Video: Watch John Oliver mock Rahul, Modi and Times Now

British comedian, John Oliver who was earlier seen in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, has got his own show called Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO which began airing on 27 April. And the very first episode is likely to be a social media hit in India since Oliver mocks the Indian elections, the US media for not paying enough attention to it and the Indian media for turning into Fox News. Oliver begins by showing a clip of TV debates in America on India where one of the American guests says that India is not even in their hemisphere and therefore there’s no point discussing it. Oliver then brings out a globe pointing out, “If they’re not in our hemisphere, they don’t exist.” He then moves on towards the election and says that the fight is between a Gandhi and a Modi. “Let’s begin by dealing with Gandhi first,” he says. “I know, I know, it’s not the first time that’s been said in a British accent.” [caption id=“attachment_1501195” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Screengrab from YouTube[/caption] He calls Rahul Gandhi an Indian Hans Solo, but also points out that Gandhi is expected to lose to Modi. Where Modi is concerned, Oliver says, “Don’t pretend you aren’t interested in this, America. The last time you heard a rags-to-riches story about a tea-selling Indian kid, you threw a f***ing Oscar at it,” pointing to Slumdog Millionaire. He also mocks Modi about the 2002 Godhra riots, saying “Sure I could have handled the media better, maybe spun the massacre as a positive.” Oliver also mocks the Indian media from Times Now to CNN-IBN. While he points out that CNN-IBN’s graphic is wrong, since 1 billion people aren’t voting ( it’s 850 million). “Their own graphic is wrong by the entire population of Brazil,” he says. Oliver then mocks the Times Now TV debate format at greater length pointing out how Indian media has come close to the American media.  He shows clips from Times Now and adds,  “Do you have a ludicrous number of people shouting at each other in a TV debate? Check.” “Do you have self-righteous anchors repeating themselves over and over again?” he asks followed by a clip of Meenakshi Lekhi and Arnab getting into an argument. (The one where Arnab keeps saying “How dare you say I take money?”, over and over again.) “Holy s***. They’ve stolen our formula,” John Oliver cries. Disclaimer: CNN-IBN is part of the Network18 Group which also owns Firstpost.