Back in 1999, then-unknown actor Joel McHale participated in a pledge drive for his local public broadcasting station, encouraging viewers to lend their financial support. On Sunday night, now-very-known actor Joel McHale re-created that endorsement, this time to help out John Oliver.
The HBO host devoted his last main story of the season to covering public media, highlighting its struggles and noting that they’ve been going on for years. That’s why, Oliver explained, public broadcasting stations have always held pledge drives, as their support comes from “viewers like you.” But McHale’s ringing endorsement from 26 years ago stood out to Oliver, as the actor really touted “Mr. Bean” in his encouragement to donate.
“Yeah, that is a young Joel McHale going all out to raise money for his local PBS station. And he was going in hard on the Mr. Bean element there,” Oliver said, suppressing a laugh. “Those clips go from ‘Wow, Joel really likes Mr. Beam,’ to ‘Wait, did Mr. Bean say he’s gonna pay him?’ to ‘Did Mr. Beam say he’s gonna kill him?!’”
As always, Oliver ended his main segment with ideas for viewers on what they could do about the issue at hand. This time, Oliver’s solution was an auction of the odd items that “Last Week Tonight” has procured over the years for various stories — including Oliver’s cabbage wife.
As the host listed off the items, he eventually handed the reigns over to “a man with decades of experience fundraising for public television” to reveal more. That man? Joel McHale, of course.
“Thanks, John,” McHale said via video clip that was made to look like it was still from 1999.
“As you’ve seen tonight, public media is so amazing. I love it almost as much as I love British comedy, which is so amazing,” McHale joked. “Rowan Atkinson is a genius, and anyone who thought they could replace him as Zazu in ‘The Lion King’ is out of their f–king mind. That movie was ruined without him.”
Yes, Oliver himself voiced Zazu in Disney’s 2019 remake of the film. McHale then went on to list a few more items, culminating in a “Mr. Bean” box set, signed by McHale.
You can watch the auction in the video above and, if you are so inclined to bid, you can find the items here.
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” returns in February for a new season.
