Stephen Colbert And John Oliver Fire Guns At Their Audience

SAG/AFTRA is still on strike. While negotiations have started back up, we’re still not out of the strike woods yet. So, talk shows have returned. Their usual guests, actors promoting sequels, aren’t able to join them right now. That’s great! SAG/AFTRA deserves a fair contract and should keep fighting until they receive it. It’s also great because the hosts need to fill those seat holes. It turns out that they’re calling on each other to fix that issue (for now).

John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight, was a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night. Oliver is no stranger to the Ed Sullivan Theater. He was a guest at the taping I attended in 2019 (and has been on plenty aside from that). The two have an incredible rapport. They’re silly, friendly nerds who aren’t afraid to rib each other here and there. They also aren’t afraid to fire off a couple of blasts at their audience.

Oliver and Colbert are two of the five hosts of the now-defunct Strike Force Five podcast. The podcast was created to support late-night writers while the WGA was on strike. As the hosts pointed out, the strike is over. So is the podcast. Before they can move on, they have some merch they need to unload. Sure, they could donate the shirts to people in need, like a failed World Series competitor, but wouldn’t it be more fun to fire those shirts out of a canon?

The bespectacled brethren were handed t-shirt canons, and I’ve never seen John Oliver more excited. The way he giggles whilst firing a shirt canon is a level of joy I wish for all of you. It is so pure and genuine, even when he hits a female audience member directly in the face. He’s so excited his canon prematurely goes off before he’s ready (there’s no other way to type that sentence).

I’ve wondered how late-night may evolve post-strike. It is a format that does not feel long for this Earth (much to my chagrin). What can be gained from a late-night talk show is just as achievable on a podcast. Will hosts start pivoting to more moments like this? Goofing around with your friends in front of a live audience? That’s hard to turn away from, especially if you find yourself in the site of John “Sharpshooter” Oliver.