--- 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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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? 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.” ## Transcript In 1998, Americans were divided over Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern. Here's a guide to how it happened. In 1994, former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones sued Bill Clinton for sexual harassment, arguing that he propositioned her when he was governor. A legal group working on the case in 1998 received an anonymous tip that the president had a relationship with the Lewinsky and intern first chief of staff that piqued their interest, since it could be used to argue this was a pattern of behavior. On January 7th, 1998, the Lewinsky filed a sworn affidavit in the Jones lawsuit saying she had never had a relationship with Clinton, but she did not know that a close friend, Linda Tripp, had been keeping conversations with her about the affair. Five days after the affidavit was filed, Tripp gave independent counsel Kenneth Starr, 20 hours of taped phone calls. Starr had been investigating the Clintons of a real estate venture known as Whitewater, but the recordings allowed him to get permission on January 16th to investigate whether Lewinsky had lied under oath in a deposition in the Jones suit the next day. Clinton denied the affair as well. This turned out to be a key moment of his presidency. That same day, online news outlet The Drudge Report published a story claiming that Newsweek was sitting on a story about Clinton's affair with an intern. It later published another story that Lewinsky had a blue cocktail dress with Clinton's bodily fluids on it. Clinton again denied the affair, this time on nationally broadcast television, saying, I. Did not have sexual relations with that woman. Ms.. Lewinsky. On January 27th, Hillary Clinton echoed the denial, arguing in an interview on the Today Show that the charges came from a vast. Right wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president. As the month drew to a close, a federal judge ruled that the Jones lawyers could not look into the Lewinsky claim as part of their lawsuit. But the Starr investigation continued on a separate path. In early February, Lewinsky's mother appeared before a grand jury. She had been suspected of encouraging her daughter to lie to Jones's lawyers. After three days of questioning, Starr granted her immunity in exchange for handing over the blue dress. As the summer began, the July issue of Vanity Fair appeared on newsstands featuring glamor shots of Lewinsky, a PR decision that was harshly criticized. On July 27, Lewinsky met with Starr's prosecutors in New York City, and they announced an immunity deal for her the next day. Clinton then agreed to testify before the grand jury voluntarily. In August, the president provided a blood sample to compare his DNA to the stains in the blue dress. That night, Lewinsky and Clinton testified to the grand jury with the president's testimony taken by closed circuit TV. He admitted to inappropriate intimate contact, but also said that he had given accurate testimony previously. Famously quibbling over the definition of is. Later that evening, he spoke to the nation in a televised address. In a deposition in January, I was asked questions about my relationship with Monica Lewinsky. While my answers were legally accurate. I did not volunteer their information. Indeed, I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact. It was wrong. The next month, Congress received two copies of Stars 445 page report on the investigation and supporting evidence. The Star Report, along with transcripts of Lewinsky trips, were later released to the public. On October eight, the House of Representatives voted to begin an impeachment inquiry. Despite the controversy and the impeachment, President Clinton remained popular in polls and Hillary Clinton saw her poll numbers rise as well. During the midterm elections in November, Democrats did unusually drop in mid-November. Clinton settled the sexual harassment lawsuit with Jones, which he kickstarted the scandal, paying her $850,000 and admitting nothing. During the lame duck session of Congress in the summer 19th, the House voted to impeach Clinton and to charges that he committed perjury in his August 17 federal grand jury testimony and that he prevented, obstructed and impeded the administration of justice. As 1999 open, the Senate began its constitutionally mandated impeachment trial with the Supreme Court's chief justice presiding for February 1213 months after the scandal began. The Senate voted to acquit Clinton on both charges. The respondent, William Jefferson Clinton, president of the United States, is not guilty as charged. Later that day. Clinton apologized to the American public in an address from the White House. I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and on the American people. ```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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