products on the network. Just investigative journalism and exposing crooks and liars, once a week.

@@blackswanmtg to be fair I’d argue Stephen deserves at least one

Where there's a will, there's a way. Bravo, John Oliver. Creepy? No. Josh Hawley is creepy.

Usually a point about the creepy stuff in question being legal in the first place.

no, sweetie: it is not that simple. surely you don't beleive that , dó you ?

yes, it was only after that congressman got his video rental history exposed that congress did something

I mean, that's just the Scientific Method! I sincerely hope they continue to follow through as they have with other "bits."

Maybe we should do that. Apparently data comes very cheap.

Just keep adding more and more manila envelopes & stack them on the desk like t**** & his folders

i mean, we told you about the clinton emails, we told you about hunter bidens 3 laptops, but you just reee'd ''conspiracy theorist''. The truth is out there, you just gotta stop being pig ignorant about it.

100%

A true American Patriot

*international? Since he's not actually from here?

@@sagesam1951 he is a US citizen now

He's a GLOBAL treasure, sir.

I'm pretty sure he didn't come up with this. He's just a great host.

@@ishotmyboss idk... i this type of shenanigans i only ever see from him. like i know he has writers, just like say Stephen Colbert, or Seth Meyers. but i don't see them consitenly pull stunts like this. witch tells me that either John Oliver just loves to troll, or that one of his writers is responsibull for all this. but being that he pulls this crap with his twiter a lot to, i think the prank like natcher of his show is his influens. but just a gues.

I’m sorry, he’s an *international* treasure.

@@squirrel8185 A former Cracked writer is part of the writing team so I’m sure that plays a role lol.

@@Deemo202 yah that kindof makes since 🤣

But will anything change?

@@friscolanguageschool9100 only one way to find out, and that's to try

At this point any time he calls something "too easy" I just assume they already did it

That was presicely when my giddiness kicked in too.

_Oh, Johnny boy, what have you done now?_

Isn't that exactly what a good citizen does? That's what we're taught in school here in Denmark :)

mhmmm cause you KNEW that he did ... you KNEW that he ... got data ... and not just ANY DATA .... but whew .....

More awards or at the end of a bedsheet. Time will tell

Don't be embarrased ... there are MUCH worse jobs. trump's fluffer, lindey's cheeto dust remover, WH janitor on the east wing. I spent all my career at IRI and Nielsen. We know what you bought and how much you paid for it. We know what you watch and for how long. And people pay us MONEY. shrug I prefer the ads that I get because they know me better ... isn't that worth it??

I'm a pretty green software dev that is interested in learning more about how ordinary people could also do similar things to help motivate certain people. Do you know of any educational resources?

Thanks so much

Another point for 5 - your DNA data can be used to find any potential or undetected genetic diseases you may have. That one is especially fucked up, because these companies will sit on that knowledge until you actually get sick and then use it to play targeted ads for medicine against the known symptoms, which can stop you from going to a doctor in time and lead to your death. For example, if your DNA shows a proprensity for breast cancer, you may begin seeing ads for painkillers or heat pads as the pain sets in and not visit a doctor in time to get the tumors removed before the cancer spreads.

@@JRexRegis oh my god! I sincerely hope that congress or the president puts forward a law to stop these haenus practices, this is a sick invasion of privacy. This also reminds me of the poor elderly religious community that get preyed on by televangelists telling them not to go to the doctor for a life threatening illness because the power of Jesus will save them. (Now I’m Agnostic but I believe that anyone is allowed to believe what they want as long as they are not harming, harassing, or shaming others) but televangelists and these businesses practices are obviously preying on the weak and in informed, so I thank you for your input