John Oliver is a national treasure.
This week's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver took viewers into the world of NRA TV, the National Rifle Association's media outlet that has gun fueled shows and ads.
Before tackling the main story, John Oliver started the show off with just enough time for a quick recap of the week, first looking at the Trump administration, which had a busy week.
His rundown of events include Trump calling his attorney general Jeff Sessions Mr. Magoo, which Oliver says "if you're trying to hurt Sessions, at least try." The biggest news from the week was that his son in law, Jared Kushner, lost top secret security clearance at the White House. Oliver took a look at how it happened and explained why it was a good thing. At least four countries, China, Israel, United Arab Emirates, and Mexico, all saw Kushner as exploitable. "The only surprising thing about that is that it is only four countries," Oliver remarked.
After Trump decided to impose a trade tariff on steel and aluminum, Oliver took a look a how the EU President responded to the tariff, mocking it's stupidity and claiming they can do stupid too. Oliver joked, "Oh really? No one out stupids Donald Trump's U-S-of-A! Nobody!"
The main story for tonight involved the NRA, "a group that feels about guns the way the rest of us feel about Nutella. Some is good. A lot is better. And you can tell me it's bad for me all you like, but you will pry it from my cold dead hands." This week showed a lot of tech companies boycotting NRA TV, so Oliver decided to discuss what exactly it is with viewers Sunday night. Oliver took a look a some trolling promos, one in which he is even featured before a man with a shirt that says "Socialist Fear" destroys a TV with a sledge hammer.
"Let's watch some NRA TV together, because it's fascinating," Oliver tells viewers. Some of the shows include a former Navy Seal re-enacting his favorite movie scenes as well as shows aimed at a female audience.
One show, titled Love at First Shot, eases women into firing guns for the first time. In the clip it shows the host calling an AR-15 a "light poof of happiness." Oliver is amazed that someone would "describe a semi automatic machine gun the same way Bob Ross describes a f***ing cloud." Oliver joyfully announced they watched every episode of the show and had to show their favorite clip. As a gift to the pregnant host, Natalie, two women shoot paint cans to add a little touch of paint to the Baby's nursery.
What NRA TV boils down to is "a vessel to sell American guns." Oliver analogizes NRA TV to the fun hat on a charging bear. It's fun but it's not the thing to be focused on.
The segment was hilarious and entertaining and took us to a media outlet most of us aren't aware of. But, overall, Last Week Tonight brought us a story that was less compelling than the previous two episodes this season.
What did you think about this week's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver?
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