In his post-Oscars broadcast, John Oliver denounced Pete Hegseth‘s recent comments about CNN surrounding its Iran War coverage and the White House’s pro-war videos made in the style of a middle schooler “hype video.”
“So cool, bro. I always wanted a government that made war propaganda like eighth grade boys making a lacrosse team hype video,” he began on tonight’s installment of Last Week Tonight.
Iran has been “trolling back,” with one AI-generated Lego video implying the attack is a distraction against the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. In the artificial video, the notorious sex offender is listed as “Llrey Epstein.”
“The point should be that everyone in this White House needs parental controls on screen time,” the political comic said after playing a video in which a bowling ball, painted with the colors of the U.S. flag, hit pins representing Iran.
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“In bowling, no matter how many times you knock those pins down, they do return to their original positions, which feels pretty on-the-nose here,” he quipped, referencing the uncertainties of how long the war in the SWANA region will persist.
Of Defense Secretary Hegseth’s comments — that “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network [CNN], the better — Oliver said: “Wow! That is not good. ‘I can’t wait until the billionaire sympathetic to this administration takes over the news’ is a little like your mom saying, ‘When you were conceived, your dad came harder than ever before. He jizzed like a geyser.’ Even if you thought that was the case, your ability to make it through the day really depends on never hearing those words.”
In concluding before launching into a larger segment about VP JD Vance, Oliver noted earnestly: “Trump is saying that it’ll [the war with Iran] be over ‘when I feel it in my bones’ — whatever the fuck that means. And that’s a pretty thoughtless way to approach a conflict that’s already killed so many. It’s not just disrespectful to the Iranian people and to U.S. service members affected, it’s disrespectful to the rest of us to assume childish memes and sugarcoated headlines will change what we can all see with our own eyes. Because, at this point, we don’t deserve deflections; we deserve explanations, accountability and, if it is not too much trouble, the full release of the Llrey Epstein files.”