Along with his writers again to work after a five-month strike, John Oliver had 22 weeks of stories to cowl in his first episode again internet hosting Final Week Tonight on HBO, and one story particularly appeared to caught out: Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert’s lewd antics at a touring manufacturing of Beetlejuice: The Musical.
Not that Oliver didn’t strive speaking about one thing severe—reminiscent of budgetary pressures in Italy—though he merely used that as a comedic misdirection to maintain his concentrate on Boebert as a substitute.
“There was some fondling and light-weight over-the-pants fingers stuff which was caught on video,” Oliver famous.
“It was a torrid manufacturing of Beetlejuice: The Musical. I simply want you to know that. I’m not saying it will be applicable to interact in high-school freshman-era hand stuff throughout a manufacturing of any musical. I simply need to be clear, this wasn’t one of many extra sexually express ones like Spring Awakening or Rocky Horror or Cats. This was Beetlejuice. A present that’s fairly loudly about demise. I’m simply saying, should you’re gonna get your nipples tweaked and your pipes squeaked, save that shit for Fiddler [On The Roof] like a goddamn grownup.”
He couldn’t assist himself from noting that Boebert and her date obtained kicked out about 5 minutes into act two after the intermission.
“If you happen to don’t know the present, that places us comfortably into “That Stunning Sound,” a music the place Beetlejuice and Lydia gleefully torture a collection of holiday makers together with a Woman Scout, a pizza supply individual, and considered one of their neighbors,” Oliver defined. “It’s a music about how they just like the sound of tortured screams.”
“Is it the least attractive factor an individual can sit via? No,” Oliver mentioned, referring again to a clip he opened the present with, throughout which Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) learn X-rated feedback aloud throughout a public committee listening to.
Oliver additionally couldn’t assist however mock Boebert additionally for declaring “Have you learnt who I’m?” as she was escorted out of the theater, calling it a “catastrophically unhealthy” resolution.
“If you happen to’ve been caught for, once more, sexual exercise throughout Beetlejuice: The Musical, you’d hope nobody knew who you have been. And also you undoubtedly wouldn’t need to instantly get on the cellphone with the mayor to inform him what had simply occurred.”
Oliver tried to get to as a lot of the opposite issues that amazed him since his earlier telecast on April 30—together with the Supreme Court docket rejecting affirmative motion, Donald Trump’s mugshot and a number of indictments, and a brand new bribery scandal whereby Rep. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) was caught Googling how a lot one kilo of gold weighed. “Yeah, not nice, Bob!” Oliver quipped.
Oliver additionally listed a number of issues he wished to joke about, together with Mike Lindell’s tantrum over a deposition lawyer’s offhand remark about “lumpy pillows,” the coronation of King Charles, elections in Turkey, a short would-be Russian coup adopted by “essentially the most predictable” demise for the coup’s chief, a bear at a Chinese language zoo that will or might not have been an actual bear, “Barbenheimer” and the Sound of Freedom.
Additionally making the minimize: a Boston police officer’s mishap on a playground slide (providing “the all-time finest use of” Phil Collins’ epic drum fill on “In The Air Tonight,” in Oliver’s opinion), the Titan submersible implosion, a police raid at a Kansas newspaper, the Maui fires and extra.
“We missed a lot, it’d take an entire new model of Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Begin The Fireplace,’” which additionally gave Oliver an opportunity to mock Fall Out Boy for doing simply that this 12 months, zeroing in on a set of lyrics together with 9/11 adopted by the query “What else do I’ve to say?” To which Oliver replied:
“Nothing, Fall Out Boy. No one’s making you do that!”
He pointed to a clip of Billy Joel in live performance admitting that that music was the worst melody he ever wrote.
“Hearken to Billy Joel, Fall Out Boy,” Oliver mentioned. “He makes an excellent level.”
As for the strike that stored Oliver and his writers out of labor this summer season, he praised the WGA for placing and holding agency. “But it surely took a number of sacrifices from lots of people to attain that,” he mentioned, including that whereas “I’m immensely happy with what our union achieved, I’m additionally livid that it took the studios 148 days to attain a deal which they might’ve provided on day fucking one. However hopefully, this will encourage others, from auto staff to Starbucks baristas to health-care suppliers—whether or not they’re in unions or want to be—to search out energy in one another.”
Oliver additionally expressed his hope that SAG-AFTRA and IATSE can come to equitable phrases with the studios on behalf of the actors and the crews who work behind the scenes.
“The reality is it takes many individuals working actually onerous to make movie and TV, all of whom deserve a chunk of the pie.”
