Entertainment

John Oliver Makes His Endorsement, And Nobody Saw It Coming

Published on: July 27, 2016 at 10:57 AM
By Stacey Cole

John Oliver hasn’t endorsed either Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton or Republican nominee Donald Trump, according to Entertainment Weekly . The Last Week Tonight host doesn’t want to be like everyone else, so he has just endorsed something entirely different.

In his recent web exclusive clip, John Oliver announced that he was about to make “a few endorsements,” but quickly added that it wasn’t endorsements for president of the United States.

Instead, John Oliver made a joke that due to his British accent the only elected officials he can endorse are “prime ministers, viceroys” as well as “magical railway controllers.” No, but in his web clip, the Last Week Tonight host has endorsed animals wearing people clothes.

“I officially endorse you. You are charming and a wholesome delight, unlike people wearing animal clothes, which is generally a specific sex thing.”

And then John Oliver made a few other absurd endorsements before he focused his attention on the 1999 film Pushing Tin , which stars John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton. And why Oliver loves this movie is that it’s so boring it can “knock you the f*** out.”

John Oliver returns to his Last Week Tonight on HBO with all new episodes, jokes and possibly even more absurd endorsements on July 24.

John Oliver is trying to help employees of his production company who were ripped off, according to CNBC . The comedian couldn’t contain his outrage, so he recorded a TV segment in which he took a shot at non-fiduciary financial advisors and their ripping off schemes.

In the segment, which has been viewed over 4 million times on YouTube, John Oliver discussed how the employees were ripped off by their 401(k) plan. The comedian explained that it was the broker’s fault, who sold the plan to them but wasn’t legally obliged to act in their clients’ best interests.

So, basically the broker wasn’t a fiduciary, which created big financial issues for the employees working at John Oliver’s production company in the first place.

Watch the segment here.

And John Oliver sure knows how to humiliate and embarrass unjust people, and this time, the comedian highlighted one of the many issues of the financial services industry. The problem exists because brokers work on commission and make a profit from selling financial products, so they don’t really have the motivation to care about their clients’ interests.

Earlier this year, the Department of Labor adopted a new measure which requires financial advisors who advise their clients on retirement plans to comply with the fiduciary standard. But, as John Oliver pointed out in his segment, the Department of Labor made a few concessions in order to make the new rule work.

It’s because some financial services organizations were concerned that the new measure adopted by the Department of Labor could negatively impact investors and as a result prevent a broker from getting any profits.

And another problem which was previously discussed by John Oliver on his show, is that a new prescription drug takes years to test, approve and then introduce to the market. And then if an FDA-approved drug turns out to be harmful to human health, it’s withdrawn from the market. But the problem is that the SEC never prosecuted those innocent in the 2008 financial crisis, which collapsed many economies around the world. In fact, the SEC failed to prosecute Bernie Madoff, even though the organization had been informed of his atrocities long before he publicly confessed.

But could John Oliver’s efforts to put the mass media spotlight on these issues and bring change to one of the biggest issues of the financial services industry?

[Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival]

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