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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.
China just needs to grin and bear it.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
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.
Yes, and John Oliver can mock Justin Trudeau as much as he wants and it'll be perfectly allowed. Our PM won't even have the audacity to call it fake news. He'd just take it like a Canadian and probably laugh. To be honest, most Canadians will probably laugh as well - we recognize attempts at humor, as long as it is in good taste (i.e., nothing about minorities, race, religion, sexual orientation or the like).
(Yes, Trump's definition of "fake news" is basically "anything that does not show Donald in a positive light". If you're not ass-kissing, you're fake news. I think it's probably easier to say those outlets that Trump doesn't call Fake News are, and those he calls fake news aren't.)
John Oliver's segments are often reposted officially on YouTube. Sometimes those videos are geolocked to not include Canada. Most of them aren't so you can watch them freely.
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.
He should run for President.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Until recently you could watch John Oliver on YouTube - not the full episode but the main story. They've blocked Canadians from accessing it, likely at the behest of Bell Canada who owns TMN Go, the service you need to subscribe to at that link.
That means you need a cable package that includes The Movie Network (extra $20 on top of the cable package, so a minimum of $45)
Compare that with HBO Now at US$14.99
CBC even did an article on it: http://www.cbc.ca/news/busines...