Impassioned, yes. On the verge of tears, no. That’s the message John Oliver has for those who’ve suggested otherwise while reporting on his pre-election plea to viewers on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight.
“How are you feeling?,” Stephen Colbert jokingly asked Oliver at the top of his sit-down with the HBO star on Monday night’s Late Show. “At the head of my news feed this morning was the headline, ‘Teary-Eyed John Oliver Pleads with America,’ or something like that.”
“Yeah, ‘Chokes Back Tears,” Oliver said before chiming in with the exaggerated headline “Fights the Salt Wave Emitting from His Eyes.”
“It was very weird to see so many people thought I was crying,” Oliver continued. “I wasn’t crying… not even a little bit… I’m British. I’m dead inside. There’s no functional emotion left in here.”
That’s not how multiple news outlets saw it Sunday night, as various reports claimed that Oliver “found himself getting choked up” (Entertainment Weekly), “seemed to be fighting back tears” (Deadline), and “got very serious, his voice even cracking from emotion” (The Wrap).
The main moment reporters latched onto came toward the end of the segment. After arguing that elections are “absolutely necessary for [change] to ever happen,” he emphatically stated, “I love this country. I’m an immigrant. I chose to be here.”
In addition to giving Oliver a chance to defend his disposition, Colbert provided him the opportunity to reiterate one of the strongest points he made Sunday.
After they watched a 2015 Late Show clip in which Oliver said he “couldn’t give less of a sh*t” about Donald Trump, the HBO host said, “I still don’t give a sh*t about him. I just know that I have to… I think it would be a gift to the nation if we could give ourselves the joy of not caring anymore. I think that’s where we’ll all be happiest.”
