The writers for the show understand America far better than Ed does.

Aaand it's gone. The one I resubmitted is the full segment and is probably better quality. Didn't realize this was actually part of the episode. Almost makes me want to pay for HBO.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3044702/the-recommender/john-oliver- reveals-to-edward-snowden-americans-top-privacy-fear-dick-pics

This article has the full episode for watching. For now!

Last Week Tonight has its own YouTube channel where you can catch all of this stuff, plus special "web exclusive" material. Pretty good candidate for best YT channel IMO.

'Tis true, but it sucks that they censor it. I mean, it's not like I need to hear swear words all the time, Mr. Motherfucker, nor do I think that they necessarily make a comedic or dramatic piece any more entertaining (Better Call Saul bleeped out "pigfucker" last week and I didn't care) but Oliver's really GOOD at using "fuck" in the way it's supposed to be used. And the nudity's never HBO-Gratuitous (I wonder what they did with the #McConnelling thing last year, because it literally is dickpicking.) But yeah, it's great that it's free, simply so everyone with the internet has access to it, censored or not.

Just now noticed the headline "Snowden claims government has your dick pics" pop up in google's news aggregator. Top of the fold. Finally, something America can wrap it's head around.

Its not a joke. The government is really looking at your dick pics. That's funny AND its fucked up, and its also very easy to understand. Its exactly the right note to hit. It's fricken genius.

For example, it really bothers me that the prospect of a state-run panopticon right here in the "Land of the Free" has gone from unthinkable, to oh wait it's happening, to the subject of casual late night entertainment, all within the span of maybe five years. There's not been any actual effort on the part of those in power to *stop* the growth of panopitcon, but oh, haha, it's silly and it's funny. The NSA is just one of those weird quirky things that we may not like but we've got to put up with anyways, like family dinners with Uncle Jim - YOU KNOW HOW THAT JIM IS, BOY OH BOY. I'd rather be "Waterboarded"™ than listen to one of HIS stories again, haha!

Fuck, I'm not even watching this video and the subject's already getting me pissed off. :(

Some of my coworkers were giggling about the NSA this morning, in fact; might well have been because of this interview (it aired recently, yes?). I mean, don't get me wrong, the poesters above me make some really good points about raising awareness, and better that people are aware than asleep, right? But we - and by "we" I don't just mean the PoE community, which tends to be remarkably intelligent and well-informed, but "we" as in American society in general - we shouldn't be fucking laughing about this, we should actually be *doing* something!

I've long been trying to wrap my head around Hannah Arendt's observations about the Holocaust and the banality of evil, and I think it's starting to finally make sense to me.

ANYWAYS, I WILL SHUT UP NOW please give me a brief (or not so brief) synopsis of this video so I can get the gist of what Messrs. Snowden and Oliver said without having a stroke.

The joke here is Oliver shows Snowden how "Americans" don't know about nor care about him and his techno-babble message. But if you tell them that the NSA can see your "dick pics" then they care..haha. heehee. jokes.

The late Timothy Leary was once asked about how it was being under constant police surveillance when he was doing his guru thing at Milbrook. Tim replied, "Let them watch! Perhaps they will learn a better way to live". This was quite apt for the situation: there was Tim getting high on LSD and balling beautiful women in his teepee on the grounds of this palacial estate whilst G. Gordon Liddy crouched in the cold bushes taking pictures and eating shitty ham and cheese sandwiches. Tim was ultimately wrong though. It made not a bit of difference to the watchers. Still, I fall back on the idea from time to time.

Hey those ham and cheese sammiches were delicious. It was Leary that was missing out. What's weird is none of this came as much of a surprise to me. I remember watching that Gene Hackman movie Enemy of the State and just assumed they had all that technology. Like if I say I'm going to assassinate such and such, even on here, that word would (and probably will) pop up like a hashtag, and if I make another comment about how I don't agree with the president's decision, then DING! Two key words! Whoops! What I meant to say was I was going to assassinate this ham sandwich at lunch and the president of the bowling league was a dick for kicking charley off the team for being drunk. In either case, get those two words together and you've got a cause for investigating regicide, or at least seeing what I'm up to, and concluding that I'm not a threat. Even in high school we came up with fake names for weed and MDMA, just in case somebody was listening in, and that was pretty much before cell phones.

You're mad because you didn't watch the episode, Homer. This may have been the funniest LWT yet. Its possible that. I literally laughed as loud as I have ever laughed in my life, and, as you know, I am very old..

Of course Tim was sometimes on the payroll, so to speak.

Weirdest for me was when I felt the start of a toothache. Didn't say anything to anyone about it, but called to schedule a dentist appointment, and not from my cellphone, but my work one. My Facebook was full of dentist-related stuff the rest of the day. D: