John Oliver ended Last Week Tonight‘s final episode of the year with a glorious “f*ck you” to an “uncommonly sh*tty year.” However, the rest of the episode revolved around his extended, aghast reaction to Donald Trump’s election victory and his advice on how to overcome the next four years. Early on in the episode, Oliver illustrates how Trump’s major platform objectives read like a “to-do list on Satan’s refrigerator, which of course, Satan no longer needs now that Hell has frozen over.” And that doesn’t even touch the Supreme Court, which truly scares the bejesus out of Oliver. As he points out, Trump’s nominees will shape the course of America for decades to come.
From there, Oliver does not soften up, even for a moment. The entire episode revolves around one question — “how the f*ck did we get here, and what the f*ck do we do now?” — but overall, his message is to not forget that Trump is not “normal.” Therefore, one cannot trust Trump to stop changing his mind on every issue, including his recent decision to keep some Obamacare provisions or not jail Hillary Clinton as promised. “Don’t get complacent. He might change his mind on that again,” Oliver warned. “Trump is like a Magic 8 Ball. Every time you shake him gives you a different answer.”
Oliver tells his audience to never cease vigilance against “a cesspool of nonsense” from the first successful candidate “to harness and fully legitimize weird conspiracy bullsh*t clickbait.” This Oliver instruction of vigilance appears at several instances but includes a reminder that even Ted Cruz (who once called Trump a “pathological liar”) will not check his former rival. And Oliver reminds people that if they grow complacent “things will not be okay.” He asserts that a Canadian relocation is no solution (unless you’re a goose), and here’s what needs to happen instead:
“We’re gonna need to stay here and fight, and not just politically in four years when he’s up for reelection, but constantly — monitoring legislation as it moves through Congress and f*cking voting when your legislators come up for reelection in two years. But that is still the barest minimum of what is going to be needed, because for the last eight years, we’ve had a president we can assume would generally stand up for the rights of all Americans, but that is going to change now. So we’re going to have to actively stand up for one another. And it can’t be just sounding off on the internet, or sharing think pieces or videos like this one that echo around your bubble. I’m talking about actual sacrifice to support people who are now under threat.”
Again, the biggest take away from this final episode is how Oliver urges people to never accept the Trump presidency as ordinary or normal in any sense: “A Klan-backed misogynist internet troll will deliver the next State of the Union Address, and that is not normal.” See you next year, Oliver.