Filleting douchebags is one of John Oliver’s many earthly delights on his stellar HBO program, Last Week Tonight. The witty Brit has made mincemeat of everyone from Dr. Oz to Sepp Blatter, and now he’s fired a shot at the man whose smug mug deserves its rightful place on the Mount Rushmore of Douchebags, Donald Trump.
Although Oliver failed to mention the presidential candidate’s outrageous dig at Vietnam War veteran John McCain—calling the POW turned senator “not a war hero”—the host still had some choice words for The Donald.
“And if you’re thinking, ‘But hold on, John, what if I’m an asshole who couldn’t give a shit about America’s hungry families or the long-term viability of life on earth?’ Well, first let me say, ‘Mr. Trump! Thank you so much for taking the time to watch this show tonight. It’s lovely to have you with us,” Oliver quipped.The jab was part of Last Week Tonight’s 18-minute investigative segment on food waste in America. According to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Americans waste about 40 percent of food that’s produced every year, totaling $165 billion. It’s enough food to fill 730 football stadiums. “Food waste is like the band Rascall Flatts: It can fill a surprising number of stadiums even though most people consider it complete garbage,” said Oliver.
This despite the fact that in 2013, close to 50 million Americans lived in food-insecure households—struggling to put enough food on the table—and despite the labor and natural resources we’re wasting to make the food in the first place.
“At a time when the landscape of California is shriveling up like a pumpkin in front of a house with a lazy dad, it seems especially unwise that farmers are pumping water into food that ends up being used as a garnish for landfills—because those landfills go on to cause problems of their own,” said Oliver, referring to landfills’ contribution to the creation of large quantities of methane, a harmful greenhouse gas.
“When we dump food into a landfill, we’re essentially throwing a trash blanket over a flatulent food man and Dutch-ovening the entire planet,” joked Oliver. If that weren’t enough, individual households are wasting 15 percent to 20 percent of their food—and with it a considerable amount of money—and large quantities of produce are being tossed away because they don’t measure up to the USDA’s strange grading standards. What’s more, the U.S. Senate gutted a bill, H.R. 644, that sought to persuade small companies to donate their leftover food in exchange for tax breaks, since it costs companies plenty of money to package, store, and ship the would-be-discarded goods.
“We all have to address our relationship with food waste,” said Oliver.
