For most, New Year’s Eve is a time of celebration—an evening to put on your dancing shoes and shake off the last year’s highs and lows in preparation for the one to come. So, on the surface, spending an evening with the driest host in late night might seem like rather an odd choice—especially since he’s also the one most likely to give you a civics lesson.
Oliver, though, is uniquely positioned to assist in dissecting the events of 2019—both good and bad—and do it in a way that is guaranteed to make you laugh. Just look at how his HBO show Last Week Tonight handled the end of 2018: a Fast and the Furious parody involving Armie Hammer, terrible waxworks of U.S. presidents and a jockstrap once owned by Russell Crowe.
So if what you’re seeking for the final hours of 2019 involves serious reflection, politics and comedy with a hefty side of surreality, an evening with Oliver is definitely the way to go. If you’re lucky, maybe his old pals—like Chiijohn, the Catheter Cowboy and Mr. Nutterbutter the giant squirrel—might just show up to sing “Auld Lang Syne.” And if you still want to dance your way into 2020? Fear not: Oliver is sticking around for a couple of days to soothe even the worst 2019 hangovers.
