John Oliver and Michael Bolton heroically stand up for the IRS

John Oliver has sympathy for the IRS — (Image credit: Last Week Tonight)

"Is it any wonder that everyone hates the IRS?" John Oliver said on Sunday's Last Week Tonight. "Dealing with them is obligatory, it often functions badly, and it combines two of the things we hate the most in life: someone taking our money, and math." But after listing all the reasons to hate the tax collectors — yes, including the recent scandals — Oliver said he will attempt the impossible: Getting you to have a "small amount of sympathy for the IRS."

Doing such a hard, extremely boring job takes "a weird kind of heroism," Oliver started, but everything you hate about the IRS is also the fault of Congress, which controls how much you pay in taxes, changes the tax code on a confusingly regular basis, and has created a host of problems by slashing IRS funding out of GOP anger. "The fact is, blaming the IRS because you hate paying your taxes is a bit like slapping your checkout clerk because the price of eggs has gone up — it's not her fault," Oliver said. So he planned a token of reluctant appreciation.

"Expression of sincere emotion is not my forte, I'm British," he added. So Oliver brought out Michael Bolton "to serenade the IRS with, if not a love song, a song of reluctant support for their appropriate funding." And in words I never thought I'd write, Bolton is amazing. Watch below. —Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.