--- title: John Oliver Talks to Monica Lewinsky on 'Last Week Tonight' description: John Oliver also blasted Jay Leno for scolding late night television's lack of civility canonical: https://time.com/5553345/john-oliver-monica-lewinsky-last-week-tonight/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-03-18T08:49:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:09.193Z og:title: John Oliver Talks to Monica Lewinsky on 'Last Week Tonight' og:description: In an episode about public shaming, Oliver did not hold back on Jay Leno og:url: https://time.com/5553345/john-oliver-monica-lewinsky-last-week-tonight/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Oliver Talks to Monica Lewinsky on 'Last Week Tonight' twitter:description: In an episode about public shaming, Oliver did not hold back on Jay Leno twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # John Oliver and Monica Lewinsky Talk Public Shaming on _Last Week Tonight_ > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: A Visual Timeline of the Monica Lewinsky Scandal [Watch (HLS stream): A Visual Timeline of the Monica Lewinsky Scandal](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HPrA9SSS.m3u8) (4:55)  _Published 2018-05-04. In 1998, Americans were divided over Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern. In the 20 years since, those feelings have only grown more complicated._ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Mar 18, 2019 8:49 AM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Mar 18, 2019 8:49 AM UTC John Oliver did some self-reflection on Sunday night’s _Last Week Tonight_ as he discussed public shaming. “My show makes fun of people all the time,” he said. “We are a comedy show.” However, he and his team “think a lot about who they might be making fun of,” and came to the realization that “if they have a soul patch then they don’t care who the person is even if they are a private citizen.” However, Oliver admits that he has occasionally gone too far. Like in the case of [Monica Lewinsky](http://time.com/5130921/monica-lewinsky-now/), who in the wake of her affair with then-President [Bill Clinton](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1913028%5F1913030%5F1913103,00.html), found herself becoming what she now calls “patient zero of [losing a personal reputation](http://time.com/92989/monica-lewinsky-slut-shaming-feminists-media-apology/) on a global scale.” Oliver notes that his hands are not clean, because on the 10th anniversary of the Clinton scandal, at _The Daily Show_ Oliver ran an episode called “10 Suckin’ Years,” which, he now admits, “was gross.” While lots of comedians have since apologized to Lewinsky for their treatment of her, one who has not is Jay Leno, and according to Oliver he may have been the harshest, including a fake Dr. Seuss book about her called “The Slut in the Hat.” This is ironic to Oliver, because just last week Leno stopped by _The Today Show_ and said he “wished late night shows would go back to more civility.” As a response, Oliver offered his own book “Oh, the Places You Can Go F— Yourself, Jay Leno!” That said, not all public shaming is bad, Oliver acknowledged, particularly when it’s pointed at racists or when it can “increase accountability” if a powerful person is behaving badly. Take Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson — who Oliver described as “the answer to the question, ‘What if the sound “thud” grew a face’” — had said [some controversial things](http://time.com/5549523/audio-tucker-carlson-racist-iraq/) as a guest on a radio show a few years ago, such as comparing women to dogs, and saying Warren Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence for the sexual assault of underage girls, “wasn’t that bad,” Oliver told viewers. Carlson refused to apologize, and the public shaming kicked in on Twitter with trending hashtags “like #boycotttuckercarlson, #firetuckercarlson, and #tuckercarlsonf—shisroomba,” Oliver quipped, admitting the last one “technically” was not trending, “but I have this weird feeling it will be in 20 minutes or so.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5553345/john-oliver-monica-lewinsky-last-week-tonight/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5553345/john-oliver-monica-lewinsky-last-week-tonight/"},"headline":"John Oliver and Monica Lewinsky Talk Public Shaming on Last Week Tonight","datePublished":"2019-03-18T08:49:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:09.193Z","description":"In an episode about public shaming, Oliver did not hold back on Jay Leno","url":"https://time.com/5553345/john-oliver-monica-lewinsky-last-week-tonight/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Late Night Television","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5553345/john-oliver-monica-lewinsky-last-week-tonight/","name":"John Oliver and Monica Lewinsky Talk Public Shaming on Last Week Tonight"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A Visual Timeline of the Monica Lewinsky Scandal","description":"In 1998, Americans were divided over Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern. 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