Just about two hours after winning their sixth WGA Award for Best Comedy/Variety Talk Series, John Oliver and his talented team of writers proved their mettle by sharing one of the most bizarre bullet points in the life of Ron DeSantis—A.K.A. “Meatball Ron,” a nickname the Last Week Tonight host is totally on board with, by the way.
The early part of the Florida governor’s backstory is fairly by-the-numbers: He grew up in the Sunshine State, where he excelled at baseball and even made it to the Little League World Series. He attended Yale as an undergrad, then went on to Harvard Law School and eventually joined the Navy in an attorney capacity.
While he married his wife Casey in 2009, one can safely presume that he had dated other women over the years, but they must not all have been sticklers for speaking words real good. Because DeSantis developed what Oliver described as “the most bizarre dating tactic I have ever heard” in order to weed out the ladies who wouldn’t be wife material for the politician formerly known as Ron DeSanctimonious .(For the record: “Tiny D” is apparently Donald Trump’s newest nickname for his presumed opponent.)
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“According to a former classmate, DeSantis would apparently tell dates he liked Thai food,” Oliver explained, which so far seems fine… except Ron would pronounce it as thigh food. On purpose. “And if they corrected him, he would make up an excuse and leave because, ‘he didn’t want a girlfriend who corrected him,’” which explains a lot about his governing style.
“And if that is true… wow,” he added.
Oliver seemed vicariously horrified when he tried to imagine how such a date might play out: “You’re out to dinner and out of nowhere your date tells you that he really likes ‘thigh food.’ And you think, ‘Wait, did he just call Thai food ‘thigh’ food? I might have misheard.’ But then he goes on to say he knows a great ‘thigh food’ restaurant in the area, all while staring very intently at you, almost studying your reaction. So, as politely as you can, you say, ‘Wait, do you mean Thai food? Like, from Thailand?’ And then suddenly his face drops and he says, ‘Sorry. I forgot I have a doctor’s appointment tonight’ and he leaves—leaving you with both the check and the single greatest first date disaster story of all time.”
Later in the show, Oliver described Fox News’ devotion to DeSantis by saying, “I’ll put it this way: If Fox News ever went on a date with Ron DeSantis, they definitely wouldn’t correct him when it called it ‘thigh food.’”
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