12 TV Comedies You Need To Be Watching

With Jon Stewart about to leave The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert moving away from his character, John Oliver is the new face of political satire. 

Initially, it seemed like Last Week Tonight was going to basically be The Daily Show but longer and with profanity. Oliver had already filled in for Jon Stewart for a few months, so everyone was kind of assuming Last Week Tonight would basically be him doing more of that same shtick. 

But it quickly became clear that Oliver had no interest in just doing exactly what Stewart and Colbert have done for the past decade, offering something entirely new. Instead of merely riffing on the day's headlines as Stewart does, Oliver really takes his time going in depth with broader stories, like the corruption of FIFA, maternity leave, standardized testing and civil forfeiture.

Oliver totally makes use of the freedom of HBO, really digging deep into these issues and spending his time with them. A recent segment from earlier this year about the NCAA was nearly as long as an entire Daily Show episode. 

His segments are extremely well researched an informative, but also funny as hell when appropriate. It's a show that genuinely aims to inform audiences about important issues while also making a mockery of them, with Oliver making you laugh as much as he makes you angry.