John Oliver On SI Swimsuit Issue: 'Last Week Tonight' Asks How Is It Still A Thing After The Internet?

Sports Illustrated's 2015 swimsuit issue is currently on sale. But why? That's the question asked on Sunday's "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver." The swimsuit issue brings with it some concept of contrived controversy, but the Internet offers all of that and more for free, the "Last Week Tonight" segment argued.

From Maxim to Kim Kardashian's "#BreakTheInternet" Paper magazine shoot, scantily clad women on the covers of magazines sell incredibly well. Although it's kind of silly now that the Internet and a quick Google search make those titillating covers less risqué than when Sports Illustrated released its first swimsuit issue in the 1960s.

"It was a perfect expression of the '60s, a time of such rampant, casual sexism ... but as society moved on, the swimsuit issue not only hung around, it became the magazine's key selling point," the narrator of the "Last Week Tonight" segment said. SI has become more desperate as it faces more competition, which has led the magazine to find new ways to stoke interest in the annual offering. Whether it's racially insensitive decisions, such as using indigenous people as "props," or having Barbie on SI's 2014 swimsuit issue cover, Sports Illustrated is trying to find ways to be controversial, the "Last Week Tonight" segment argued.

So, what's controversial about SI's 2015 swimsuit issue? Well, the cover features Hannah Davis pulling her bikini to the point where it could be NSFW. "There's controversy every year, so I think it's kind of just silly that they're making it out to be the big thing. I mean, it's the swimsuit issue," Davis said to the Associated Press in response to the controversy.

The segment ends with the suggestion that Sports Illustrated may one day, in a complete act of desperation, have a completely nude model on the cover of its swimsuit issue.

You can watch the full segment from "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" below.