Last Week Tonight took a break for Easter, but John Oliver posted a special web-only video to celebrate the holiday. And he created it, he said, "in one of YouTube's most entertaining forms. I'm talking, of course, about YouTube conspiracy videos, science fiction for people who don't understand they're watching science fiction."
Whenever he watches one of these videos, he is "overcome with jealousy," Oliver said, "jealously at the sheer scale of imagination required to believe that the Denver airport was designed by the Illuminati or that Katy Perry is actually JonBenét Ramsey all grown up — both real theories, by the way, and better than any joke I could ever devise in a million years." He took a crack anyway. Any great YouTube conspiracy requires seeing a devious plot in something we all take for granted, Oliver said, plus "an eye for incredibly specific detail and an ability to make wild accusations with complete confidence." Oliver's conspiracy, laid out with gusto, involves Cadbury Eggs. At the end he admits that his theory is mostly hokum, but said "it felt amazing to say, and it almost made sense — and that is what YouTube conspiracy videos are all about." Though if he'd wanted to stay true to the genre, of course, he would have omitted the final wink. Peter Weber
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