Don’t let the buzzer hit you on the way out. Former Jeopardy! host Mike Richards stepped down from his position last week after his troubling history of misogynistic and insensitive comments was unearthed to the public. (This man enjoyed joking about “booby pictures†at the age of … 40.) And like the rest of game-show nation, John Oliver is in celebration mode. Starting Sunday’s Last Week Tonight episode with a final word on the Jep-tastrophe, Oliver likened Richards, who still remains as the show’s executive producer, to a “smirking golf bag†that “was demoted from hosting Jeopardy! to merely running it.†Last Week Tonight also teased Richards in its opening-credits sequence with a dissolving “Postus Hostus†visual gag.
Oliver made his ire about Richards’s hiring known on last week’s episode, which aired several days before Jeopardy! announced that it would be searching for a new host. “It is genuinely hard to imagine a five-word phrase less welcome than ‘we know who you are,’†Oliver said at the time. “Aside from obviously ‘new Jeopardy! host Mike Richards.’†Well, if Ken Jennings or Buzzy Cohen aren’t available, we know some mascots looking for work.