John Oliver finished Sunday Last week tonight By diving into the world of movie posters as reimagined by Ghanaian artists.
He noted that these posters do not always actually represent what the film is about. For example, poster for ghost Demi Moore is shown screaming as Whoopi Goldberg’s head explodes in her stomach.
“Even if it’s all you know about him ghost “It’s ‘fucking crockery,'” Oliver quipped. “You’re probably aware that Whoopi Goldberg doesn’t say ‘here’s Johnny’ on her way out of Demi Moore’s womb.”
He noted that Ghanaian artists have been making their own posters for Hollywood movies for decades, posters that have nothing to do with the story of the films. Other examples include one for Jurassic Park Featuring one golfer and another The spy who loved me He boasts a huge fish.
As Oliver explains, foreign videotapes were introduced into Ghana in the 1980s, leading locals to purchase television screens and VCRs as part of efforts to create temporary screening sites. Since Ghana was under the rule of a military dictator at the time, they were unable to properly advertise the shows due to lack of access to printing presses. Thus, local artists were commissioned to create posters, sometimes using repurposed flour bags as canvases.
Some of these artists then decided to make the films “seem more interesting than they might otherwise be” by incorporating elements unrelated to the film. For example, A predator Poster with predator holding a naked woman, poster for Hellraiser III With Pinhead eating a whole person, a Jaws poster featuring Chuck Norris (who is not in the movie) and Wizard of Oz A poster where almost all the characters are vampires. This has often led to confusion among fans who demand their money back upon discovering the truth.
However, if you haven’t guessed, Oliver himself was excited about these posters. So much so that he commissioned one for his show to use as part of the FYC Emmy campaign. Participate in it Last week tonight He commissioned Ghanaian movie poster artist CA Wisely to create a poster for his show based on three images he sent: a shot of Oliver “trying to force my way into a TV series”; “His wife, Wanda Jo, is helping me open a spa”; and the Moon Mammoth mascot he introduced to rebrand his minor league baseball team. The artist was asked to use their imagination and include at least one character who is not part of the show and as many Ghanaian movie poster brands as possible.
“Every year, during Emmy voting season, HBO campaigns on behalf of its shows with tasteful ads…. They even rent out billboards in Los Angeles for the ads. And while it’s always done in a restrained, elegant manner, it never feels like it speaks to the chaos we like to think we represent here.”
Oliver then debuted the poster on his show. He is shown carrying two rifles and drinking wine with a horse that has a hand that looks exactly like a human; The saw cuts through the claws. Snakes. And Fonz (Henry Winkler), “carries a pickaxe for no apparent reason, I suppose, to defend himself from everything that’s going on around him.”
He added: “I love this painting very much.” “I think we can all agree, it’s an ad for a much funnier show than the one you just watched.”
Oliver said he convinced HBO to display the poster on a digital ad on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles sometime in June between 2 and 6 a.m.
Additionally, viewers can purchase prints at hangjohnoliver.com for $50 each, with 50 percent of profits going directly to artists in Ghana and the other half going to the Ghana Community Impact Fund.
“It’s beautiful,” he said at the end of his presentation. “It’s just beautiful.”
See poster below.
