On Sunday night, John Oliver dedicated the opening portion of Last Week Tonight to the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand—an unspeakable tragedy wherein an alt-right-loving 28-year-old white supremacist from Australia allegedly gunned down 50 Muslim worshippers, including a number of small children. The gunman also live-streamed 17 minutes of the massacre on Facebook Live.
“Look, this wasn’t just a disgusting act from a fucking asshole, it was a total affront to the basic values of the people of New Zealand,” offered Oliver.
The comedian then threw to a clip of New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who said, “We were not chosen for this act of violence because we condone racism, because we’re an enclave for extremism. We were chosen for the very fact that we are none of these things.”
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Oliver couldn’t agree more.
“She’s absolutely right, because New Zealand is an incredible place. And I know that we make fun of it on this show all the time. There is honestly nothing I like more than making fun of New Zealand. But part of that may be because controversies over there tend to get handled with charm and good cheer,” said Oliver. “My point is, New Zealand is amazing, and it is showing its strength in how it’s been responding to this tragedy. The same, sadly, cannot be said for Australia’s Fraser Anning—a hard-line racist politician and melted candle of Ed Harris.”
In the wake of the tragedy, Anning, a senator from Queensland, issued a deplorable statement that read, in part: “The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place… Muslims may have been the victims today, usually they are the perpetrators.”
“Holy shit. That might be the worst possible response to what happened,” Oliver replied, before airing a clip of Australia’s beloved “egg boy”—the 17-year-old who smashed an egg over the racist politician’s head, before getting smacked in the face twice by the grown man.
“The real cause of Fraser Anning getting hit with an egg is Fraser Anning saying things that prompt people to throw eggs at him,” Oliver read from a statement, aping Anning’s. “He may be the victim today, but usually he’s a huge fucking asshole.”
