'Not sure I need movies anymore': John Oliver kicks off 'Last Week Tonight' with joke on SAG-AFTRA strike ending
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: John Oliver kickstarted Sunday’s 'Last Week Tonight' with a tad of humor as he joked about the SAG-AFTRA strike ending before questioning if movies were still needed.
The 46-year-old comedian began by noting that the 118-day strike had come to an end thanks to a tentative deal reached between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
“The SAG strike finally ended, meaning that movies will be back in production,” Oliver stated in the opening segment of his HBO show.
He then joked, “Although to be honest, I’m not even sure I need movies anymore since this 17-minute video was released of what I can only describe as a hamster Gatsby living its best life.”
He then played a clip of around a minute from a video called 'The Awesome Hamster Ball Pool Maze', which Homura Ham Pets had posted to YouTube and had 1.4 million views in the four months that it had been live.
“It’s a complete masterpiece and it goes on for 16 more minutes. I mean, Barbenheimer was fine,” Oliver said, referring to 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer', which were released on the same weekend.
“I liked it fine, but be honest, it’s just not as good as that,” he continued.
John Oliver accuses studios of prolonging writers’ strike
In November, SAG-AFTRA reached a deal with the studios that ended a 118-day strike. Under the new three-year deal, actors would be allowed to get back to work and revitalize Hollywood to resume productions that have been paused due to the strike.
“We got the protections we needed in AI. We got the funds that we needed for the new revenue stream. That was the two biggest outstanding pieces,” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said after the deal.
John Oliver hopeful IATSE and SAG-AFTRA will get 'fair contracts'
Earlier in October, when Oliver’s show returned to air, he expressed anger at the studios, blaming them for extending writers’ strikes.
“The Writers Guild went on strike and thankfully won, but it took a lot of sacrifices from a lot of people to achieve that,” he said.
“And while I’m happy that they eventually got a fair deal and immensely proud of what our union accomplished, I’m also furious that it took the studios 148 days to achieve a deal that they could have offered on day fucking one.”
“But hopefully, this might encourage others, from auto workers to Starbucks baristas to health care providers, whether they are in unions or would like to be, to find power in each other. And within our particular industry,” the comedian stated.
Oliver then voiced his hope that IATSE and SAG-AFTRA will be able to "take what the writers achieved and leverage it to win fair contracts for themselves too."
“Because the truth is, it takes many people working really hard to make film and TV, all of whom deserve a piece of the pie and for the actors in particular, they cannot come back to work soon enough,” he added.
