-Welcome back to "Late Night." We're here with John Oliver. John, I do enjoy you mentioned Edinburgh, which is part
of your early career, but I did not know --
because I did know that. I did not know that you wrote for a morning show
in Great Britain. -I did. That was one
of my first paid jobs, was there was a show
in England -- I don't know if it was on
when you were there -- called "The Big Breakfast"
on Channel 4. It was like a morning zoo
radio show on TV that looks like kind of
"Pee-Wee's Playhouse." And, yeah, so I would like get
a week contract, here and there, and would basically write puns
and guest questions. And it was fun
because it was fun getting paid to do something that,
if it wasn't comedy, it was at least
comedy-adjacent. But the longer I did it,
the more I wanted to kind of find ways to do something
that I thought was funny. And it all came to a head
with an interview with Tatyana Ali. Do you remember Tatyana Ali? -Yes.
-She was on "The Fresh Prince." Yeah, of course.
Of course you remember. -Yeah, yeah.
You seem offended. [ Laughter ] "Do I?
Sir, yes. Yes, I remember Tatyana
and you all know Tatyana Ali."
-I can't believe you know who she is. [ Laughter ]
Ouch! So, there was this idea
that, well, they'll do
some emergency questions and like break glass,
little prop, everything seems fun. And they just said,
"Just write us 50 questions." So we wrote 50 like generic, "What's it like working
on 'The Fresh Prince'?" And then, I wrote
one question in there about what was happening
in the world at the time. And it came up, unfortunately,
and it was -- I believe the question
she was then asked, at like 6:50
in the morning was, "Conditions on the ground
in Kosovo [ Laughter ]
seem to be deteriorating. Air strikes don't seem
to have worked. Would you send in
ground troops?" [ Laughter ] I remember watching it happen,
the start the question, thinking, "Uh-oh. Maybe he'll bail out of it when he realizes
this is a problem." He kept reading it
and it got to the end. I remember thinking,
"Well, that was a fun job, but it does feel like
neither side of this are a great fit for the other. Let's just go
our separate ways." -Did they know,
amongst the writing staff, were they sure, right away,
who had written that? -[ Laughs ] I think I'd kind of -- We'd written it the previous day
and I think I'd made a kind of, "Ha ha, we'll get this in
and it'll never get picked," so I think it was very much
a sense of, there's no collective
responsibility here. "There's a sword. Please fall on it." [ Laughter ] -I do want to talk to you
about some sad news. We've obviously talked
about the royal family before when you have graced us
with your presence. Prince Philip passed away. How are you feeling about that? -Oh, thanks. -Thanks.
-I appreciate it, yeah. [ Laughter ] I mean, it's difficult,
isn't it?
-Sure. -When a 99-year-old... [ Laughter ] ...such a checkered
moral history leaves us, it's hard to know exactly how
to feel, or, indeed, whether to articulate
how you actually do. It's difficult, isn't it?
-Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, yeah. You pointed out last night,
on your show, you reminded people --
which I had forgotten -- that he and the queen
were cousins, in fact. -They were very close.
They were. [ Laughter ]
And I don't think it was just restricted to them.
I believe that that family is familiar [ Laughter ]
with one another. -Well, that speaks
to their closeness. [ Laughs ]
Speaks. That's right. What they -- In the way that they can't be
close emotionally, they certainly are close
biologically and I think that's something,
isn't it? -Yeah.
Something you want to see on a tea service, you know,
or a commemorative plate. -Yeah, it's tough. I will say, you know, with that general rule
that, you know, you should not speak ill
of the dead, it feels like people were really
trying to do that, until -- What you also can't do is speak
overly complimentary of the dead and it feels like, at that
point, all bets are off. Then, the people who have been
biting their tongue go, "Actually, [bleep] you. No. Here's what he was like. [ Laughter ] -You want to do something
which is very nice and I really think speaks
to your generosity. We have a guest on tomorrow... -Yes.
-Patrick Radden Keefe. He's a wonderful author. He has a book coming out -Amazing.
tonight, midnight tonight. -Absolutely amazing. So, yeah, his last book,
I think might have been the book I've enjoyed the most
over the last couple of years -- -I agree.
-about Northern Island. I think about it all the time. And this new one is
about the Sackler family and I have not been more excited
about a book for a long time. Remember when the last
Harry Potter book came out and there were all those shots
of kids lined up outside of Barnes & Noble? -[ Laughs ]
-That's how I feel about this. If bookstores were still
technically a thing and if there wasn't a pandemic,
I would be outside a bookstore at midnight tonight, dressed like a member
of the Sackler family. [ Laughter ] -Hey, thank you. It's always
so great to see you. And, you know,
you've been on the show a lot. This is the first time
you've been on the show that West Ham
is slightly higher in the table -Yeah, yeah.
-than Liverpool. -You're doing great.
Congratulations. -I feel like it's not
going to last, but I'm certainly
enjoying the ride. -It won't, but that's the
important thing, isn't it? It's like eating
a delicious meal that you can't really afford.
You're going to get to the end of it.
You're never going to have that experience again,
but enjoy it. -Well, I will take that advice. -I would love West Ham to go -- I would love us to both be
in the top 4. That would be great.
-That would be a perfect outcome to this season.
-And if Chelsea could drop out, because that's a blood sport
that they're playing. [ Laughter ] Thank you, John.
I really do hope, one of these days,
we see you in person again. -Yeah, that would be great. -"Last Week Tonight"
airs Sunday nights on HBO and is available
to stream on HBO Max. Patrick Radden Keefe's book
"Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the
Sackler Dynasty" is out now.
