John Oliver hosting 'The Daily Show': So, how did he do?

John Oliver hosting 'The Daily Show': So, how did he do?

Americans love it when British people criticize us. Get Simon Cowell to insult our singing, or Gordon Ramsay to rant about our cooking, or Len Goodman to scrutinize our dancing, and we’ll be very happy. And we might have to fight another Revolutionary War before we understand the reasons why. English journalist and former Top Chef judge Toby Young once theorized that Americans love getting chastised by folks in the U.K. because it reminds us of the days when the United States was still a British colony. He thinks this memory allows us to believe that we’re still underdogs instead of the overbearing imperial power that we’ve become. In light of all this, I have to wonder what Young would make of The Daily Show‘s “senior British correspondent” John Oliver replacing Jon Stewart for the next three months. Oliver’s early Daily Show appearances really focused on his Britishness, which helped make the American politics he covered seem even more absurd. When a Tea Party supporter claimed that the Obama administration was more tyrannical than the British government of 1773, he got huffy. “That’s quite insulting to a British person,” he insisted. “I mean, we were tyrannical beyond this government’s wildest dreams!” His supposed jealousy of this country’s natural citizens was a frequent joke: Once, during an argument with Stewart about immigration, he quipped, “Like billions of other unfortunate people in the world, I tragically was not born American.” All of this probably made him feel less threatening to any U.S. native, especially to those who secretly believe that people with fancy accents are smarter than us. Whatever the case, Oliver’s self-deprecating British humor certainly worked for him at the beginning of his Daily Show hosting debut. ”Welcome to The Daily Show,” he began. “I am John Oliver and let’s all just acknowledge for a moment that this is weird. This looks weird, it feels weird, it even sounds weird—and this is my actual voice.” (The upshot? British people talk weird, and it’s funny! Or maybe it’s that they talk funny, and that’s weird?) He lamented that the NSA snooping scandal broke on his first day, preventing him from focusing solely on British jokes about the difference between footballs and soccer balls. Then he revealed his thwarted plans to take a “tea time” break halfway through the show and fly away at the very end, hanging from his umbrella handle like Mary Poppins. (Ha!) But once he started riffing on how to tell the difference between Americans and foreigners (“I guess you could ask, do you want to walk or drive?”) the conceit was wearing a little thin. By the time the other Daily Show correspondents started complaining that an immigrant got the job they wanted, it had gotten repetitive. “I should’ve just stayed here singing chimney sweep songs,” insisted Jason Jones. Wait, two Mary Poppins references in one episode? There must be some very good English jokes about blood pudding and national health care that are being ignored here. GET MORE EW: Subscribe to the magazine for only 33¢ an issue! As an interviewer, Oliver is prone to pitching softballs—or whatever they call those soft, ball-like things in the U.K. His “questions” for Seth Rogen were mostly just praise for the actor-director’s new movie, This is the End, which Oliver is apparently “relieved” to have loved, noting that it’s a “ballsy move” for Rogen to make his first movie about a daunting subject like the end of the world. Attempts to rope Rogen into the NSA debate went nowhere. (“I dunno,” Rogen responded in the episode’s most unintentionally hilarious moment. “I assume they read all that sh–.”) In his defense, Oliver admitted that he has never interviewed celebrities before. And what he lacked in journalistic rigor he made up for in charm. Nervously raking his hands through his hair, he worried aloud that the critics would think he was failing as host of the show. ”I’ve only been here for six minutes!” he pleaded, to which special correspondent Aasif Mandvi replied, “Buzzfeed just posted The 27 Worst Moments of John Oliver’s First Six Minutes.” It was a smart trick: now Buzzfeed will surely claim that he aced the whole night. Maybe Toby Young is right: everyone loves an underdog, especially us Yanks. And, so far, Oliver’s playing that role pretty well. He worked in a few good jokes, arguing that the NSA’s information-gathering only affects the very few people who use the internet. (“I’ll bet the Amish are feeling pretty f–ing smug right now,” he said. “Or they would be feeling that way if they had any idea that this story was happening.”) But his best moment came from just telling the truth—which is, when you think about it, what most great comedy boils down to. Chastising the Obama administration for spying, he quipped, ”No one is saying that you broke any laws. We’re just saying that it’s a little bit weird that you didn’t have to.” Somehow, that line was delivered with extra punch, probably someone who grew up in a totally different legal system delivered it. Which brings us back to Oliver’s original question: how do you tell the difference between an American and a foreigner? Well, a smart foreigner is the one who gets away with telling that joke.



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Obama urges Congress to stop student loan rate hike

Obama urges Congress to stop student loan rate hike

President Obama was joined by college students in the White House Rose Garden as he called on Congress to stop student loans rates from doubling on July 1. Related Stories Readers sound off on Willets Point and the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy Readers sound off on Thanksgiving and the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy Why young voters rejected Romney Student Loan Rates May Be Rising Powered by Inform President Barack Obama on Friday urged Congress to prevent an increase in student loan rates, saying rising college costs hold back the entire middle class and unfairly saddle young people with more debt just as they are starting out in their adult lives. Interest rates on new subsidized Stafford loans are set to double, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, on July 1. Lawmakers from both parties say they want to avoid the increase but are divided over how to act. RELATED: SEN. GILLIBRAND TO INTRODUCE STUDENT DEBT RELIEF BILL Obama made his case flanked by college students dressed in business suits and dresses during remarks in the Rose Garden on a steamy Washington morning. The event marked the beginning of a public campaign by the president to temporarily extend current student loan rates or find a long-term compromise to avoid the July 1 rate increase. "We know that the surest path to the middle class is some form of higher education," Obama said. He said Americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards. He said he and his wife just finally paid off their loans in the last decade and paid more on them than they did on their mortgage. RELATED: SKIP COLLEGE AND BECOME A PLUMBER: MAYOR BLOOMBERG "We were lucky. We had more resources than many," Obama said. He said the debt is forcing some young people to delay buying cars and houses, which can hurt the economy overall. The White House has proposed linking federal student loan rates to the financial markets. The Republican-controlled House passed a plan last week that would reset student loan rates every year according to financial markets, but Obama has threatened to veto the bill because it doesn't lock in rates. RELATED: STUDY SHOWS MORE FALLING BEHIND IN STUDENT LOAN PAYMENTS "The House bill isn't smart, and it's not fair," Obama argued.


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'Mad Men' Recap: Don and Betty Go to Camp (Season 6 Episode 9)

'Mad Men' Recap: Don and Betty Go to Camp (Season 6 Episode 9)

The choice between two margarines: Between the conflicting appeals of dueling brand names. Between affordability and taste. Between the old cold-hearted mentor under whose wing you so misguidedly soared and the new all-smiles one who’s totally gaga over you. Peggy’s story this season has stung the most. That glowing scene last year that sent her out of Don’s reach, onto an elevator car, and up into the world of tomorrow is a painful memory now that she, effectively, has lost all of the control that turn of events afforded her. Peggy was on the rise. Then, she found herself steeped in a crime-riddled s**t-hole and back under the old roof she so proudly escaped. But through all these factors, she had the people in her life — the men, specifically — aching for her, in a variety of ways. She had control over Don, whose precious protégée should never belong elsewhere. Over Ted, smitten like a cockeyed yokel over his brimming star pupil. And over Abe, who really doesn’t seem to have much else going for him than his attachment to Peggy (that war against tyranny ain’t going so well, is it?). But though injected with enough preservatives to last forever, Peggy’s margarines seem to melt to liquid in this week’s “The Better Half.” And her butter… well, she accidentally stabs it in the stomach. And thus, having spread herself too thin (wait, so is she the margarine now?), banking on Don, Ted, and Abe to each maintain solidity while giving back to none of them, Peggy finds herself entirely without. She left Don a television year ago, only to face his territorial contempt on the regular once returning to Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, asserting an absence from his grasp once and for all (or for now… these people are chronically inclined to revisit their mistakes) by refusing to side with him over Ted. Ted reacts similarly, though more in regards to his and Peggy’s shared albeit complicated affection, deciding that her will to “forget about things” is a voluminous reminder that he sees her as primarily interested in the control over and the opportunity for anything between them — a notion that is shouted even louder by her addressing, behind closed doors, a recent breakup with Abe (a message that Ted, in all his boy scout glory, dutifully rejects). And that very breakup? Peggy accidentally stabs Abe when she thinks he’s somebody (of marginalized race) breaking into their apartment, so he tells her that she’s everything he opposes and that they are through. Hectic day. Upstate New York is a magical place — the countryside above the Big Apple brings Don and Betty together to visit young Bobby at sleep away camp. It brings out the song in Don, who joins in on Bobby’s playful “Father Abraham” ditty. It subdues the wrath between Don and Betty just long enough to have a pleasant diner lunch with their cheerful son — markedly less socially conscious than he was back in his Planet of the Apes days, as the mention of Bobby Kennedy stirs no sentiment of civil unrest within the chap. Maybe it’s the cool summer air, the clear country sky, the hormonal mosquitoes… or the fact that both Don and Betty are embedded in deeply unhappy marriages and are no longer able to hold one another responsible for their self-loathing, not to mention the fact that they, much like Peggy, are desperate to feel their hands fitting firmly around any course of action that might befall them. So, discarding (or shelving) that gleaming rage we know so well, one we witnessed only one episode back, Don and Betty sleep together, happy to decide that the evil whose access to their internalities has faded just enough is a much safer bet than the ones they must face by the day. And while Betty at least has the shell of a marriage to revert to the morning after, Don is all but alone, grabbing coffee at the corner table, fully aware that nothing awaits him back home. Also, Bob Benson. He goes to the beach with Joan and then recommends a highly qualified military nurse for Pete Campbell’s mother. The plot thickens.



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Seattle's Hip Hop Prince, Crowned: Macklemore Basks in NW Love at Sasquatch

Seattle's Hip Hop Prince, Crowned: Macklemore Basks in NW Love at Sasquatch

Seattle rapper Macklemore and producer Ryan Lewis' headlining set to open Sasquatch Fest Friday night was certainly a homecoming to rival all homecomings. "I've been backstage with anxiety, thinking, 'This is your people, your family, the Northwest is gonna be here tonight,'" he told the audience at the Gorge Amphitheater, a stunning venue (and longtime home to Sasquatch) a four-hour drive east of Seattle. "What do I say to these people? How do I address 30,000 people here?" Then he delivered it: "I've been working my entire life to step up here onstage at the Gorge," he said, now emotional. "Nowhere in the world is as beautiful as the backdrop here." This was a local boy done good, returning home to flaunt the pop glory and bask in the adoration of his most fervent fans, and they gave him a prince's welcome. Earlier, the crowd watching Vampire Weekend, playing across the hillside venue, thinned to surprisingly sparse numbers as the buzz built for the hip hop duo's main stage arrival. A Euro-soccer-stadium-style chant echoed (how 'bout those Seattle Sounders, eh?) and horns trumpeted. And then there's Macklemore, in his rattle-snake-skin sequined robe, stomping and running along a stage jutting into the audience, doing his knees-bent, arms-flailing, "Whoa, I'm falling... maybe..." signature dance. He rapped, "This is our evening, this is our night..." No, dude. This is your night (and Ryan Lewis' too, but mostly just yours). And the socially-conscious rhymesayer came armed with a message, a few of 'em, actually, and the crowd agreed with their leader, who's a bit of an anomaly in the rap game. His breakout LP with Lewis, The Heist, is colored with the childhood memories of an '80s baby--SATs, Nintendo, spiral-notebook classroom scribbles, those first Nike Air Jordans. But his more risky messages are aimed at rap music. He dissed the glorification of drug use in hip hop on "Otherside," an older track from his first collabo with Lewis, 2010's VS. Redux EP. He prefaced it with the confessional story of his own addiction that was first met with beer-hoisting hollers, but later, perhaps, moments of self-reflection for the intoxicated crowd. "I never had moderation with drugs," he said. He preached of the horrors of OxyContin and Percocet addiction (which, like much of work class America, ravaged the Seattle area), and praised a 2008 rehab stint for setting his music career on track. Then onto his next cause: Gay rights, and its role in hip hop, a long misogynistic genre. "I believe in compassion, love and tolerance," he preached before his breakout The Heist hit, "Same Love." "And Washington State is leading the way!" That was Macklemore's real message Friday night: The Pacific Northwest is the bestestest. He honored its rabid thrift shop and vintage culture in "Thrift Shop," featuring deep and smooth vocals from singer Wanz. Gold lights flashed, backup dancers worked it and brass wailed. Macklemore rolled across the stage on a second-hand scooter in the fur coat from the song's popular music video, rapping about broken keyboards and hand-me-down kneeboards. The Goodwills along I-90 will certainly be cleaned out by Tuesday. He honored Dave Niehaus, the late Mariners baseball radio sportscaster, in "My Oh My," showing images of Ken Griffey Jr., the city's '90s sports super star, crushing home runs onscreen. He saluted a picture of the fallen Kingdome arena. He wore a vintage Detlef Schrempf Seattle Sonics jersey in solidarity with the "F-ck the NBA" t-shirts in the crowd, protesting the vote preventing the team's return to Seattle. "You have no idea how amazing it feels to be back home in the Pacific Northwest," he gushed. That's not hyperbole. Considering the duo's whirlwind, worldwide press blitz behind The Heist, an independently-released album that's topped the charts and sold over 500,000, it's not hard to imagine a heartfelt return home for Macklemore. He shouted out Spokane, Vancouver, BC, Portland and finally Seattle to a massive roar. Then he dedicated "Cowboy Boots" to the Emerald City's hipster 'hood Capitol Hill: "Cowboy boots doing lines at the bar / Where the time goes slow when you're drinking PBR / And we drink and get older / And some of us even try to get sober / Now here's to the assholes and the last calls." There's a twinge of disdain for the hipster elite that's often dragged Macklemore through the mud in the press. But he's a rapper who does it his way, whether it's his interpretation of the hip hop genre, his version of "cool" or the messages he supports. And people from the Northwest--people accustomed to doing things their own way, too--are proud to call him their own.



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Dancing with the Stars Season 16 Finale Results Revealed

Dancing with the Stars Season 16 Finale Results Revealed

Mark Ballas Mark Ballas See more photos, news and a full bio PEOPLE MAGAZINE Subscribe for instant access to PEOPLE On Tuesday, Dancing with the Stars will name its season 16 champions. At the end of Monday night's episode, Zendaya and an injured Val Chmerkovskiy received perfect 30s for both of their full-length routines, and then tacked on an additional five points to their score for winning the cha cha relay. But only one point below the highest scoring pair were Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough, who earned perfect 30s for their routines, which included a dramatic freestyle number that had viewers in tears. They came in second place during the cha cha relay, and scored four extra points. Below them were Alexandra Raisman and partner Mark Ballas, followed by Jacoby Jones and Karina Smirnoff. Get more stories on your favorite  by subscribing now. In the first moments of Tuesday's show, one of the four couples was eliminated first before the remaining three pairs danced yet another number to compete for the coveted mirror-ball trophy. Read on to find out now who it was ... The first couple eliminated on Tuesday were Alexandra and Mark. "This is has been the best experience of my life," she said as the crowd cheered loudly and rose to their feet. "Good luck to you three. I love you guys so much," she said to Kellie, Zendaya and Jacoby. Stay tuned for more results!



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Bieber booed at Billboards

Bieber booed at Billboards

SO, TATTLE was watching the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night when an important cultural shift took place. Justin Bieber got booed. And he didn't take it well. The Biebs, you see, fashions himself an artist. "I'm 19 years old," an obviously stunned Bieber said accepting the first-ever Milestone Award. "This is not a gimmick. I'm an artist and I should be taken seriously and all this other bull should not be spoken of. I want to thank my manager, Scooter Braun. I want to thank my family at home. I want to thank my mother, my father. I want to thank Jesus Christ." 1) It's not up to you to declare yourself an artist. 2) If you have to tell people you "should" be taken seriously, you probably shouldn't be taken seriously. 3) Wearing MC Hammer pants and singing with your voice auto-tuned beyond human recognition is most definitely a gimmick. There was so much synth-aided singing and lip-synching during the Billboard show that it even embarrassed Kid Rock, who broke the cardinal rule of these made-for-TV events and said something critical. Presenting the award for Top Rap Song, Rock exhorted the crowd, "Let's give it up for people lip-synching under prerecorded music." Yikes! But let's be real, music industry, the overwhelming fakeness was embarrassing and most of the music was almost instantly forgettable. And when will.i.am got the Biebs to join him for another egomaniacal paean to himself, "That Power," Tattle began to think back to the songs of our grandparents' generation and imagine a composer like Cole Porter getting on stage and robotically singing: "My name is Porter/Drink Scotch not water/So hide your daughter/Or she'll be out/And about/Doing all that I taught her. I'm the top." Now you see him Jesse Eisenberg stopped in Philadelphia last Friday to promote his upcoming magic movie, "Now You See Me," and hopped out of a limo in front of the Ritz-Carlton. On the sidewalk were a group of Reds fans holding baseballs and looking for autographs. They saw Eisenberg, star of "Zombieland," and asked him to sign. The actor was a bit baffled to see the baseballs, but happy to oblige. "It's kind of a childhood fantasy to sign a baseball for somebody. I never thought it would happen; now it has." A Marky event Hey, ho! Let's go! Marky Ramone - yes, that Marky Ramone - has just been added to an already star-studded lineup at this year's Wizard Philly, May 30-June 2, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. It is the first time the legendary rocker will be appearing at Wizard Philly. Wizard has also just announced that Gina Torres ("Firefly") will be gracing the con. But perhaps the biggest announcement for fanboys is that Marvel Comics is coming back to Philly after too long an absence! "We are excited to bring an industry leader like Marvel to Wizard World shows," John Macaluso told Comics Guy Jerome Maida. "Many of our fans have a close connection with the movies, comics and characters Marvel produces, and these two panels and review sessions are excellent addition to our lineup." The panels are entitled: "MARVEL: Breaking Into Comics the Marvel Way," set for Friday at 5 p.m. and "MARVEL: From NOW! to Infinity," to take place Saturday from 4 to 5 p.m. Additionally, Marvel will be accepting portfolios on Friday and Saturday, and talent scout C.B. Cebulski and others will conduct reviews on Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in Room 110. TATTBITS * Seth MacFarlane is too busy to host the Oscars in 2014. The multitalented comedian says on Twitter that he "tried to make it work schedule-wise, but I need sleep." The creator of "Family Guy" suggested Oscar producers tap the eccentric actor Joaquin Phoenix to host the show. * Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have reportedly broken up again. Please save this item to re-read when necessary. * According to London's Daily Star, the lads of One Direction have nicknamed Harry Styles "Mrs. Mop." Coincidentally, Tattle has been nicknamed "Mr. Mope." Harry is reportedly a neat freak and has become Felix Unger to the group's Oscar Madison, to make sure their tour bus stays tidy. "He went to a supermarket and bought a ton of cleaning products, as he didn't think the bus was clean enough," said an unnamed source. "He watches to make sure no one drops food anywhere and asked people to leave their shoes at the door and wear slippers." Maybe that's the reason for his split with Taylor Swift. - Daily News wire services and BANGShowbiz.com contributed to this report.


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