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What Grinds our Gears: Videos from Last Week Tonight played in university lectures

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Photo courtesy of Eric Liebowitz / HBO

Written by: Gene Cole, Opinions Editor

I understand that it’s probably difficult for instructors to make a lesson plan that engages students every minute of every class. A detailed textbook and experience definitely aren’t enough, and sometimes you need help from some engaging speech to pad two or three hours of lecture.

But if I need to sit through another Last Week Tonight video on YouTube to introduce me to a topic in-lecture, I’m going to scream.

This isn’t to disrespect John Oliver or his show. His team works hard to research their topics and present it in a clear, entertaining fashion. It’s certainly faster paced than a TED Talk, the other go-to type of YouTube video for lecturers who need a change of voice. But being presented with his schtick with every class is immediately tiring. I would much rather an instructor tell us about these concepts in ways that apply to the material and field, rather than something intended for the masses.

This is to say nothing about the likelihood that the people who do enjoy John Oliver have likely seen all his videos at this point. They show up in the Trending section whenever they come up, where so many of us eat up our online media from. I do not pay several thousands of dollars for school every year to watch something that I have already seen or can watch in my free time.

Please, if you really want us to watch it, just assign it alongside the readings for the week.

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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

For advertising inquiries: [email protected]
For promotional inquiries: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society