A new season of Last Week Tonight is around the corner, and with it comes a glorious new “then and now”-style poster that shows a 2014 John Oliver sitting alongside a very weary-looking 2023 John Oliver. The caption reads, “It’s only been nine years.”
“It’s not ideal,” Oliver tells Stephen Colbert in the Late Show clip above, after the host holds the poster up to the camera. “The thing is our writer, Seena, he came up with this idea, and it’s the perfect idea. We sent it to HBO and the first draft they sent back was me on this side, then they mocked up me with a long beard, like I’m in ZZ Top. We had to say to them, ‘No, the joke isn’t what I might look like if I age badly. The joke is my actual face.’
“Believe my, my face can stick the landing on this punchline.”
