The Dalai Lama appeared on Oliver's HBO show Sunday night.
It’s not that often you get to see a revered spiritual leader laugh and tease, but that’s what made watching John Oliver interview the venerable Dalai Lama on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” so much fun.
In the segment that aired on Sunday, Oliver traveled to Dharamsala, India, to talk to the Dalai Lama and discuss the holy man’s claim that he led some in Mongolia to turn from alcohol to horse milk, a claim that was greeted by a horrified face on Oliver.
“Wait, hold on, you tried to wean them off vodka by giving them horse milk?” Oliver asked. The comedian said he can accept cow’s milk but has a hard time understanding where horse’s milk comes from.
They also discussed reincarnation, Tibet and China’s portrayal of the holy man as a “wolf in monk’s clothes,” which led to two humorous moments.
In the first, the Dalai Lama put up his fingers to pantomime horns growing out of his head while he said, Â “I am demon with horns.” He then added that their words meant nothing to him. He practices taking distrust and suspicion and turning it around.
“Whatever they want to say, that’s their freedom,” he said. “I have no negative feeling. I just feel love. I practice, you see, taking others’ anger, suspicion, distrust and giving them patience, tolerance, and compassion. I practice that.”
The second moment occurred
when the Dalai Lama said he needed another demon and planned to transfer some demon skills to Oliver.
“No, no, no,” said Oliver shaking his head in horror. “You can’t transfer, you can’t reincarnate the demon into me. No, no. You can’t do that. Can he?”
As the Dalai Lama laughed, Oliver put his head in his hands and moaned, “This is not how I wanted this interview to go.”