Last Week Tonight‘s delivered a main segment about sex work (and the problem with criminalizing the practice) on Sunday night, but as one might imagine, John Oliver also had harsh truths to offer about Russia’s attack on Ukraine. This, of course, differed from the unsavory (and self-promotional) approach of John Cena and the cringeworthy maternal-themed poetry from AnnaLynne McCord, but no one can deny that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a total badass, especially considering how he passed up an offer of extraction from the U.S. in favor of being a true ride-or-die for his people, all while Russia’s becoming persona non grata on the global stage.
For his part, Oliver has had absolutely enough with the journalist-killing, rival-poisoning president of Russia. “Putin is a lot of things,” Oliver declared. “[H]e’s an autocrat, a tyrant, a warmonger. But also, he’s kinda a huge b*tch.” And Oliver did not hold back while tearing into CNN for the hot mess of airing a butt-shaking Applebee’s ad amid visuals of an already war-torn Ukraine:
“CNN during its coverage of air-raid sirens in Kyiv somehow found a way to make it even worse with this terrible transition to break…. It’s not great, is it? It’s not just that they cut to a commercial for a restaurant whose food can only be described as ‘sometimes warm,’ it’s just so aggressively American. From the country song that thinks listing food counts as lyrics all the way to this human Boot Barn shaking his nonexistent ass.”
For its part, Applebee’s pulled its ads while expressing how “disappointed in the actions of the network” the restaurant chain was for how CNN juxtaposed the butt-shaking with images of warfare. Yet Oliver didn’t let them go lightly: “That’s some deft international diplomacy from the home of both the ‘grilled oriental chicken salad’ and the ‘tipsy leprechaun.'”
Oliver had plenty to say, as well, about the neoconservative-influenced George W. Bush (and his War in Afghanistan moves), who (as Oliver reviewed) stepped up while “condemning Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine.” Oliver couldn’t resist pushing back on that one. “Hold on, George. Not from you,” the host declared. “You are not the guy for this one. Because that statement only would have made sense if it ended with ‘Oh sh*t, now I hear it. Sorry. I’ll shut the f*ck up now.” As always, John Oliver’s not one to let go of historical screwups, and it’s a fair point.
