'F*** you, Oprah!' John Oliver buys $15million of medical debt owed by 9,000 Americans and wipes the slate clean for them in the biggest TV giveaway of all time

Comedian John Oliver performed an incredible act of generosity on Sunday when his topical comedy show, HBO's 'Last Week Tonight,' bought and forgave $15million of medical debt belonging to 9,000 Americans.

The dramatic moment was the climax to a 20-minute segment on America's growing industry of debt buyers, who buy 'delinquent debt' for pennies on the dollar then threaten debtors to get the cash.

Oliver, who bought the $14,922,261.76 debt for $60,000, said: 'On one hand, it’s obviously the right thing to do, but much more importantly [we got to stage] the largest one-time giveaway in television show history,' Fox News reported. 

Bad taste: In Sunday's 'This Week Tonight', host John Oliver looked at debt-buying, in which bad debts are bought up by companies that then scare people into paying up - one of them threatening to eat a debtor's dog

Making it rain: At the end of the segment, Oliver explained how he had bought almost $15million of bad medical debt for just $60,000 - and then proceeded to forgive it all in that he called 'the biggest TV giveaway of all time'

During the piece, Oliver - who is British - explained that all together American households owe more than $12trillion in debt, $436billion of which is more than 90 days overdue.

'And it is not good when anything is that late,' Oliver said. 'If your baby is three months overdue, you'd effectively just be giving birth to a floppy toddler.'

These 'seriously delinquent debts' are then sold off by the banks, payday loan companies and other organizations to debt collection agencies at a knock-down rate.

The debt buyers - who are sometimes buying second or third-hand debts - then chase the debtor for the original account.  

If a long time has elapsed since the debt was racked up, it becomes known as a 'zombie debt'.

'That's an apt comparison,' Oliver said, 'because just like on "The Walking Dead", zombie debt comes back from the grave, is incredibly hard to deal with and seems to disproportionately impact minorities.'

No license to grill: One of the debt collectors was pictured boasting about how he would bother debtors' bosses at home to get them to pay up. Oliver revealed that in many states require no license to buy or collect on debt

And collection can get nasty: Oliver played recordings of some threatening to kill debtors, while another boasted about how he called debtors' bosses at their homes.

'We're gonna have your dog arrested,' threatened one collector, 'we're gonna shoot him up, we're gonna eat him.'

'That's not just horrifying, it's stupid,' Oliver said. 'How are you gonna put handcuffs on a dog?' 

Some even go after debtors who don't have to pay because their debts are out of statute and not legally enforceable.

At a conference for the debt-buying industry, one man boasted about how he convinced 'unsophisticated consumers' to pay out-of-statue debts by threatening them with lawsuits.

He pointed out that while he's legally obliged to put a disclaimer on the letter saying the debt is out of statute, most people don't even read it and just pay up. 'Put all those disclaimers you want on the letter,' he said, 'has it really negatively impacted collections?'

And because in many states it's possible to purchase debt with no license and to collect on debt with no license, that allows just about anyone with cash the ability to start up their own company. 

'As it stands, any idiot can get into it,' Oliver boasted, 'and I can prove that to you, because I’m an idiot and we started a debt-buying company - and it was disturbingly easy.'

Tough talk: Undercover footage filmed by one of Oliver's staff at a conference for debt collectors included this man boasting that he scared people into paying up even with disclaimers saying they didn't legally have to

Oliver paid $50 to register a company in Mississippi: Central Asset Recovery Professionals or 'C.A.R.P., after the bottom-feeding fish.'

That name and a cheap website was all it took to be offered offered a portfolio of $14,922,261.76 of out-of-statute medical debt from Texas.

For under $60,000 he was sent the names, addresses and social security numbers of 9,000 people.

Being out of statute, those debts were technically invalid - but being the chairman of a debt collection agency, Oliver would have been legally able to chase them for the cash anyway.

But instead of collecting, Oliver decided to one-up Oprah Winfrey's 2004 stunt, in which she gave away $8million worth of cars to her audience, by writing off the $15million debt.

He gave the list of 9,000 names to debt-wiping charity RIP Medical Debt, which could wipe out what they owed without affecting their tax - ensuring that nobody else could hunt them for the money.

'F*** you, Oprah!' Oliver shouted as he hit a big red button and cash began to flutter down from the ceiling. 'It is done! It is done! I am the new queen of daytime talk!' 

'F*** you!': Oliver joked that he would become 'the new queen of daytime talk' by outdoing Oprah Winfrey, who famously gave $8million worth of free Pontiac cars to her audience in 2004 

Driven crazy: Oprah Winfrey (left) made the announcement to her audience (right) in the September 13, 2004 episode of 'The Oprah Winfrey Show'. A total of 276 Pontiac G6 sedans were given out