Last Week Tonight was off this week, but John Oliver still found time to deliver some new content to his show’s YouTube channel: a 20-minute video making the case that he should star in Air Bud Returns, the newly announced 15th entry in the Air Bud franchise.
The segment continues a long-running Last Week Tonight tradition of off-week “web exclusives.” Since the show’s 2014 debut, Oliver and team have produced more than 50 of them, tackling oddball or topical subjects outside the show’s main run. The most recent, released in August, featured Oliver skewering MyPillow founder Mike Lindell and his MyStore.
Oliver first tackled the Air Bud cinematic universe in a 15-minute web exclusive released in the spring of 2022, dissecting the original film’s chaotic logic.
In the newly released clip, Oliver picks up where he left off, breaking down for newcomers the Air Bud franchise’s improbable longevity—fourteen films and counting, including, inexplicably, Space Buddies. “It seems cosmically unjust to me that there are 14 Air Bud movies and still just three Bill and Teds, two Freaky Fridays, and one lonely Michael Clayton,” he said. “They could and they should make Michael Clayton Goes to France.”
After mocking creator Robert Vince’s clumsy basketball handling (“he handles the ball like he’s afraid he’ll break it”), Oliver zeroed in on the upcoming reboot’s premise: a 12-year-old who discovers both a stray golden retriever and a VHS copy of the original Air Bud in his late father’s belongings. “I can get behind the Air Bud franchise reaching the heights of space,” Oliver said. “But what I cannot do is wrap my brain around an Air Bud that takes place in a universe that also has Air Bud the movie.”
He also took aim at the production’s nationwide dog search. “You don’t have the dog yet? You are trying to crowdsource the dog,” Oliver exclaimed. “Announcing you’re making another Air Bud movie when you don’t have a dog who can play basketball is audacious.”
From there, he pivoted to his own campaign: himself as Air Bud.
“I know I’m not a dog,” Oliver conceded, before echoing the original Air Bud,“but so what if I’m a man? There ain’t no rule that says a man can’t try out for Air Bud.” He capped the video by taking an on-camera basketball shot and declaring, “If I sink this, you must consider me for the role—because there ain’t no rule against it.”
Watch the full 20-minute video at the top of this post.
