A billboard advertising John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight was turned into a giant meme Tuesday by conservative guerrilla street artists the Faction, who tweeted the finished product out to fans.
After we fixed @billmaher’s billboard last month, we didn’t want @iamjohnoliver to feel left out. :(
— The Faction (@TheFaction1776) February 18, 2019
Doesn’t he look better showing his true colors?! pic.twitter.com/i1tRSL0ASA
The artist invoked the right-wing NPC meme to satirize Oliver, replacing his face with a non-playable character (NPC) image used to depict liberals as mindless partisan zombies. The name of the show was also scrubbed from the billboard, rebranded instead as The Orange Man Bad Show with John Oliver.
It makes for the second HBO advertisement in Los Angeles, California, that the Faction has vandalized since the start of 2019, part of a campaign to fight “Trump Derangement Syndrome" in the media.
In mid-January, media outlet Culttture ran exclusive footage of the Faction targeting a billboard advertisement for liberal comedian Bill Maher’s Real Time talk show with the same meme.
Street artists @TheFaction1776 hit a billboard in West Hollywood last night covering his face with an NPC meme.
— Culttture (@culttture) January 14, 2019
“@BillMaher is a cheerleader for the wind-up opposition- that spews rumors and supposition as fact, to an audience ready, willing, and able repeat them as gospel.” pic.twitter.com/ZCXqp2UdjB
This week, elsewhere in the city, a fellow conservative street artist who goes by the name Sabo trolled Hollywood by posting faux movie posters.
Most went after Empire actor Jussie Smollett, over the debunked claim that he was the victim of a hate crime, and Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who faces a political crisis over allegations related to a racist photograph from his old medical school yearbook.
Parody movie posters depicting actor Jussie Smollett as the "Black Prankster" and nominating him for "best fictional story" appear in a bus shelter near Fox Studios in Los Angeles today. Posters are signed by conservative street artist "Sabo" @CBSLA pic.twitter.com/hUZF89iMYt
— John Schreiber (@johnschreiber) February 18, 2019
It is understood that Sabo and the Faction’s campaigns were not planned to coincide.
