John Oliver Says This Issue Causes Him 'Tension' With HBO's Lawyers

John Oliver joked that he butts heads with HBO lawyers assigned to his show mostly because of one issue.

“I think that the tension between us comes from this,” he told Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday. “I think we have two different opinions of what their job is.”

“They think their job is to stop us from getting sued. I think their job is to make sure that when we are sued, we win,” he continued. “And the distance between those two things is where the fighting is.”

“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” won an Emmy on Monday for Outstanding Scripted Variety Series.

After thanking his staff onstage, Oliver expressed gratitude to HBO and “our lawyers, who are angry with us all of the time.”

On “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Tuesday, Oliver shed a little light on his interactions with the legal team.

“In the week running up to the stories, so we’ve been working on them for a month, we tell them what we’re doing, and there’s normally a deep sigh on the other end of the phone,” he said, before adding several seconds of bleeped words.

″‘Oh, what are you going to say about Bezos? That’s interesting,’” he added, pretending to hang up the phone.

Oliver’s show has tackled everything from the rail freight industry to cryptocurrency, performing comical deep dives into various current events and taking aim at politicians and other powerful people.

Watch his interview below on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

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