# Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

13 Hacker News commenters recommended Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Funny, well-researched segments on news topics, with a research team behind them. Critics say it shows only evidence that fits its argument and chases outrage.

## Why people recommend it

- Strong research and fact-checking team (2 comments): "a very serious research and fact checking team" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49199726)) "yet he backs up what he says with sources, unlike Fox Talking Heads shows" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49185548))
- Excellent segments on specific issues (3 comments): "John Oliver did a fantastic segment on that and called it torture AFAIR." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47652310)) "John Oliver does an excellent segment on how batshit these laws are" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46448720)) "Basically, Ticketmaster owns all the concert halls too." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48453345))
- Humor and clear framing of issues (2 comments): "John Oliver's team expresses these concerns with more humor and better framing than I can give myself" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48144758)) "LWT has great montage on this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45847389))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Halt and Catch Fire](https://hackerapproved.com/p/halt-and-catch-fire.md): 166 recommend
- [Babylon 5](https://hackerapproved.com/p/babylon-5.md): 86 recommend
- [Silicon Valley (TV series)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/silicon-valley.md): 52 recommend
- [Andor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/andor.md): 52 recommend
- [The Wire](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wire.md): 39 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver", https://hackerapproved.com/p/last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).