Quick refresher: Discovery Channel opened up its big 2013 Shark Week extravaganza with a stupid fake Megalodon documentary. People were pissed. Wil Wheaton was pissed. And now, John Oliver and The Daily Show are pissed, too.
“You faked a two hour shark-gasm and your disclaimer was three seconds at the end?” Oliver said, noting that most of the audience probably missed the note given that they were busy warning loved ones to stay out of the water.
He said the network later gleefully posted the results of a poll that found that over 70 percent of viewers believed the Megalodon was still alive and well.
“It’s actually heartwarming that many [people] believe you given that you’re the network behind shows like Amish Mafia and soft core marijuana porn Weed Country, as well as Naked and Afraid where you can learn to catch fish with your vagina,” Oliver said. [The Wrap]
Somehow, as improbable as it would have seemed this time last week, Discovery Channel bringing Tara Reid on a shark-related talk show and letting her ramble for a full-minute about how whale sharks aren’t actually the result of whales and sharks mating (“And then I realized that whales are mammals and sharks are animals, so they have nothing to do with each other…”) has only been the second most shameful part of this year’s Shark Week. In its own perverse, defeating way, that’s actually kind of impressive.
