During season 12 of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, a lot happened on the HBO talk show. For example, the show included an easter egg that mocked any of the series' viewers who discovered and tried to engage with it. After that, the show's season 12 finale featured a segment that was a truly amazing celebration of its strange past.
After Last Week Tonight's season finale aired, it would have made sense if the show's fans assumed that was the end of that chapter in the show's history. However, Oliver's show released an exclusively online video days later. That video, which was a continuation of Oliver's series of videos focused on the Air Bud movie series, exemplifies a brilliant aspect of the unique talk show.
Why John Oliver's third Air Bud video is a strange but perfect addition to the show's history
On April 24, 2022, the YouTube channel for Last Week Tonight released its first video about the Air Bud film franchise. As odd as it was that the talk show published one video on the family film series, it released a YouTube video called "Air Bud: Pt. II" on Oct. 19, 2025. Even though more than three years passed between the premieres of the first and second videos, YouTube published the "Air Bud Pt. III" video a little over a month later, on Nov. 23, 2025.
There are two reasons why I am so happy that Last Week Tonight has released three Air Bud-inspired videos to date, and I hope to see more videos like them in the future. The first reason is that I think that the show focusing on such an absurd movie series perfectly counterbalances the image it has base on the topics it typically covers.
During season 12 of Last Week Tonight, the show covered very dry topics like Presidential libraries, medicare advantage companies, and public broadcasting. While the serious topics that Last Week Tonight covers definitely deserve a spotlight, the show could become so dry that it might endanger its viewership. For that reason, Oliver occasionally spotlighting odd topics is a perfect way of making the talk show fun.
The second reason why I love Last Week Tonight's Air Bud series is because of how shockingly funny it can be. For example, the third video in the series, which can be seen above, is highlighted by a truly hilarious reveal. During the video, Oliver highlights the fact that the producer of the upcoming Air Bud reboot offered him a role in the planned movie. Then, in a truly hilarious turn, Oliver revealed that the producer announced that filming of the reboot had wrapped only nine days after he was offered the role, making his appearance an impossibility.
Oliver also hilariously highlights in the video that after plans for the reboot were announced, it was revealed that producers hadn't cast the titular dog or seemingly even obtained the necessary funding.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is available to stream on HBO Max.