Standup comedian and comedy writer Jeff Maurer made a visit on campus Monday, walking out onto the Ramsey Theater stage at 9 p.m. to greet a small but engaged crowd of Wildcats.

“That’s one of the most generic mascots a school can have, isn’t it?” Maurer said. “It’s like the people who were choosing the mascot were sitting in a room and couldn’t decide, until finally one guy said, ‘Okay, we’ve gotta pick something.’”

Maurer resides in the New York area and is currently a writer for the weekly news satire, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”

The HBO show follows in the same vein as “The Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show.” John Oliver had been the British correspondent for “The Daily Show” and had even taken over Jon Stewart’s place as host for a short stint when Stewart was busy directing the 2014 film “Rose Water” in Jordan. The show aired last April on HBO and has been picked up for another two seasons.

What’s it like writing with such a well-known comedian like Oliver? Especially now, as both Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are getting out of the satire news network on Comedy Central?

“He’s proud of being English, but he really likes the U.S.,” Maurer said. “But, he’s a really great guy. You know, he wants to do a good show and you can tell he makes that effort. They use a lot of fact checkers so that they don’t run any errors.”

Maurer met Oliver before the show’s start through the underground world of standup. Maurer had been employed as a speech writer for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington D.C. and began doing standup on the side, just to see if he could.

“The first time up, I bombed,” Maurer said. “But then I tried the same stuff another night and it went better. I did it and that went alright too.”

Maurer graduated from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. with a degree in political science. So it’s fitting that he ended up writing for a show that deals with a lot of political comedy.

But politics were left out of the performance Monday evening.

Maurer began with a thank you to Sarah Gunion for putting the event together and for also “forcing” the audience to sit closer to the front.

His standup was very much prepared for the college crowd, and it didn’t disappoint the audience who barreled out in laughter when Maurer asked why “screw the pooch” is the only reference to bestiality that we throw around casually.

“You sure wouldn’t say, ‘Yeah, he sure ‘fingered the gorilla’ on that one,’” Maurer said.

Students were introduced to the German Lego manufacturers who have decided that kids shouldn’t be creative anymore, but are only allowed to build the pre-determined item on the Lego box.

“What’s next, gray Play-Doh?” Maurer said.

Maurer stayed at the Cobblestone Hotel while in Wayne America, and said that he enjoyed being here.

“The hotel is really nice, and there are only like three people staying there,” Maurer said. “I kind of wanted to ask if they could put me in a big suite or something.

“Everyone here is really friendly. I went into McDonald’s and they were like, ‘Hi, welcome to McDonald’s. How can I help you?’ They wouldn’t say anything to you in New York.”