Reception and the "John Oliver effect" Oliver's comedic commentary has been credited with influencing
US legislation, regulations,
court rulings, and other aspects of US culture; this has been dubbed the "John Oliver effect". This came from
the show's fifth episode, which dealt with
net neutrality, a subject that had previously been considered obscure and technical. Oliver documented problems attributed to Internet service providers and argued that the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could resolve these concerns with upcoming changes to Internet regulation. Oliver then encouraged viewers to submit public comments through the FCC's website. The FCC's website promptly crashed. Internal FCC emails revealed that the clip was being watched inside the agency. The FCC Chairman
Tom Wheeler publicly addressed the video. |alt=Oliver, wearing a black suit, talking into a microphone and gesturing with his hands. The day after the broadcast, the FCC had received over 45,000 comments on net neutrality; in total, it received 3.7 million comments on the subject, by far the most for any issue in the agency's history. Reporters detected a shift in the FCC's stance: Before Oliver's segment,
The New York Times described an FCC proposal that would leave net neutrality "all but dead", but the paper later said that Wheeler showed "a steady shift toward stronger regulation". A study conducted in 2018 found that viewers of
Last Week Tonight and
The Colbert Report were generally more familiar with net neutrality than non-viewers;
Last Week Tonight viewers were also more likely to support strict regulation to ensure net neutrality. Oliver was credited with transforming the net neutrality debate. Members of
Congress credited Oliver with helping to win a vote to enforce protections for chicken farmers who speak out about industry practices, after a
Last Week Tonight segment on the subject. A
Washington, D.C.,
council member proposed a resolution in Oliver's honour after he aired a segment on the district's
struggle to attain statehood. A study published in 2022 found that "calls for action" by Oliver in seasons seven and eight of
Last Week Tonight raised over $5 million for charities and other causes. but reporters have contended that his show is a form of journalism. The Peabody Awards honoured Oliver, saying his programme engages in "investigative reports that 'real' news programs would do well to emulate". One example of Oliver's investigative work is a segment on the
Miss America organization, which bills itself as "the world's largest provider of scholarships for women". Oliver's team, which includes four researchers with journalism backgrounds, collected and analysed the organization's state and federal tax returns to find that its scholarship programme only distributes a small fraction of the claimed "$45 million made available annually". Oliver said that at the national level, the Miss America Organization and Miss America Foundation together spent only $482,000 in cash scholarships in 2012. The
Society of Women Engineers said Oliver's reference to their scholarship led to $25,000 in donations over the subsequent two days. Oliver also founded and legally incorporated a church,
Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, to demonstrate how easy it is to qualify as a church and receive
tax-exempt status in the United States. The church was created in conjunction with a segment on
televangelists who have tax-free mansions and private jets funded by millions of dollars in donations, which are sent in the belief that money given to televangelists can result in
God rewarding donors with money, blessings, and by curing diseases. The next week, Oliver showed off the large quantity of donations posted to him, which included $70,000 in cash, a large
cheque, and other gifts. The church's website stated that donations would go to
Doctors Without Borders upon the church's dissolution. A network spokesperson said that this was "a record for any piece of HBO content". Oliver's commentary surrounding the
2016 United States presidential election received some media criticism of contributing to polarisation, including from Zac Dacis for the
Jesuit America magazine, who wrote that Oliver "coddles his viewers by convincing them (as if they needed more convincing) of how right they are, how wrong
they are, how many more facts they know than
them". Oliver later said that his February 2016 segment "got out of hand" and expressed some regret over his coverage. In 2018 on
Last Week Tonight, Oliver presented the children's book
A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, a parody of ''
Marlon Bundo's A Day in the Life of the Vice President. A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo'' featured
Marlon Bundo, the pet rabbit of 48th US Vice President
Mike Pence, in a gay relationship. During the
2023 Reddit API controversy, the major
subreddits r/pics, r/gifs, and r/aww, among others, protested at Reddit's
API policy changes by only allowing content containing Oliver.
John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward In May 2018, actor
Russell Crowe donated approximately $80,000 to the
Australia Zoo wildlife hospital for the creation and naming of "The John Oliver
Koala Chlamydia Ward". Oliver had previously bought in an auction several
film props that had been used by Crowe, including
his jockstrap from
Cinderella Man, which he sent to one of the last Alaskan
Blockbuster Video shops for exhibition. Crowe then donated the proceeds from the auction towards the establishment of the Chlamydia Ward named after Oliver, calling it "a cool way" to honour him. Covering the story on his show, Oliver admitted admiration for the gag: "Well played, Russell Crowe. Well played indeed. That may honestly be the greatest thing I've ever seen."
John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant In August 2020, the mayor of
Danbury, Connecticut,
Mark Boughton, announced in a Facebook video his intention to rename the Danbury
Water Pollution Control Plant as the "John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant" as a comedic symbol of his displeasure at Oliver's
hyperbolic insult to the city during a segment concerning alleged
racial disparities in a jury selection process. After reporting that Connecticut jury rolls had excluded two entire towns, Oliver said, "If you're going to forget a town in Connecticut, why not forget Danbury?" Oliver then humorously offered to "thrash" the entire town, including its children. After the city council voted 18–1 in favour of naming the plant after him, Oliver visited Danbury to attend the unveiling ceremony on 8 October 2020 in person, wearing a
hazmat suit. Mayor Boughton had made Oliver's personal attendance a condition for the renaming, and Oliver complied, revealing footage of his trip on
Last Week Tonight the following week. == Personal life ==