Brief Overview:

        John William Oliver was born in Birmingham, England on April 23, 1977. Early on he showed an interest in comedy. Some commented, that he was able to extract the absurd from the ordinary (reductio ad absurdum). He joined "The Comedy Zone" where he played an "oleaginous journalist."

        In 2006 after some success, John moved to the US to join Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" as its senior British correspondent. Three years later be obtained a US Green-Card (Permanent Resident Card) allowing him to live and work permanently in the United States. In 2013, he went to Afghanistan on a USO tour to perform for the troops. On his return to the US, he guest-hosted the Daily Show for eight weeks while Stewart attended to other business.

        In 2014, John began hosting on HBO his own late-night news satire show, "Last Week Tonight." A year later, he was named one of Time Magazine's, "100 Most Influential People of the Year" for his work on the show. His style leaned toward what Americans liked best from the British exaggerations, full of odd accents and mannerisms and controversial subject comedy. To prove a point, in 2015 he founded and legally incorporated a church, "Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption" to demonstrate how easy it is to qualify as a church and receive tax-exempt status in the US. For $60,000 in 2016 he purchased over 15 million dollars in medical debt owed by over 9,000 US people only to forgive the debt on his on-air show.

        He was naturalized as a US citizen in December 2019. Given HBO's ad-free subscription model, he claimed that he had complete creative freedom, including the ability to criticize individuals, organizations and events with hilarious and expertly honed perspective on current pressing political, social and cultural issues, plus lesser-reported topics that inform and entertain. Each episode featured weekly topical insights, signature deep dives and distinctive comedy pieces. One such "deep dive" was his episode on Medicare.

        In 2020 at the 77th Annual Peabody Awards, the "Last Week Tonight" show received a Peabody Award in the "Entertainment" category for "bringing satire and journalism closer together." Shortly thereafter, HBO renewed the show for an additional three years through 2023. Such renewals continued with the show airing in its 13th season with 30 weekly episodes over each year from February through November.

"Last Week Tonight" Sheet of Stamps

"Last Week Tonight starring John Oliver

        Postage stamps are issued by the USPS and by licensed organizations like Stamps.com. Americans purchase these stamps as pre-payment certificates to cover the cost of moving mail from one location to another when affixed to mail pieces. The purchase of stamps is a key revenue generator for the US Postal Service. The internet with texting and email hurt their bottom line. In 2020, John wanted to help in their rescue with his creation of "Last Week Tonight" stamps as a revenue generator for the US Postal Service.

        John and his show's staff entered into discussions with Stamps.com to launch "Last Week Tonight" sheets of 20 theme stamps made up of 4 discrete designs each having a face value of 55 cents. The assortment included images of 3 characters which appeared on his show in the past as self-referential humor, observational comedy and fact-based parody.

               1) A free-spirited mascot named Chiijohn,
               It was a twist on the Japanese mascot, Chiitan.

               2) A giant squirrel mascot named Mr. Nutterbutter,
               It was a twist on the puppet character, Nutterbutter.

               3) A concerned urban-educator mascot named Zebra,
               It was a twist on the Bolivian traffic mascot, Zebra.

along with:

               4) A design having the text, "AND NOW... A STAMP"
               It was a twist on one of his weekly segments and to remind everyone that the stamp
               was a stamp, even though the word "stamp" was strictly verboten on Custom Postage
               according to the revised USPS rules of May 15, 2018.

       Typically, sheets of 20 - 55¢ PhotoStamps cost $25.99 + $3.18 shipping = $29.17, but for the Oliver promotion, they were offered at $14.00 (face value of $11.00 + $3.00 shipping) each. Buyers therefore paid a surcharge of 15¢/stamp.

        The host gave the web address where to order through the next month, and it also appeared on the bottom of the screen as STAMPS.COM/LASTSTAMPTONIGHT. Written Internet reports included a hyperlink, which also took buyers directly to the page to order the promoted sheets. On the order page, it stated that the limited edition stamps would be available until June 15, 2020, while supplies lasted, and the maximum quantity was 250 sheets per order. Shoppers were informed on the order screen that they would receive permanent self-adhesive stamps with USPS watermarking and security features (terms that referred to the indicia by SDC).

        At the bottom of the page through June 10 (the last day SDC accepted PhotoStamps orders to give them time to process all orders by June 15, the final day their USPS license was valid), viewers were shown other PhotoStamps designs offered by the provider. Those having reseller accounts were not given their typical discount.

        Only 3 days before Oliver's announcement, it was disclosed during the SDC 2020 Q1 stockholders' report on May 7, 2020, that the USPS was eliminating its Custom Postage program, and revoking the vendor's authorization to offer products pursuant to that program effective June 16, 2020.

        Orders were sent in plain, white, thin paper envelopes with a shipping label on the flap side with a cardboard stiffener inside rather than the typical colorful thin cardboard ones, but no usual invoice was included. The top left stamp in a sheet of custom PhotoStamps ordered on May 8 had a serial number of 26185250, while a stamp from the same position of a Last Week Tonight sheet was numbered 27544291 meaning that the print run of 10,000 sheets was likely printed after the broadcast.

        SDC announced on July 2, 2020 that they sold over $4 million of "Last Week Tonight" stamps (363,000+ sheets) in support of the USPS in the 37 days from May 10th - June 15th. Soon, sheets were offered on the secondary market of eBay for $35-$50.



RETURN to Main Page

eMail: wingnet