While tackling the more serious topic of transgender rights during Sunday night’s episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver couldn’t help but slip into a few jabs at his own network. During his deep dive into the importance of providing gender-affirming care, Oliver fired off a quick barb at House of the Dragon, HBO’s current tentpole title and ratings juggernaut.
Oliver showed video of an interview with a young transgender girl expressing her irritation that she could not use the girls bathroom at school, which had installed security guards outside the bathroom. “Oh, I hate that!” she said.
“That is brutal,” Oliver said. “It’s so dark it is genuinely hard to watch — which would also, coincidentally, be a pretty accurate tagline for House of the Dragon,” he quipped of HBO’s Game of Thrones spinoff.
Later in the segment, Oliver peppered in a jab at the wonky HBO Max app while discussing puberty blockers. “Think of it like a pause button — that thing you can’t do easily on the HBO Max app.”
Naturally, this isn’t the first time that Oliver has called out his place of employment. Following the Batgirl debacle, the late night host tore into the newly-merged Warner Bros. Discovery and its new practice of axing content for a tax write-off.
“Hi there, new business daddy!” Oliver said just a few days after the DC Comics movie was shelved. “Seems like you’re doing a really great job. I do get the vague sense that you’re burning down my network for the insurance money, but I’m sure that will all pass.”
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)