John Oliver tries to figure out fair ground rules for public shaming, gets advice from Monica Lewinsky

John Oliver weighs the costs and benefits of public shaming — (Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Last Week Tonight)

"Thanks to the internet, it has never been easier to pile on to a public shaming," John Oliver said on Sunday's Last Week Tonight. "In fact, it's now one of America's favorite pastimes," and "you've probably participated" in this "golden age of internet shaming," he said. "And you may be expecting me to say that all public shaming is bad, but I don't actually think that. When it's well-directed, a lot of good can come out of it."

Oliver held up Fox News host Tucker Carlson as "a good example of an internet pile-on being merited: He's a public figure, he made his comments publicly, they are appalling, and he's standing by them. But clearly it's not always that simple. Because when misdirected, internet pile-ons can completely destroy people's lives," and "often it is not a public figure who's on the receiving end of it."

Oliver and his writers think a lot "about who we make fun of, why we're doing it, and how," he said. For example, it's fine to pile on the parents who allegedly paid serious money to cheat their kids into college, but "it gets more complicated" with their kids. "When millions of people all feel the need to weigh in, and do it potentially for years, the punishment can be vastly disproportionate to the offense," he said. "And perhaps the best example of this is Monica Lewinsky."

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To imagine Lewinsky's experience, "think of the dumbest thing you did when you were young — not the dumbest thing you go caught doing," Oliver said. "Now imagine hearing about that every single day for decades on end." Public shaming is complicated, he said, "but Monica Lewinsky might actually be the perfect person to remind all of us what the consequences can be to a misdirected flood of public anger." So he sat down and asked her, and you watch their interview below. (Some of the clip has NSFW language.) 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.