John Oliver passionately rails against life-ruining municipal tickets and fines


"If you're thinking, how the f--k is it possible for a grandmother to go to jail for traffic tickets, well, that is what this story is about," John Oliver said near the beginning of his main story on Sunday's Last Week Tonight. Because the phenomenon of cities and towns financing their municipal governments by bleeding their poorest residents isn't limited to Ferguson, Missouri.
Oliver started, though, with an example from Ferguson, where a woman had to pay more than $1,000 for $150 worth of tickets. "Even people stocking hotel minibar are thinking, 'That markup seems a little high'," he quipped. After running through some more cases, he did a mid-segment recap: "If you get a ticket and you can't pay it, you may get additional fines, lose your license, and eventually, your job. And if you're thinking: 'Is there any way this whole situation can be made even worse?' relax, there is." It involves private companies taking on probation work, and it is, in fact, worse.
The cri de coeur of Oliver's campaign to end overly punitive municipal fines is not exactly family-friendly, but if anyone can get #ShutDownTheF--kBarrel to go viral, it's John Oliver. Watch below. —Peter Weber
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purge
Cartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?
In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Crossword: August 23, 2025
The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
A long weekend in Zürich
The Week Recommends The vibrant Swiss city is far more than just a banking hub
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle