John Oliver “couldn’t give less of a s***” about Donald Trump
By Dan Selcke
John Oliver takes the high road by refusing to report on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign
As the host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, former Daily Show correspondent John Oliver has tackled a lot of complex, important issues—his investigation of televangelism scams even put pressure on the IRS to look at the tax breaks they give religious institutions—and has thus far avoided grabbing any low-hanging fruit. Right now, no fruit hangs lower than Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, as latenight comedians and news outlets fall over each other to criticize Trump’s rhetoric, his platform, his hair, etc. Oliver, on the other hand, is taking the high road. He even declared that he “couldn’t give less of a s***” about Trump during a recent visit to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Is there anything worse than a guy who takes the high road when the low road is right there, begging to be trampled en masse? I’m sure many outlets would love to tackle some of the meaty issues Oliver does, but then there’s Trump being ridiculous, criticizing John McCain’s war record one day and making cracks about “blood coming out of [debate moderator Megyn Kelly’s] wherever” the next. I wonder what he’s doing now…
NO! We don’t have to report on every stupid thing Donald Trump does. We can be like John Oliver, although if John Oliver ever feels like doing a half-hour show on Trump’s barber, that would be great, because this fruit is hanging so low we can hardly walk around without accidentally swallowing it.
As Oliver pointed out in his interview, the half-hour, once-a-week format of Last Week Tonight partially accounts for how he’s been able to steer clear of Trump jokes. If he had to do a show every night, he would probably have to pander a little more. Until that happens, he can continue to hold his head high as the rest of us scramble to crack wise about Trump’s latest by-blows. I bet Oliver is just loving this.