John Oliver Comments on the Netflix-WBD Deal in Last Week Tonight Season 13 Premiere: A Nod to the Ending of Stranger Things
John Oliver addressed a myriad of pressing societal and political issues in the premiere episode of Last Week Tonight Season 13. Returning from a three-month hiatus, Oliver swiftly navigated various headlines, including the controversies surrounding the 2026 Winter Olympics and the U.S. kidnapping of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The episode largely focused on the consequences of ICE crackdowns in Minneapolis, tracing their roots to the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security following the September 11 attacks.
“In the immediate aftermath of the most devastating terrorist attack in its history, America started screaming, and didn’t really stop for a decade,” Oliver stated. He then pivoted to discuss the Riyadh Comedy Festival, quipping, “And while, thankfully, the Riyadh Comedy Festival has since healed the world through comedy, we don’t need to be worried about who or what was actually responsible for 9/11.”
(Several comedians, including Aziz Ansari, Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson, and Dave Chappelle, faced criticism for their involvement in the Saudi Arabia-sponsored event, widely viewed as part of the country’s ongoing effort to improve its image despite its history of human rights abuses.)
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Oliver also likened the mismanagement of the newly established DHS to his own experience, remarking, “Having an endless cavalcade of rapidly changing bosses would clearly be a distraction, though I gotta say, you do eventually get used to it,” while displaying the Warner Bros. Discovery logo.
He continued, joking about the uncertainty surrounding his potential partnership with either Paramount or Netflix: “It’s like a Mamma Mia! situation except less fun and way less sexy. But incidentally, if it is indeed Netflix, sorry for all the times I called your catalog a ‘who’s who of who the fuck is this?’”
Oliver wrapped up his commentary by humorously critiquing the color grading of Stranger Things and offering best wishes for Netflix’s upcoming project Detective Hole: “Loved the ending of Stranger Things, by the way — very brown.”
In discussing the impact of ICE’s expansion on worker standards, Oliver referred to Bad Bunny’s recent halftime show performance, emphasizing the lack of Spanish-language lessons for agents: “This is a bad idea for many reasons, including those agents now won’t get to understand even a little bit of Bad Bunny’s music, which is sad for them; they’re missing out on a lot of joy, plenty of political commentary and a metric ton of blowjob descriptions. There is a lot — it’s a rich text!”
Concluding his segment, he stated, “We need to get rid of ICE, period. Public trust in it right now is hovering somewhere between Purdue Pharma and the Titan submersible — it is just not salvageable. And if you’re thinking, ‘Well, who will enforce immigration law if ICE is gone?’ I don’t know, maybe the agencies that did it for decades before 2003.”
