John Oliver roundly mocks Jay Leno's Late Show opinion

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, published today, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver was asked about Leno’s comments, immediately responding, “I’m going to take a hard pass on taking comedic advice from Jay Leno.” Pretty good burn, but Oliver has a lot more to say about Leno’s thoughts. “Who thinks that way? Executives? Comedy can’t be for everyone. It’s inherently subjective. So, yeah, when you do stand-up, some people try to play to a broader audience, which is completely legitimate. Others decide not to, which is equally legitimate. I guess I don’t think it’s a question of what you should do because I don’t think comedy is prescriptive in that way. It’s just what people want.”

Oliver’s show is somewhat of an outlier in this conversation; Last Week Tonight is political, at least in the sense that it’s issues-based, but it also airs on premium cable, meaning “we have no pressures from advertisers.” But Oliver also rejects the suggestion that discussing political issues should alienate half a potential audience. “I think our show clearly comes from a point of view, but most of those long stories we do are not party political. They’re about systemic issues,” Oliver continues. “Our last few shows were about gang databases, AI slop, juvenile justice, med spas, air traffic control. I’m not saying that these don’t have a point of view in them. Of course they do. But I hope a lot of them actually reach across people’s political persuasions. You want people to at least be able to agree on the problem, even if you disagree on what the solution to it is.” We may still have a way to go before we can agree on what the problem is.