If you don’t know who John Oliver is, you probably should. He’s the bespectacled British comedian who serves as a regular correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, delivering his views on political issues of the day with a deadpan style. His first Comedy Central Special, John Oliver – Terrifying Times, gives the comedian a chance to go solo, trading the green screens of Jon Stewart’s studio for the stage at New York’s Symphony Space, but his trademark dry wit is the same. Slightly longer and with more naughty words than its original televised incarnation, this hour-long special showcases Oliver’s uniquely literate and legitimately funny take on just about every problem facing the world today.


John_Oliver.JPGYou know you’re in for something different right off the bat with the start-up menu; I won’t spoil the surprise for you, but I will say you don’t want to press any selections on the menu, despite Oliver’s increasingly desperate pleas to get you to do just that.
Once Oliver’s stand-up routine gets rolling, he takes on a wide variety of topics– the economy, the war, voting, religion, the environment, Wikipedia–and looks at them from a British perspective and with his own brand of mumbling skepticism. Augmenting Oliver’s jokes is a huge screen that projects photographs of the things he’s referencing. He attempts to ease our fears about American imperialism and our eroding global reputation. After all, Britain went through it to and survived. America’s only real problem he says, is we’re going through it in an era of the 24-hour news cycle.
The special also includes two segments of John Oliver with “Professor” Andy Zaltzman. While both are funny, one is particularly memorable. Oliver gives his take on Britain’s efforts to create alternative energy sources (let’s just say they involve burning people of various differing religious stripes), which moves into a very funny discussion about God’s own biases. While the segment is blatantly politically incorrect, it’s also blatantly funny.
Terrifying Times drags a little bit when Oliver brings out the well worn jokes about Bush 43 and Fox News. While there both an easy target and good for a quick laugh, there’s really no new material here. Luckily for Oliver, some of his best stuff in the special isn’t even political. For instance, Oliver says he’s so desensitized to war and violence, the only thing left that can make him cry is “slow motion sequences of sporting triumph and failure set to rock ballads from the 1980s.” Oliver also tells some very funny stories from his childhood.
While Terrifying Times itself is only 56 minutes long, it’s worth noting that the DVD offers almost an hour of bonus material. Four classic segments from The Daily Show, a sort of “warm-up” for the taped show with Oliver at the UCB Theater in New York, and another back and forth between Oliver and Zaltzman. Make sure to play with your directional arrows on the Extras screen to get to a semi-Easter Egg (hint: look for Bush 43’s face).
Fans of The Daily Show and/or John Oliver, will want to check out Terrifying Times for it’s smart take on current events.