This is for any episodes of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, starting with Season 11 Episode 9 (next week from time of posting).
I will be using the Wikipedia Episode list for the record, which also contains a full historical record of previous episodes. We’re only counting “Main segment” or “Other segment” topics, not jokes made offhand as a part of either, or between the two.
As John has repeated topics, where he updates on news since the previous episode, you can add topics which have already been covered. All open topics will Resolve NO when the show is cancelled, market will extend until the show ends.
1,000People are also trading
@traders trying to get this market cleaned up. I’ve bought anything I think qualifies up to 99%. If you see anything I’ve missed, speak up.
I’ll do my best to keep an eye on it until the end of the year at which point I’d ask the mods to resolve anything left as no.
So if you have a case speak up!
Running list (to be edited):
Episode 304 covered 2024 Olympics.
307-309 all discussed 2024 election including Vance and Harris
314 - courts in general…but not specifically Supreme Court
341 MAHA + corn probably counts for processed food.
@mods do you all want to take over this market? creator appears to no longer be active. I've checked the list against https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Last_Week_Tonight_with_John_Oliver_episodes as specified by the creator and bought up all the ones I find a strong match for to 99%. These I strongly believe can resolve to yes.
The others should probably remain open for now given that this doesn't close until the end of the year.
@Stralor cool I’ll do another pass through the episode list at some point and ping with updates I find. You are, of course, welcome to look solo as well. I usually watch the show though so I’ve got a general idea.
@Stralor ok I did a deep dive considering that non main segment topics are included (as long as it isn’t a passing joke) and updated accordingly with a note in a top level comment. The ones at 99% can resolve IMO.
I also pinged all active traders in case people still care beyond me lol.
@Quroe No, the issue isn't one of ambiguity. It's that when we say wages are stagnating or increasing or what have you we mean that, adjusting for CPI, they aren't going up. Comparing it to "GDP" or "productivity" is just silly. We have no reason to expect that real wages / (whatever denominator you want) would continue to increase. The concern was that there was a period of about 10-15 years (albeit, including '08 and the recovery) where real wages were stagnating, which is why people kept talking about it. But we're well and truly past that! Economists don't say that anymore, because real wages have gone up! But to rescue the idea that the middle class is in dire, awful financial straits for rhetorical effect, the claim has become "oh, but if you just compare it to these other indexes, then they've stagnated". But there's just no reason to do that. That's not what we care about. There's no reason to think that comparison is meaningful. It's just lying.
@Najawin Very well. I believe the general idea presented here is a talking point in America, and seeing our favorite British fellow with a thing for muscular horses talk about the points you bring up and debunking the talking point as you have here would be a solid hit for that market category. Can we shake hands on that?
@Quroe I mean, sure, but I think it's unlikely to happen, because he doesn't punch left enough. And to punch right he'd have to lie.
@Najawin I am quite alright with you winning the internet for the night here. I will admit that I am not immune to propaganda.
@Quroe nah. It needs to be either the Main Segment or an “Other Segment”, going off the Wikipedia article. He’s gotta devote the show to a topic (at least partially) for this to count.