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China Blocks HBO After John Oliver's Last Week Tonight Mockery of Xi Jinping (scmp.com)
News agency AFP reports: After mocking censors working overtime to delete comparisons of Chinese President Xi Jinping with the cartoon bear, comedian John Oliver and now the website of TV giant HBO have fallen victim to Beijing's censorship machine. Chinese authorities blocked HBO's site in China, just days after Oliver took Xi to task, anti-censorship and monitoring group GreatFire.org said on Saturday. The website was still not accessible on Monday. HBO joins a long list of Western media outlets that have had their websites blocked in China including The New York Times, Facebook and Twitter.
Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood,
Where Christopher Robin plays.
You'll find the enchanted neighborhood,
of Christopher's childhood days.
A donkey named Eeyore is his friend.
And Kanga and Little Roo.
There's Rabbit and Piglet.
And there's Owl.
But most of all Winnie the Pooh!
Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh,
Chubby, little cubby all stuffed with fluff.
He's Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh,
Willy, nilly, silly old bear.
...so we all turn to VPNs & piracy for the simple ability to access content
Thin skinned snowflakes threatened by comedy.
China just needs to grin and bear it.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
You too can be a world leader if you stop maturing in grade school....
sigh
He isn't funny
Wowsa. I bet you're fun at parties.
John Oliver is great at attacking straw men.
I think he's great at attacking real men. I'm not aware of any straw man arguments he's made. He addresses a real, actual issue on every show.
I don't respond to AC's.
If you expect a half hour comedy show to enable change in China, I hope you are forever disappointed. Things would have to get really, extremely bad for a half hour comedy show to somehow enable change.
As a Brit, I agree. He wasn't that funny then when he stopped getting airtime over here. Come to think of it, neither did James Corden. Why do you keep picking up our second rate comedians? (Cough - Benny Hill)
Hey, Benny Hill is HILARIOUS when you're sitting in your dorm room stoned off your ass! Other than that, not so much... I actually rather like John Oliver's self-deprecating sense of humor.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
According to John Oliver, he gets paid big bucks to say "fuck" on tv. I wish I had a job like that...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
When you're not very smart, complicated things are not funny or fun to learn about. Oliver tends to be pretty educational on complicated topics, so I can see how there'd be a subset of the population which would find that frustrating.
Additionally, if you're a rabid believer of anything, someone attacking that thing can feel like an attack on you. And that's not funny. If you can't honestly engage with reality, I can see how Oliver wouldn't be funny as he likely is attacking one of the stupid things you really are passionate about.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
Well, we did get John Cleese to live in Santa Barbara for an extended period, we keep hoping we'll get another decent Brit comedian to do the same. Alas, I guess that hope is as in vain as pining for a functioning Lucas refrigerator or palatable British food...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Have a first class degree - he isn't that funny.
In EE, not political science or the like. Yes, I can think for myself.
John Oliver tends to yell a lot, disparage people, insult them, avoid rational discussion of the issues and conflate complicated issues by reducing them to the point of uselessness. Every once in a while, he has his writers research some obscure topic, then has a TAKE on that topic. The problem is he always has a TAKE that is extremely one-sided and he will ridicule anyone who disagrees with him. The best example of this is when he gave his audience an opener line, they cheered, and then he informed them that they should be mad about the thing he just said. It was probably the only time I ever laughed watching that show.
True, over 1.3 billion people are just fine with having their media restricted, their every move tracked and now having a "social credit score". Social dissent is at an all time and they all call him "Big Daddy" Franky, I think we here in the West should be very, very worried about the change China stands to bring to us in the next couple decades. Because by the 30's China will be the de-facto leader of the Global Economy while the US will be struggling to even stay relevant
This is literally the first google result for "John Oliver Straw Man". https://purple-state.com/john-...
I think he's great at attacking real men. I'm not aware of any straw man arguments he's made.
Actually it's part of his standard comedy formula. Pretty much every attack on a real man is followed up with a strawman argument. The only problem is that those are obviously and hilariously left field for the purpose of comedy.
People who don't understand this comedic style are inclined to believe that he just bullshits about everything, and people with an agenda are happy to reinforce this view of what he says.
It was definitely a low point on the show unless you have TDS in which case it was probably cathartic.
Thin skinned snowflakes threatened by comedy.
I used to watch John Oliver, back when it was funny.
Raw, un-insightful insults are not funny, and half the country will turn it off to watch something else.
For comparison, check out Dave Chapelle's monologue and hosting of SNL right after the 2016 election. His jokes were witty, showing a wry take on the situation, with a sense of humor.
For a non-contrast, check out any of Bill Maher's monologues - they're invariably pointed, mean, and with no insight or content. He's selling shock and promoting outrage instead of humor(*).
I thought Oliver's original take - getting the audience involved with his antics - was brilliant, and his research brought real issues into focus ...until he ran a segment about a subject I actually knew something about (vitamin D), which was completely in error, and I suddenly realized that I was taking his results as gospel without skepticism. Fell into the trap and didn't know it.
Anyway, I don't like contempt dressed up as comedy. Lena Dunham, Cathy Griffin, Bill Maher, Steven Colbert, and all the rest.
It's not creative, and it's not funny.
(*) Which is sad, because he's the only liberal celebrity I've seen who can rub two thoughts together to come up with a rational argument. He's very bright, but doesn't use his talent in any effective way.
I'm not sure that he actually thinks the "left field" comments are supposed to be considered ridiculous and thought of as absurd. I think it's more the propaganda technique of telling one truth followed by two lies.
I don't think Oliver tries to have an actual point so much as yank everyone's pants down around their ankles and let the audience see them for what they are worth.
Have gnu, will travel.
Some folks (by choice or ignorance) don't get Oliver's humor because it's so tightly mixed in with the real content. The worst of these people dismiss his show entirely because it's not funny, or because it attacks something they believe in.
This is accurate for some of his pieces, but not for most. The problem is mostly the right, but sometimes also the left, insists 'alternative facts' are on the same footing as actual facts, and that opinions based on alt facts, and positions based on "lets hurt people", are just as worthy. Its not always the case. Like "Global warming is a fake Chinese conspiracy to hurt the US" is not a side with as much merit as the other. Donald Trump is a stupid, ignorant, egomaniacal buffoon who incessantly lies is also an objectively true assessment, even if you agree with his posititions, and saying he's smart and well informed just isn't accurate; its not an equally valid side.
He should run for President.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I dismiss it because it’s funny. We probably can’t have that kind of people too
Yes it is propaganda ... except the two lies are incredibly obvious to the point of comedy. The methods share a lot in common but on John Oliver's show the obvious lies exist to solicit laughs rather than share information.
avoid rational discussion
I hate to point this out, but you and all the other people criticising him here are doing the same thing. No criticism of specific topics he covered or points he raised, just attacking his presentation and style. Okian came about the closest when he mentioned vitamin D, but didn't elaborate.
Can you perhaps give us some specific examples?
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I hereby condone your mention of Herman and Chomsky but what the heck is the Barbra Streisand effect?
> what the heck is the Barbra Streisand effect?
It's when people don't do a very easy fast web search to answer a simple question. Wait, that's something else.
He should run for President.
Exactly! "That's not who we are".
Oh, you meant that other president ...
He does have a certain point of view, however he always makes fun of himself as well and whatever he discusses it's always in a comedy style, which is much better way (making people laugh) then the other side extremes.
He does raise awareness to important neglected issues, like e.g. taking full guardianship of somebody's life without their consent, without any evidence of them needing it, without proper medical diagnosis and finally without any training or license required.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a dictatorship. Chavez holding up a Chomsky book doesn't make it anything else.
He jailed opposition. He shut down opposition news papers. He got the power to rule by decree (the dictate part of dictstorship).
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Particularly, in his take on 3rd parties during the election, Oliver's criticisms were superficial, largely aesthetic attacks, and he didn't even countenance, much less criticize, arguments practical or philosophical about the choice of voting outside the existing duopoly. Nor did he have anything at all to say about the parties' actual platforms, which is what an informed person votes by.
I think it's fair to say that for a long time he, like most people, didn't really expect Trump to win so didn't take him too seriously. On the other hand, I think he does make good political and philosophical/moral arguments, he just tends to preface them with some humorous insults.
I guess staying away from the wider platform issues is his thing - he's more focused on the less often discussed stuff, the things you might not be aware of.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Can't run for President; naturalized citizen, not a "natural born Citizen" per the Constitution (usually interpreted to mean born in the US or on a US territory/base/embassy, or child of a US citizen temporarily outside the US at the time of giving birth)
That didn't stop Obama.
DratatataTISH!
I knew somebody would bite.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Oliver sort of reminds me of Ben Elton (if you're not just a Brit, but an old one).
His material is sort of similar to that tall Scotch cunt who swears a lot, but the latter's delivery is totally deadpan whereas Oliver telegraphs the punchline a bit too much for my liking.
Having said that his show's OK, but I prefer that Aussie cunt who swears a lot. The one where he registers a camel as an emotional support animal is fucking hilarious.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."