In season 11 Last week tonight final, Johannes Olivier addressed TikTok‘s ongoing lawsuits against the US government’s attempts to ban the Chinese company ByteDance’s platform.
Oliver kicked off the program with a rundown of the week’s “terrible headlines,” including Mark Zuckerberg dropping a single with artist T-Pain as the two covered “Get Low” — a project the comedian-host likened to “Kidz Bop ‘. for adults, where all the curses are intact, but there is still a deep feeling that music was a mistake.
He also briefly touched on Donald Trump’s series of Cabinet picks that have sparked backlash on both sides of the aisle, including the nomination of Matt Gaetz as attorney general: “A man who my lawyers insist I can’t call Jeffrey Epstein when he goes to the better beaches. .”
However, most of the latest episode focused on the dueling interests of TikTok and the US government. Oliver started the segment with a clip of a social media user reacting to popular chocolatier Amaury Guichon, who was making what at first glance seemed like a NSFW chocolate creation.
“What a trip! And honestly, I don’t know how TV is supposed to compete with that. I would absolutely watch that guy host a game show called Cock or Snake? It actually is Is it cake? just with significantly more snake-on-dick injuries,” Oliver joked.
One of TikTok’s most controversial elements is the platform’s super-fast algorithm, which works by collecting and tracking user data: “That way it can quickly figure out what you like and give you more of the same again and again, no different than a loving grandmother or Miracle Studios,” Oliver said, taking a swipe at the studio about consumer superhero fatigue.
Oliver then played a series of TikToks with women who said the platform helped them realize they were queer. They said the platform “accelerates people’s sexual awakening. In the past, such a revelation might have taken years of therapy or an entire episode Xena: Warrior Princess. I honestly don’t think a machine has been responsible for more sexual awakenings since then The Iron Giantand I’m not going to explain myself to you about that. I won’t do it. He is objectively a handsome robot, he is tall, has kind eyes, is good with children and, I’m sure, has a vibrate mode. Don’t be weird about this. You are foreign.”
And while Oliver says he is hesitant to put his trust in a multinational profiteering from consumer data, “his behavior is quite consistent with the very poor standards of Silicon Valley itself. Think of TikTok as a soft drink company in the 19th century. Sure, the product is mainly cocaine, but show me a children’s drink that isn’t.”
He concluded: “In a world where Instagram knows your location, Uber knows your childhood fears and DoorDash has a detailed 3D view of your small intestine that its executives use as a screensaver, claiming you are protecting Americans’ privacy by Ban TikTok. you fight climate change by banning the Kia Sorrento. Sure, I mean it’s not technically nothing, but in a broader sense it’s actually nothing.”
As the show wrapped up and concluded Season 12 in 2025, Oliver took part in a viral TikTok trend of his own, in which he recreated Charli XCX’s ‘Apple’ dance.
“In 2025, I would like Elon Musk to jump so high that he never comes down,” he said of his New Year’s resolutions. ‘I’d like to go away for one day without hearing anything about the Bad film. And I would like the final in 2025 Mission: Impossible film ends with Tom Cruise removing his face mask to reveal Shelly Miscavige.