John Oliver tied up loose ends with a delightful season-ending blockbuster featuring Russell Crowe's jockstrap

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Last Week Tonight)

John Oliver closed out the current season of his HBO show Last Week Tonight last week with a disquisition on the rise in authoritarianism, but over the Thanksgiving break he also released a high-octane coda to one of his long-running jokes from the season. "By now, you probably know that we like to buy stupid things," Oliver said, pointing to the five wax presidents Last Week Tonight bought last year — plus, of course, the Russell Crowe divorcee auction items Oliver bought this year, including, most famously, the leather jockstrap Crowe wore in Cinderella Man.

"To his immense credit, Russell Crowe used the money that we paid to fund the John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward at the Australia Zoo," Oliver noted, calling that "a burn so harsh that only koalas with chlamydia can sympathize." And he had an update on the purchased items, which Oliver had donated to a now-defunct Blockbuster Video store in Alaska. "If you are wondering what happened to all of Russell Crowe's merchandise, I have good news and bad news," he said. The good news is that the Crowe items were sent to the last remaining Blockbuster, in Oregon, and the bad news is that Russell Crowe's leather jockstrap was not among those items.

Not to worry, Oliver said. "Not only do we know where that jockstrap is, we asked ourselves, 'What would be the single dumbest possible way to pay tribute to the most wonderfully stupid thing that happened this year?' And the answer, we hope you will agree, was this." The video he introduced, featuring not just Armie Hammer but also some special guests — both waxy and very much alive — is something to behold. Also, probably a better use of HBO's money than Russell Crowe's jockstrap. There is NSFW language. Watch below. Peter Weber

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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.