British comedian, John Oliver, host of the late-night show Last Week Tonight made an appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show. The concept and approach of both shows are poles apart. Oliver’s specialty lies in diving deep into some hidden controversial elements consuming the foundation of American life. On the other hand, Jimmy host a light-hearted show filled with games and celebs dance segments.
Prior to their zoon interview, Oliver joined Fallon in a game called Hey Robot. Well, the show started on a happy note with Jimmy introducing the guest and explaining the rules of the game ‘Hey Robot’.
Jimmy was supposed to take a card out from a shuffled bundle with some word written on it. They have to ask questions to Alexa, answer to which will be the word written on that card.
The first word was Leprechaun, a diminutive supernatural being in Irish folklore which was easy for Jimmy to guess in the second attempt.
Soon after that, they moved to the next word ‘Liverpool’, Oliver’s crucial error of asking an American-based Alexa about “the greatest football team” when he didn’t mean the kind of football the device was interpreting, as football in Great Britain is usually called soccer in the United States. The Liverpool fan took that one personally and was clearly offended. As a response, he took a dig on Alexa’s “rotten heart.”
Fallon funnily said, “This clearly isn’t a commercial for this,” looking away from the screen with a grin on his face.
Oliver continued, “Oh, in which case, I’ve got another one,” he went on “Alexa, how bad are Amazon working conditions?”
Laughter and claps were heard from the Tonight Show’s crew, but Fallon quickly interrupted the smart speaker, “Alexa stop!”
The speaker was about to say something, but it stopped soon after being reinforced by Jimmy, and finally when Jimmy thought it was over Oliver goes on, “No, Alexa! Alexa, what is union-busting?” Jimmy controlled the situation by saying “Alexa, it’s me time now.” Who knows what Alexa would’ve come up with?
Things started getting back to normal as the guessing segment was progressing without any other sarcastic remarks on Amazon’s working condition.
Perhaps, all of this might be indicative of a suit filed this year, to the New York Supreme Court by Letitia James, alleging that Amazon violated several of the state’s labor laws, including anti-retaliation and whistle-blower protection laws. Also, there have been countless reported incidents around the world where Amazon employees have been protesting against different problematic issues with regards to the company’s policy.
Coming back to the show, Fallon thought he was successful in winding things up but he was sadly mistaken. As Fallon announced him “the king of Alexa,” Oliver leaned into his mic and talked over his voice: “I don’t like you, Alexa. I think you’re a net negative for humanity.” Oliver concluded by saying that he’ll never let Alexa in his home.
Interestingly, this segment has given rise to a social media hurricane. Public opinions seem to be mixed, some of which are in support of Oliver for bashing Amazon. On the contrary, many tweets suggested that Oliver was wrong this time as Amazon is providing benefits to its employees, this issue has been debatable for a very long time.
