At its core,

[wufwugy]

I don't really understand why you call his audience gullible and him snarky and supercilious tbh

The facts are cherry-picked and the interpretations of them are filtered through a bias. The delivery is "look at these silly people being silly; we know better; here's a quip." This isn't exclusive to Oliver; it's modus operandi across the left-wing political entertainment media. The right-wing does similar stuff, just different, and neither side is that adept at viewing themselves or the other side objectively. The best way I've seen to describe the language of the right-wing media is "red meat." They gobble that shit up. They want Ann Coulter to shout "Lock her up!" and Judge Jeanine to give the stern dressing down of a mother who has had it up to here (*holds hand up to forehead level*).

Examples of how some on the outside view the entertainment news hypnosis best exemplified by Stewart and Oliver:







Regarding the cherry-picking of facts and interpreting those facts through a particular bias, well, the net neutrality episode from Oliver's very beginning is a good example. Some of what he said has truth, but not the whole truth. There's a ton that isn't even addressed, giving a skewed version of events such that false beliefs arise. Of course, that's standard for political entertainment media of any variety.