Stephen Colbert Mercilessly Grills John Oliver About Pending Lawsuit He Can’t Discuss

John Oliver stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he refused to talk about the defamation lawsuit he and HBO are facing over claims they made about billionaire coal baron Robert Murray on Oliver’s show, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. But unfortunately for Oliver, Colbert insisted on talking about it.

During a Last Week Tonight segment, Oliver had said that Murray “received instructions on starting his coal company from a squirrel.” Apparently the tycoon didn’t appreciate being the subject of a comedy news show, so he sued Oliver and HBO.

Oliver promised the show’s executive producer and HBO executives that he wouldn’t say a single thing about the pending lawsuit, but it was clearly very hard for him to bite his tongue.

As Colbert grilled his friend, Oliver squirmed in his chair, saying things like, “You’re torturing me,” and “I’m in hell.” Oliver wanted to joke about it, saying, “All I have is a sequence of thoughts in my head — ‘Oh, this would be funny to say, this would be funny, this would be interesting.’ And then another thing going, ‘You’re dead if it happens.'”

Hopefully, the lawsuit will soon be behind Oliver, so he can share the jokes he’s been swallowing.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on CBS.

Watch the amazing star-studded trailer John Oliver made with a wax statue of Warren G. Harding:

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