"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.
"Let tomorrow be about solutions," Oliver said, detonator in hand. "Today is about vengeance." If you don't mind the NSFW language and also had a bad 2020, you might want to bookmark his moment of vengeance to replay on New Year's Eve — it's way more fun than a ball drop. Watch below. Peter Weber