John Oliver can’t resist shaking things up, and on Sunday night, he decided that the cereal world could use some controversy. So, he ranted about the boring nature of cereal brands and dared Cheerios to drop an F-bomb on Twitter in exchange for the Last Week Tonight host donating $25,000 to their choice of charity. Well, he sweetened the pot by offering $50,000 if the brand got profane with a “random, non-famous user,” and with that, the ball was duly placed in Cheerios’ court.
In response, Cheerios attempted to be entirely wholesome by donating $50,000 to No Kid Hungry and then offering to double the donation if Last Week Tonight account tweeted out a Cheerios motto: “Families make good go round.”
As one might imagine, the challenge has been duly accepted, and Oliver found a way to bypass the wholesome vibe by adding some (serious) deviance to the mix. Yes, “Families make good go round” did appear in Last Week Tonight‘s response tweets, but so did the Manson family and the Menendez brothers. For good measure, Oliver tweeted a reference to the Sackler family, which is currently under fire for (allegedly) profiting from the opioid crisis before claiming that a “smear campaign” is afoot.
It's a deal! Families make good go round 💛
Please RT! https://t.co/0Pm1vmDm2E pic.twitter.com/ynx6xHMQ0Q
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) June 2, 2021
Hang on! Sorry! Wrong photo! Use this one instead!
Families make good go round 💛 pic.twitter.com/EhmGt9zAVX
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) June 2, 2021
OK, last one, we promise!
Families make good go round 💛 pic.twitter.com/mcxqr1HhSG
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) June 2, 2021
Oh, but there’s more. Last Week Tonight also decided to do what Cheerios wouldn’t do: tell a random, non-famous account to f*ck off. Challenge complete?
@AlexPon21 Fuck you.
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) June 2, 2021