John Oliver has made many enemies over the years. The rich and powerful certainly don’t like him, nor does Law and Order, and nor does the former mayor of Danbury, Connecticut. (Long story!) But surely those attending a gala for Sesame Street wouldn’t boo HBO’s most critical staffer. Right? Think again.
Per The Daily Beast, on Monday Oliver went on Late Night with Seth Meyers, during which he told the tale of his unexpectedly disastrous stint at this year’s Sesame Workshop Benefit Gala. Oliver is a guest at the event every year, and he assumed this time would be as “nice” as it always is. He was in for a rude awakening after he enraged the crowd.
“And I want you to think about how hard it is to make that happen,” Oliver joked. “The theme of the evening is kindness. That’s not easy to do.”
The problem, in Oliver’s eyes, is that the gala had a dodgy sponsor: Bank fo America. They even gave a “nonsense award” to one of its executives, who told the crowd (in Oliver’s telling), “I’ve been thinking about how appropriate it is that Bank of America and Sesame Street have teamed up tonight because we are two organizations built on kindness.”
That set Oliver off. “I snapped,” he said, fuming that an exec at the famously predatory bank would talk of being good to people. “And I walked out, and I said, ‘It’s been odd to hear talk of kindness from Bank of America, an institution that had the highest foreclosure rates since over the last 10 years.”
Instead of righteous applause, Oliver got boos. “Oh, that’s the opposite of the reaction in the room,” Oliver recalled thinking. “And the worst thing, the thing that has imprinted itself on my memory […] is Bert looking up at me with such disappointment in his eyes. Just ‘Why are you like this?’”
Oliver then looked directly into the camera, saying, “Sesame Street, have me back. I’ll be a good boy this time.”
You can watch Oliver’s Late Night appearance in the video above.
(Via The Daily Beast)
