John Oliver tops his lecture to Europe (and Fox News) on how to treat migrants with a brilliant surprise ending

John Oliver made Nageen Mustafa's day
(Image credit: Last Week Tonight)

Hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees are streaming into Europe, and "the scale of this story can be hard to wrap your head around," John Oliver said on Last Week Tonight. Sometimes people fumble when trying to find the right way to describe the mass migration from Syria and other war-torn areas, like David Cameron, who used the scary word "swarm," Oliver said — illustrating his point with a hypothetical "swarm" of kittens.

Fox News dug lower, opting for the less civil phrase "terrorists." Oliver dissected one segment in which Fox News used a 2010 clip of chanting Muslims riding a train to suggest terrorists are infiltrating Europe today, then recast the newscast with a scene from the movie True Lies showing (fictional) Muslim terrorists shooting guns in the air. "That's only about 10 percent more racist than what you did," he told Fox.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Peter Weber, The Week US

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.