It started with a case of coyote urine.
Before June 1, 2014, just four episodes of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver had aired. The weekly, half-hour HBO show took on current affairs from comedic angle. Conceptually in debt to Oliver's alma mater, The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight nonetheless aimed for deeper dives on abstruse subjects, hardly a tried-and-true recipe for TV success. But as the fifth show began at 11 pm that Sunday, the British comedian introduced his latest explainer, joking that the Internet had vastly increased access to everything from cat pictures to "a case of coyote urine."
