In the wake of the absolutely horrific Orlando shooting, it’s difficult not to get emotional about it. With 49 people dead after a senseless attack on an Orlando nightclub and more than 50 injured, it is one of the worst acts of domestic terror on American soil. The world is trying to cope with it, which has included an emotional opening to the Tony Awards on Sunday, and now they are joined by HBO’s Last Week Tonight.
John Oliver, the host of Last Week Tonight, has become somewhat of an internet darling over the span of the series for his epic takedowns of Donald Trump to his show purchasing $15 million in medical debt and forgiving it. The main story of each episode is usually released via YouTube to reach a wider audience than the usual 11 p.m. HBO crowd, and it has worked. But tonight Oliver opened the show with a more somber tone than usual.
For all of the good that Last Week Tonight has done, it is still a comedy show that they spend time researching, writing and assembling into its final form. But in the wake of the Orlando shootings, they felt like it simply had to be addressed now, so Oliver opened the show at his desk and gave an emotional statement about the shooting. He wanted to turn the discussion toward the hundreds of people that lined the streets of Orlando looking to give blood to help the victims, though, instead of lament on the killer and his motives.
“But for right now, on a day when some dipshit terrorist wants us to focus on one man’s act of brutality and hatred, it might be worth seeing this video, which was posted to Twitter today,” he said. “It shows hundreds and hundreds of people this morning lining up around the block in Florida waiting to donate blood, and it kinda reminds you that this terrorist dipshit is vastly outnumbered.”
In the wake of this attack, there will undoubtedly be a lot of talk about the killer, but Oliver has a different idea. The focus can be shifted, because while the attack was truly horrible, we can’t turn back time, but we can look forward and try to find the good in situations like this.
