John Oliver slammed Alex Jones for the way he finances his show

After taking most of July off, HBO's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" came back Sunday night. And boy did he have to catch up on a lot. 

Though the show could have dedicated its entire half hour to what happened this past week - from Jared Kushner's prepared speech to press at the White House, to the explosive interview new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci gave to The New Yorker, to the firing of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus - Oliver instead used the main story of Sunday's show to look at radio host Alex Jones. 

The "InfoWars" host has climbed to conservative media prominence through explosive claims that go viral, like how chemicals in our water are turning frogs gay, or ones that have made him infamous, like saying the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 was a hoax.    

But Oliver looked past all that to delve into something else Jones does a lot on his show: shill merchandise. Oliver said that in one week of Jones' recent broadcasts, he spent nearly a quarter of the time either talking about or playing ads for his products. And he's got a lot of them.

The "InfoWars" store has survival gear, organic shampoo and soaps, and even a Bill Clinton rape whistle ("Last Week Tonight" bought this item and Oliver said it came with a complimentary "9-11 was an Inside Job" bumper sticker).  

Radio hosts doing ads is nothing new, but Oliver said since 2013, Jones has been focusing on his own vitamins and other supplements. Reportedly, two-thirds of his funding comes from marketing his own products - which range from vitality drugs for men and women, to something called "Caveman," which is a paleo formula chocolate drink with bone broth. It sounds awful and Oliver, who bought it, tasted it on air, and confirmed that tastes awful too.

Jones even has a doctor come on his show to hock the merch with him. Jones claims Dr. Edward Group III has a degree from MIT. But "Last Week Tonight" did some digging and learned he actually attended Texas Chiropractic College, and when the show asked MIT about him it responded, "calling him an alumni would be inaccurate and misleading."

The show played a clip of Jones saying "InfoWars" costs $45 million to $50 million to run, and that any money from his store goes back into the show. However, Oliver notes that Jones has sported at least three different Rolex watches on his show.

Jones often says that his critics focus on things he says that are taken out of context. But Oliver showed on Sunday's show that in context what Jones is doing is chilling. 

"At the start of this piece I promised Alex Jones that I would put his statements in context, because he is right, that if you play small clips in isolation he looks like a loon," Oliver said. "But if you play them in context, he looks like a skilled salesman spending hours a day frightening you about problems like refugees spreading disease, and then selling you an answer." 

Perhaps the best example of this is that after Jones' "gay frogs" video went viral, he did a follow-up on how chemicals are being put in the water to feminize society and reduce the population. He then immediately segued to an ad about water filters.

Watch the "Last Week Tonight" Alex Jones piece below:

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