Talk:John Oliver

April Fools Day Edit Request

John Oliver requested his viewers not to participate in April Fools, and specifically not to perpetuate a celebrity death hoax (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXYXuXX48m8&feature=em-uploademail). I was wondering if it would be cool to start an (obviously fake) death hoax that John Oliver died on April Fools 2015, and edit his page with fake information. Timothyjknapp (talk) 23:49, 30 March 2015 (UTC)timothyjknapp

British born

Shouldn't this really only be used for people who were born in Britain but would be identified as something other than British at present? John Oliver is just a British comedian who is famous in the US, Bob Hope is "British-born". -- MichiganCharms (talk) 12:38, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Agreed, Oliver is British not British-born. --

ColinJackson22 (talk) 10:38, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

He's a permanent resident of the United States. He doesn't live in the UK, and he has no intention to ever move back. He is an immigrant. So what's the problem here? —Bill Price (nyb) 17:02, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Has he ever actually said "I HAVE NO INTENTION OF EVER GOING BACK TO THE UK, EVER, EVER, EVER!"? He's a British comic who lives in the US, and a large portion of his comedy comes from the fact that he's a British person in the US. Look for other examples of people who have moved to the US, achieved fame and taken US citizenship at a later date: Graham Nash is English even though he's been a US citizen for longer than he lived in England, Alan Cumming is a Scottish actor even though he's lived and worked in the US for the past decade and is a US citizen, Anthony Hopkins is Welsh in spite of now being an American citizen. The "-born" thing is generally used in the cases of child immigrants who maintained a connection with their country of birth (like Desi Arnaz) or for historical personages whose associations were primarily with a country other than the one they were born in. Furthermore, the implication of it is that the person has ceased to be "British" or "French" or whatever... Oliver is not only still a British citizen, I can't imagine he intends to renounce his citizenship once he becomes an American. -- MichiganCharms (talk) 21:48, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

I can't speak to any renouncing of his British citizenship, but I'm sure I remember his saying at least once in the past few months, on "Last Week Tonight," that he is an American citizen. I'm not changing the article because I don't remember the specific program, and I've forgotten how to append "citation needed," especially if it's appended to something that I write myself, if if makes a difference. GcT (talk) 07:47, 23 April 2015 (UTC)

Edit request

Could someone add {{other people|John Oliver}} to the top of the page, so there is a hatnote link back to the John Oliver disambiguation page? I can't do it myself due to the page protection. Thanks, Palltrast (talk) 13:49, 2 July 2011 (UTC)

There doesn't appear to be another John Oliver who is an entertainer and has an article here, so such a hatnote is not called for.--Michig (talk) 14:26, 2 July 2011 (UTC)

Wisconsin camel

How is this significant to Oliver's biography? The section only mentions Oliver once in that he asked someone to stop filming. The criticism, which is cited to primary sources, doesn't even mention Oliver. January (talk) 16:37, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

He's the reporter for the story that resulted in the inadvertent torture of an animal. A species of animal that has really no significant reason to be in Wisconsin. The story received significant coverage, and received heavy criticism from animal rights organizations. That clearly makes it significant, and being the reporter on the scene clearly makes it a significant moment in his career. Since the section qualifies to be included by reliable sources it should be included until the discussion is complete and otherwise is decided. As a compromise I am willing to reduce the contents, and not have the contents' have its own section.Racingstripes (talk) 22:24, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

None of the sources described it as "torture". The criticism is not directed at Oliver and is cited to primary sources which is not acceptable for a controversy. This has had a few news articles about it but it's not a major scandal. The video has just below 250K views which isn't massive by YouTube standards. From the sources presented the subject's only documented part in the incident is that he asked someone to stop filming.

Has this material been removed before? I noticed that the Alliance for Animals ref had an accessed date of February 26, 2011 and the link just goes to their home page. January (talk) 23:03, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

I disagree with you, you disagree with me. I made my point, you made your point. Now what?Racingstripes (talk) 23:55, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

WP:Third opinion? I’ve answered my own question on the other, it’s from the history of The Daily Show – the reason given for removing it from that article is that it was only a minor incident [1]. (If you’re copying text you didn't write yourself from another article, you need to follow WP:CWW to ensure correct attribution.) January (talk) 08:54, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

If the incident is barely notable enough for the article about the show, then I doubt it's worth mentioning here (and if it is worth mentioning here, it's definitely not worth more than a sentence or two). DP76764 (Talk) 15:49, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

I edit based on WP:IGNORE.Racingstripes (talk) 17:57, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

"Read English"

Is this a joke? "In 1998, he graduated from Christ's College, Cambridge, where he read English." 75.149.35.46 (talk) 05:19, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Hi. I don't think it is a joke. I think 'read English' is a regionalism meaning that his major was English. Paisarepa (talk) 05:36, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Correct, it's a British idiom. 146.200.56.41 (talk) 20:52, 9 April 2015 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was moved. --BDD (talk) 00:49, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

John Oliver (entertainer) → John Oliver (comedian) – WP:CRITERIA on recognizability and precision. Known as Google "the comedian John Oliver" in The Telegraph and so on. In ictu oculi (talk) 05:12, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

• Support per nom. He's a stand-up comedian who's presented a comedy show and has acted in some comedy roles. --McGeddon (talk) 09:14, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

• Support move. A standard comment about "entertainer" being a bad disambiguator should be read here. 168.12.253.66 (talk) 15:52, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

• Support move. "Entertainer" is a vague catchall term that can apply to virtually anyone in the popular arts. I suppose there are some specialized acts that fall into no other clear category and for which "entertainer" would be appropriate, but that's not the case with John Oliver. --Tenebrae (talk) 17:49, 30 August 2013 (UTC)
• Support, per the nominator. ╠╣uw [talk] 10:47, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Original research concern

Utilization of this link: http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/1997-98/weekly/5744/5.html as a citation for the middle name and graduating school is original research. These two claims should be removed until they can be corroborated by a proper third party source. Yamaguchi先生 19:58, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

American?

Oliver is not American. He has green card, not an American citizenship. Archwayh (talk) 12:20, 23 January 2015 (UTC) →True. I just heard this confirmed on an NPR interview. He said he's not sure he's eligible for citizenship by marriage yet, and hasn't really thought about what he'll do when he is. -208.58.206.250 (talk) 20:32, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

British identity

Oliver refers to himself as British and refers to the UK or British issues. Below are a few videos of him doing so:

1. Mentions British, Britons, UK and British Empire

2. Mentions the United Kingdom and Britain

3. Speaking about British culture, talks about 'British people', says that is 'Bitish' and says that is what 'we' do.

4. John Oliver at 0:12 'I am British' and at 0:55 'easiest few months to be British'

--109.147.46.97 (talk) 07:20, 18 May 2015 (UTC)