John Oliver Puts Last Week Tonight Relics Up For Auction in Bid to Save Public Media

From Russell Crowe’s jockstrap to a giant sculpture of LBJ’s nether regions, John Oliver is auctioning off some of his show’s most infamous props to help support public media.

Oliver closed out the Season 12 finale of HBO’s Last Week Tonight by launching an online charity auction stocked with a decade’s worth of the series’ most recognizable oddities. The sale, which is live now, will send all proceeds to the Public Media Bridge Fund, which is providing immediate financial support to local public media stations facing closure after the elimination of federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

The move capped an episode centered on the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle public media. In response, Oliver did what the show has always done best: turn its archive of long-running gags and cultural detritus into a headline-generating stunt with a pointed political message.

The auction’s catalog swings from genuinely valuable to gleefully absurd.

The prize item is a rare Bob Ross painting created on-air during the artist’s tenth season of The Joy of Painting—donated by the late artist’s estate. (Bidding starts at $25,000.)

From there, the offerings tilt straight back into Oliver territory, including the leather jockstrap Crowe wore in Cinderella Man, which Last Week Tonight famously bought during the actor’s 2018 “Art of Divorce” auction. The piece anchored a stunt involving a Blockbuster in Anchorage and later inspired Crowe to fund a koala chlamydia ward in Oliver’s honor.

Other artifacts reach deep into the show’s mythology: Mrs. Cabbage Oliver, the silicone-and-foam “wife” Oliver married in a Season 9 bit about AI-generated art; a sculptural interpretation of Lyndon B. Johnson’s self-described anatomy from a recent Season 12 segment on presidential libraries; and the gold sneakers Oliver once vowed to wear if FIFA president Sepp Blatter ever stepped down. (He did, much to Oliver’s surprise.)

There’s also a painting of Larry Kudlow’s ties—created by Kudlow’s wife—purchased during the first Trump administration and now repurposed as charity bait for public media.

For fans seeking more than memorabilia, one lot offers the chance to appear in an over-the-shoulder photo next to Oliver in a future episode, along with two VIP seats at a taping and a signed close-up.

Among the other items rounding out the auction are a limited reserve of Cabernet SauvignJohn, Oliver’s sold-out wine release, and autographed gear from the Erie Moon Mammoths, the minor-league baseball team Last Week Tonight renamed earlier this season.

All 65 items up for bid can be viewed (and bid upon) through Monday, November 24, at johnoliversjunk.com.

With its 12th season complete, Last Week Tonight will be off the next two months. Oliver and his team are expected to return for Season 13 sometime in February 2026.