3QQ interview: Jeff Maurer on News
The former John Oliver writer on what makes news important (adulthood) and unimportant (Canada).
Welcome to 3QQ: Three Questions from Quora, our series of interviews in which a guest expert joins me to field strange and interesting questions posed on Quora.com (the internet’s oddest knowledge repository).
Today’s guest is , the creator of , a newsletter he describes as “Comedy, politics, and swearing in pretty much equal amounts.” I’m impressed he can juggle all three; I can barely handle one at a time. Shitfuck!
Jeff also won five Emmy Awards for his work on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver from 2014 to 2019. That kind of brilliant topical writing requires near-compulsive news-watching—the type that often melts brains. Since he has come away unmelted, this more than qualifies him to answer three questions that real people asked about the news.
Why is news so important?
JEFF: The news is important because unfortunately, we are adults. As much as we'd all like to spend our days playing Mario Kart and drinking soda through a Twizzler straw, we can only spend most of our time doing those things. In countries like the U.S., grown-ups even have to cast votes, especially if you live in one of the four states that matter in the Electoral College. We all could just stroll into the booth and randomly pick a name, but in the back of our minds, we know that we'd only have ourselves to blame if that person sentenced us to a lifetime of toil in a salt mine.
So, we follow the news so that the most salt-mine-happy politicians can't catch us with our guard down.
What's the best way to give someone bad news?
JEFF: Cake delivery.
First advantage: You're not around. If the recipient decides to "shoot the messenger" — literally or metaphorically — it'll be some minimum-wage sap from Baskin Robbins, not you.
Second advantage: Cake! Everyone loves cake. Even if it's a cake with "I gave you chlamydia!" written on it.
Why does Canada rarely appear on the news in America? Does anything bad happen in Canada?
JEFF: I disagree with the premise of the question: Canada does not "rarely" appear in the news in America. Canada never appears in the news in America. I have honestly never heard of Canada... is that a breakfast cereal? A band? What the hell are you talking about?
...
Okay, I did some Googling, and yes, okay, Canada is that chunk of ice where some people hid out during Vietnam. I now remember it from The Love Guru.
Why doesn't it show up in American news? I don't know… Are otters on ice floes doing a lot of newsworthy stuff? I guess I can't definitively say that they aren't. Maybe they're doing great things and the American media has been unforgivably negligent in their lack of coverage. Maybe this is the Coverup Of The Century, and the media will have a lot of explaining to do when the otters develop a hydrogen bomb. (Editor’s note: this scandal will of course be referred to as Ottergate.)
I can't say for sure. Then again, I've made it this far without devoting any brain space to Canada, so I'm inclined to say that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
He is one of the funniest people I have heard!! Love his interviews!!😂😂😂