Last Week Tonight with John Oliver will be entering its fourth season soon, and in a TV landscape filled to the brim with political pundits, late night shows, and personality-driven commentary series (from The Daily Show to Samantha Bee), this show has managed to succeed in finding its own niche. Though I was never a fan of Oliver's stand-up, he has really found a format that works for him with Last Week Tonight, being (as Kumail Nanjiani says in this clip) an "acquired taste" of "a British man yelling about how the world is going to end."

The teaser makes fun of the fact that Last Week Tonight is definitely not the biggest, most groundbreaking, or most anticipated show on HBO (and the premium network does a bit of self-congratulation on that point), but through its viral clips and Oliver's sincerely impassioned pleas to put to rights a world that seems to be spinning out of control, it has become an essential voice.

Check out the promo below:

While the Game of Thrones reference is a little obvious and over-used, I loved the Silicon Valley joke with Kumail (his timing is always perfect), plus the surprise cameo from Larry David touting the return of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Of course, with as critical as Oliver has been in the past regarding Donald Trump (remember the Drumpf video?), he will surely have no lack of fodder for the new season of his show. But Oliver doesn't just focus on politics, and has done some amazing work like forgiving $15 million in medical debt, which was an exercise in showing how unbelievably predatory the debt collection business is (not to mention medical expenses themselves). Oliver has said in the past that HBO gives him complete freedom when it comes to criticizing corporations -- something that only a premium network could afford to do. But let's be thankful it does, since it's a voice in the wilderness at this point.

Last Week Tonight's fourth season will premiere Sunday, February 12th on HBO.

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Image via HBO

 

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Image via HBO
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Image via HBO