John Oliver angrily reminds post-Brexit Britain, pre-Trump America there are 'no f—ing do-overs'
John Oliver's Last Week Tonight began on Sunday with his native United Kingdom, "a place whose very name, after this week's events, is beginning to sound a bit sarcastic." Oliver had warned against Britain leaving the European Union last week, and Britons ignored him — and their prime minister, who's stepping down after the Brexit debacle of his own making. Cameron's fall "should make me happy, but in this situation it doesn't," Oliver said. "It's like catching an ice cream cone out of the air because a child was hit by a car."
Leading Brexit proponents Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage both declared the vote Britain's "independence day," which Oliver found odd, because first, "Britain was already independent — in fact, it's what many other countries celebrate their independence from — and second, the sequel to the movie they're quoting actually opened this week, and features the wholesale destruction of London, which is beginning to feel pretty f—ing appropriate right now."
Some British "Leave" voters seem to sense that, and they are expressing buyer's remorse — perhaps because they Googled what they'd just done — and Oliver had no patience for that. "As if all this couldn't get any worse, as the full impact of what Britain had just done was sinking in, Donald Trump showed up in Scotland to promote his f—ing golf course," he said, deconstructing Trump's meaningless reaction — and then his claim that America is next. "You might think, well that is not going to happen to us in America — we're not going to listen to some ridiculously haired buffoon peddling lies and nativism in the hopes of riding a protest vote into power," Oliver said. "Well, let Britain tell you, it can happen, and when it does, there are no f—ing do-overs." Watch below — but we warned, there is decidedly NSFW language. Peter Weber
The Week
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