- Last Week Tonight launched a global awareness campaign to find the lizards sent into space by Vladimir Putin
- Many celebrities and people around the world joined the campaign
- The Russian government has regained communication with the lizards
- The host takes partial credit for their safety, but they were apparently rescued before the show aired
- The host urges viewers to spread the word of their triumph
- The host humorously mentions the potential consequences if the lizards die before returning to Earth
- The host thanks viewers, professional wrestlers, and astronauts for making the world a better place.

Last week on Last Week Tonight, John Oliver told us to tell Vladimir Putin to #GoGetThoseGeckos. This week, there's some good news...#WeGotThoseGeckos.

I'm John Oliver, amateur astroherpetologist.

As you may remember, 2 weeks ago, Vladimir Putin sent a veritable bang bus full of lizards into space, and then quickly lost touch with it like an old college roommate.

Well, we here at Last Week Tonight leapt into action, launching our now famous hashtag, Go Get Those Geckos, global awareness campaign.

People across the globe united behind our hashtag in a way they hadn't since the era of hashtag True Detective Season 2, and hashtag This Could Be Us, but you playin'.

-♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ Look, look, luminaries in their fields joined the chorus, from fake president Julia Louis-Dreyfus to international businessman Richard Branson, to fake astronaut Patrick Stewart, to actual astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

Even 12-time WWE champion Randy Orton tweeted our message of reptilian justice, which we did not entirely understand until we realized that Randy Orton's nickname is the Viper, and vipers are basically born to go get geckos.

And also, our non-professional Wrestler viewers, they pitched in as well.

You took to Twitter and Instagram to spread the word.

And apparently, given that their website didn't crash, the Russian government has better programmers than the FCC.

BBC News, another news organization that operates primarily on accent-based authority, has, has, you laughed a little too hard at that, has, has verified that Russia has regained communication with their interstellar orgimobile.

Now, I don't want to take too much credit here, especially since they were apparently rescued before our show was even broadcast.

So let's just say I feel mostly responsible for the safety of those cold-blooded little f***ing machines.

So, so please, using the hashtag, we got those geckos, Spread the word of our triumph, because this is just the tip of the iceberg, people.

Now that the geckos are okay, there's nothing we can't accomplish as a species.

We can usher in a new era of peace on Earth.

We can dedicate our resources to education and scientific research.

We can cool it with all the gritty reboots of 90s cartoons.

Thank you, astronauts, both actual and fictional, for making the world a better place.

Unless, of course, the geckos die before they get back to Earth, in which case, we are completely f**ked.

Please join us Sundays at 11 on HBO for a new, mostly lizard-free episode of Last Week Tonight.


Speaker 0: -♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ Hello there. I'm John Oliver, amateur astroherpetologist. As you may remember, 2 weeks ago, Vladimir Putin sent a veritable bang bus full of lizards into space, and then quickly lost touch with it like an old college roommate. Well, we here at Last Week Tonight leapt into action, launching our now famous hashtag, Go Get Those Geckos, global awareness campaign. People across the globe united behind our hashtag in a way they hadn't since the era of hashtag True Detective Season 2, and hashtag This Could Be Us, but you playin'.

-♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ Look, look, luminaries in their fields joined the chorus, from fake president Julia Louis-Dreyfus to international businessman Richard Branson, to fake astronaut Patrick Stewart, to actual astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Even 12-time WWE champion Randy Orton tweeted our message of reptilian justice, which we did not entirely understand until we realized that Randy Orton's nickname is the Viper, and vipers are basically born to go get geckos. It's in their DNA. And also, our non-professional Wrestler viewers, they pitched in as well. You took to Twitter and Instagram to spread the word.

You emailed the Kremlin directly. And apparently, given that their website didn't crash, the Russian government has better programmers than the FCC. That's... That's the good news. That is the good news.

The even better news is that it worked. BBC News, another news organization that operates primarily on accent-based authority, has, has, you laughed a little too hard at that, has, has verified that Russia has regained communication with their interstellar orgimobile. Ladies and gentlemen, we did it! We did it! The Geckos have been got!

Now, I don't want to take too much credit here, especially since they were apparently rescued before our show was even broadcast. So... So let's just say I feel mostly responsible for the safety of those cold-blooded little f***ing machines. So, so please, using the hashtag, we got those geckos, Spread the word of our triumph, because this is just the tip of the iceberg, people. Now that the geckos are okay, there's nothing we can't accomplish as a species.

We can usher in a new era of peace on Earth. We can dedicate our resources to education and scientific research. We can cool it with all the gritty reboots of 90s cartoons. We can do all of these things. So, thank you, viewers.

Thank you, professional wrestlers. -... Thank you, astronauts, both actual and fictional, for making the world a better place. Unless... Unless, of course, the geckos die before they get back to Earth, in which case, we are completely f**ked.

Thank you so much. Please join us Sundays at 11 on HBO for a new, mostly lizard-free episode of Last Week Tonight. We got the geckos! Thegeckos.dot! Whoo!

Whoo! Whoo! Woo! Woo!

See all LastWeekTonight transcripts on Youtube

#WeGotThoseGeckos: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Web Exclusive)