Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: RNC 2020 & Kenosha
August 31, 2020 10:50 PM - Season 7, Episode 23 - Subscribe

This week, from the void: The RNC convention is filled with tonedeaf shouting people who think the world is great and only getting better! But also there's the recent horrors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with Jacob Blake being repeatedly shot in the back by police and a teenage vigilante killing two people. On YouTube (20m) And Now: The RNC Gets Off To A Great Start. Finally, the city of Danbury, Connecticut responds to John Oliver's playful dissing of their town, up to their mayor threatening to name their new sewage plant after him. But they didn't actually do it, leading John to make a promise: name their sewage plant after him, and he'll donate $55,000 to various charities in the Danbury area. And in case the major is reluctant to spend public money on the sign, LWT went ahead and made one for them.

F.37: "Wakanda Aeternum," CHADWICK BOSEMAN
posted by JHarris (9 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I will say the buildup and then continued payoff of the Danbury joke has been great.
posted by Carillon at 12:02 AM on September 1, 2020 [2 favorites]


How many major premium network television hosts have offered to pay for naming rights for a sewage treatment plant and offered up their own ready-made sign? I can tell you! I can TELL you! ONE! That's IT! ONE!
posted by hippybear at 10:40 PM on September 1, 2020 [4 favorites]


I'm from Danbury and yes, it's been hilarious. The fact that so many of my high school classmates are just furious about this is hilarious. But my question is this: what started Oliver on the Danbury rant in the first place? I watched the original episode and was unable to figure out the reason he zeroed in on it.
posted by sundrop at 7:12 PM on September 2, 2020 [1 favorite]


Wow, the entire final segment is missing. i wonder why. :(
posted by hippybear at 9:46 PM on September 2, 2020


But my question is this: what started Oliver on the Danbury rant in the first place?

I think that's part of the joke: there's no reason at all. My guess is they just decided it would be funny to rant about a random small town in the most comically exaggerated way possible - especially if that town seemed an utterly harmless one. Danbury just happened to be where they stuck a pin in the map.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:31 PM on September 2, 2020 [2 favorites]


Last Week Tonight usually posts their entire main story to YouTube, possibly because of the importance of the things they talk about, but the rest of it is left out as something for HBO subscribers. I have to say, that's made it really difficult sometimes to do writeups on the show. Anyway, this is why my link always comes after describing the main story in an episode in the post text, the video segment only contains that portion.
posted by JHarris at 6:30 PM on September 4, 2020


Also--one of the funniest and most memorable bits from the classic Colbert Report was a sequence for like two weeks where they'd just pick out and make fun of a random town in the US that almost no one knows about and call them the worst things, then the next episode they'd mention how they complained, apologize deeply and profusely, then say, "At least they're not like [other town], they're like an open cesspit!" then the next episode repeat the cycle with the other town.
posted by JHarris at 6:33 PM on September 4, 2020 [2 favorites]


Isn't Danbury suppose to be where Rob Petrie from the Dick Van Dyke show was from?
Also I have some recollection of a scandal or incident of some sort there which made me remark on previous.
posted by provoliminal at 9:49 PM on September 6, 2020


Update on the Danbury situation. The mayor says he'll rename the sewage plant if John Oliver comes to the plant in person. Report comes from local YouTube program Danbury Hat Tricks, which has a terrific host! I see that kid going far.
posted by JHarris at 12:02 PM on September 25, 2020


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