It’s pretty hard to believe that John Oliver’s quasi-weekly HBO show Last Week Tonight first premiered only one year ago. In that short time, the British comedian has won a Peabody award, scored a coveted Edward Snowden interview, started a skirmish with the Thai government, landed himself on Time’s 100 Most Influential People list, and, all told, proven himself a worthy successor to his mentor, Jon Stewart. But while you may have learned everything you know about sex geckos, nutritional supplements, gay rights in Uganda, and the Miss America pageant from Oliver and his crack team of writers, the comedian does not want you to call him a journalist. That right there is just another thing he learned from Jon Stewart.

In an interview with Fusion’s Jorge Ramos, Oliver rejected Ramos calling him a journalist saying, “I’m doing the job of a comedian. So, I make jokes about the news.” When Ramos countered with, “You have more credibility than most journalists here in the United States and, I would say, in many other countries,” Oliver responded, “That is more an insult to the current state of journalism than it is a compliment for the state of comedy.”

This is a tried-and-true method of deflection that Jon Stewart used when the likes of Bill O’Reilly, Chris Wallace, or—most famously—Tucker Carlson have tried to hold his feet to the fire about journalistic standards. Stewart’s constant “I’m just a comedian” response has prompted pushback from his detractors who have called it, among other things, a “dodge.”

But in this case, of course, Ramos is complimenting Oliver, not attacking him. And Oliver’s zing about the credibility of non-satirical news anchors hits hard in light of the recent Brian Williams scandal. Oliver admits his own staff is very careful to protect Last Week Tonight’s integrity, but, he claims, it’s all in the interest of comedy. “We have very aggressive fact checkers and very thorough researchers, so that we’re not wrong. Because if you make a joke about something that is factually inaccurate the joke collapses.”

Whatever defense or deflection Oliver and Stewart might offer, the truth is their spoonful-of-sugar-helps-the-horrifying-world-events-go-down approach to the news has proven not only popular, but also extraordinarily informative. Later in the same interview with Ramos, Oliver gives credit for all his success to his former Daily Show boss. He says, “Jon Stewart taught me how to do everything … It’s pretty much an objective fact. I owe him everything.” We can add this humble “I’m not a journalist” defense to the list of things Oliver owes Stewart and take comfort in the fact that even though the next era of The Daily Show may look very different, Stewart’s legacy lives on in John Oliver.