Elon Musk has had his fair share of critics and commentators, and on Sunday night, the Tesla founder was the subject of one of the most popular shows on streaming today.
“Last Week Tonight,” a satirical news program on Max hosted by John Oliver, aired its final episode of 2023 by doing a story on Musk. Oliver recognized at the top of the show that Musk had a “pretty big twelve months,” which led to the show’s decision to do over 30 minutes on the billionaire.
The show is known for its intricate deep dives that look into the truth behind an array of topics, as seen by its recent episodes that go from uncovering the poor practices of the consulting firm McKinsey to exposing the hidden atrocities in the supply chain of chocolate. Despite its direct attacks at powerful companies and industries, “Last Week Tonight” has been around for a decade and is a highly-awarded program with over 25 Emmys.
The show’s 2023 finale on Musk may be its most daring, considering the power that the billionaire wields, but Musk’s power is exactly what Oliver wanted to highlight in his story.
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Oliver opened by taking a few joking jabs at Musk, but his intro ends with a disclaimer that he expected his piece to not be well-received by both Musk supporters and critics. The point, however, is that Musk and his companies are so consequential that the world may not be able to be indifferent to him anymore.
“There are also people who would understandably rather just ignore him, but as you will see, we might have passed the point where that is an option for any of us,” Oliver said.
The former “The Daily Show” correspondent proceeded to talk about Musk’s different successes and failures.
Oliver pointed out some of Musk’s embarrassing moments, like the Cybertruck launch where a baseball drilled a hole in the car’s window, and the numerous failed SpaceX launches. But he also pointed out that SpaceX has been “genuinely impressive” and that Tesla is a “big success.”
