Last Week Tonight‘s John Oliver offered no breaks for his white viewers at home tonight – a recurrent theme for the nation’s political late-night television host.
Oliver started his show with recent news clippings following some of the nation’s Republican-involved drama. After glossing over John Cox’s run in California recall election with a live bear and Texas and Florida’s passing of voting restriction bills, Oliver tuned in on the voting recount efforts in Arizona and how they seemed to be filled with sketchy-looking vote counters and dubious recount methods.
“That’s not reassuring. Normally when there’s a guy in those sunglasses says, ‘There’s nothing to it. It’s pretty obvious,’ he’s just seconds away from reversing his brand new ATV through the front window of a Fuddruckers,” Oliver said of a vote-counting volunteer in a CNN news clip.
Oliver explained how vote recounts are repeatedly being pushed by Arizona Republicans who refuse to see the election in any other light. “We’ll all be lucky if nobody gets seriously hurt,” Oliver surmised.
In another dig at local American news outlets, a timely Mother’s Day montage played of “Disappointing Men Of Local News,” predictably of male local news hosts being uncouth to their moms and/or wives.
Oliver then introduced his subject of the week: Black hair. He smartly begins by deprecating his identity as a white man to build some credibility. “I realize I’m not the ideal person to talk about black hair. I look like I still go to an old time-y barber named Valentino and ask for a tidy Liza Minnelli,” Oliver deflected.
He continues to explain how white people have historically ignored the cultural roots, significance and diversity of black hairstyles and how that lack of understanding has serious consequences today, from professional to political.
“Black hair shouldn’t be viewed or corralled by white people,” Oliver emphasized. “White people really don’t need to have an opinion on it and our laws should reflect that.”
Oliver’s call of action this week zeroed in on The CROWN Act. Written in 2019, the bill ensures protection against discrimination based on race-based hairstyles. These hairstyles, such as braids, locs, twists and knots have led to unfair punitive actions against Black people, said Oliver.
Oliver ended his program with a profanity-laced video from actors Leslie Jones, Uzo Aduba and Anthony Anderson, encouraging white viewers curious about black hair to “f**king Google it.”
“It can be f**king Bing, YouTube, Wikipedia – I don’t give a sh*t,” the former SNL actress said.
For the white viewers not interested in Googling, there is another option, said the Black-ish star. Without skipping a beat, Jones finishes Anderson’s sentence: “F**king off is always an option.”
It wouldn’t be Last Week Tonight without a proper flogging of white people.