Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Food delivery & campaigns

The March 31 episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, of course, had a lot to talk about. Sure, there was politics … but also food delivery! Who would have thought that this would be a main focus of the show?

Honestly, we will say that as someone who has used these apps multiple times, it felt like this would be an interesting watch. We knew that there are problems with these apps, whether it be the complicated way their workers are paid to also some of the crazy fees you have to pay.

So what direction did Oliver choose to go with this segment? Well, he really spent some time discussing the cost that it put on restaurants, who certainly felt some issues as a result of that. In the past, delivery was a lot more run explicitly by the restaurants. Now, it is all under the control of various apps. There are benefits that come with that, but also some significant problems. Take, for starters, the percentage that is taken by the app for certain orders, which has in turn led to a lot of prices going up. Or, instances where the delivery app actually sells food from some places without permission.

After this, Oliver got into the part of the segment that a lot of people are already aware of — the fact that the company hires a lot of gig workers and allows people to do the job on their own terms. There may be some benefits that come with that, but also a lot of issues — take how much it costs to buy your own equipment and travel all of the place. This is different for different people.

From a humor standpoint, this segment was pretty great. Was it as informative or surprising as some others? Hardly, but this is one that a lot of people probably needed to hear.

What did you think about the March 31 edition of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver?

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