Watch John Oliver blow up 2020 in an expletive-filled moment of pyrotechnic catharsis

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Last Week Tonight)

"This is our final show of the year, and we just wanted to thank you so much for watching," John Oliver said at the end of Sunday's Last Week Tonight. "Clearly, this has been a dark time to be producing a comedy show, but incredibly we have managed to have some fun this year." He listed some of the lighter highlights of his seventh season, "and of course, I spent the whole year demanding that Adam Driver demolish me," he added, truthfully. Oliver wrapped that year-long bit up with an awkward FaceTime call from Driver himself, who acted less than amused by the whole weird thing.

But Driver also got Oliver to explore the void he has inhabited ever since COVID-19 hit, and as Oliver left through a newly discovered door, he started ruminating on how "this year has been an absolute parade of misery." You may have forgotten some of the low points, or might have added in some of your own. "2020 was absolutely terrible, and I really hope next years is going to be better, but the truth is, what happens next is up to all of us," he said. "It's going to depend on how willing we are to fight, how well we learn from what's happened, and and how much we're able to care about each other. So I don't know what happens next, but I do know what happens now." And what happened then was less a moment of zen than a fiery moment of catharsis, set to classical music.

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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.