Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Theresa May's Election Disaster and Brexit

June 14, 2017 11:23 AM - Season 4, Episode 15

Last week....

• A new installment of Stupid Watergate. James Comey tells Congress under oath that he had no doubt he was fired because of the Russia investigation, which everyone knew anyway but still sent shockwaves, and that wasn't the end of it.
• And Now: There Is No Group Of People More Easily Amazed Than The Audience Of "America's Got Talent."
• Main story: The continuing negotiations of the UK over Brexit, and the harm done to them by Prime Minister Theresa May's ill-considered snap election which lost her a lot of seats. YouTube (19m)

In the UK, much like from the classic Monty Python sketch Election Night Special, it's traditional for all the candidates to appear on stage together when results are announced, no matter how many votes they received, meaning Theresa May had to appear on stage with Elmo (three votes), Howling Lord Hope of the Monster Raving Looney Party (119 votes) and "Lord Buckethead" (249 votes), an "intergalactic space lord." The esteemed personage was flown in by LWT to New York to appear on the show, an event which he comemmorated on Twitter.

James Comey: "Former FBI Director and worst person to sit behind in a movie theater," "the result of a mall security guard's drunked hook-up with an oak tree," and "a disgruntled giraffe who was somehow cursed by a warlock to head the FBI."
Jared Kushner: "Was that you Jared? I thought you were an orphan from a painting of the Great Depression."
The United Kingdom: "The country that's been saying 'Yaas, Queen!' for centuries."
Boris Johnson: "A grown man who perpetually looks like a seven-year-old who's decided to spin in circles for two minutes and is about to throw up," and "A man with a face like a Roald Dahl character and the uncomfortable racism of a Roald Dahl."
Lord Buckethead: "...did all this while looking like Darth Vader fucked an Amazon Echo."

Lord Buckethead's platform: "The abolition of the Lords (except me)," and "Stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia. Start buying lasers from Lord Buckethead."

The naughtiest thing Thresa May ever did, according to her: "Me and my friends used to run through the fields of wheat," an admission that caused Oliver to refer to her as "Thatcher in the Rye." Burn!

Lord Buckethead is credited with "Special Appearance By."

F.37: "Kapowus" ADAM WEST

posted by JHarris (6 comments total)

I expected Oliver to take notice of Lord Buckethead. I didn't expect to see him on the show, but if there's something I should have learned by now is that if there's something awesome somewhere, Oliver will try to bring it.
posted by lmfsilva at 11:56 AM on June 14, 2017 [5 favorites]

Yeah, was impressed the show brought over Lord Buckethead. That was pretty epic (and funny).

Based on the clips shown, Lord Buckethead is a good guy in my books.
posted by porpoise at 1:38 PM on June 14, 2017

I was disappointed not to hear Lord Buckethead on the show, but it was delightful to see him.

Comedic candidacies suck by comparison in the US because there's not even that one event with a guaranteed audience. The best you can manage is your name on the ballot, and even that may be more difficult in the US.

Also I decided to interpret "run through the fields of wheat" as "make crop circles in somebody else's field without permission," which just seemed more fun. (I hope we've all taken a lesson from May's terrible answer to that question, which is that we should make up something ridiculous. Who's going to fact-check admissions of mild childhood criminality?)
posted by asperity at 3:00 PM on June 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Jezza gave the only right answer to that question.

mostly I'm commenting cause I want to know if it's acceptable for Americans to say Jezza. It's so fun! But it's so unlike how nicknames work in American English!
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 3:52 PM on June 14, 2017

I feel it's important to make the distinction between Alan "Howling Laud" Hope and his predecessor, Screaming Lord Sutch.

One must also note that after Lord Sutch died of depression by suicide in 1999, the Official Monster Raving Loony Party jointly elected "Howling Laud" Hope and his cat, Catmando, to replace Lord Sutch to lead the OMRLP.

Sadly, Catmando was killed in a traffic accident in July 2002. Hope then became the party's sole leader.

Following Catmando's death, the OMRLP proposed that there should be cat-crossings at all major roads.
posted by elsietheeel at 9:39 PM on June 14, 2017 [4 favorites]

Comedic candidacies suck by comparison in the US because there's not even that one event with a guaranteed audience.

What's worse is that one time the joke candidate with the stupid red hats won.
posted by Gary at 12:55 AM on June 15, 2017 [6 favorites]