Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Antiquities in Museums

October 4, 2022 3:54 AM - Season 9, Episode 24

This week... Liz Truss faces a cost-of-living crisis in the UK and decides to solve it with trickle-down bullshit, and is roasted by British media after only one month in office. And Now: Shopping Networks Recognize Queen Elizabeth's Death The Only Way They Know How. Main story: Antiquities, artifacts of great cultural worth that are frequently stolen from their homelands in order to be displayed in museums, where they frequently remain indefinitely, one of those practices that people seem to think is okay mostly because it's done so often, and has been for so long. On Youtube (34 minutes)
posted by JHarris (5 comments total)

I love the interviews with the curators. "We can't return these artifacts to the natives, they don't know how to take care of them."

At least they didn't tell the truth: "We stole these far and square, we're keeping them."
posted by Marky at 9:48 AM on October 4, 2022

James Acaster has a great bit on museums.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 10:30 AM on October 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

I love how the Met fell for "it's from my girlfriend" 80+ times.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:24 AM on October 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

I loved Kumail Nanjiani and the Payback Museum. I wondered how many takes he had to do of some of those bits, because he did an A+ job of keeping a straight face. Gerald Ford's rib bones was just the weird genius I love on this show.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 3:45 PM on October 4, 2022 [4 favorites]

The shopping network clips weirdly shoehorning in the queen's death were hilarious.
posted by the primroses were over at 7:06 PM on October 4, 2022 [1 favorite]