John Oliver has some advice for Republicans who don’t want to be called “weird” by Democrats: “Stop being so damn weird,” he pleaded in the last episode of Last week tonight.
Before the 2024 Democratic National Convention, presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz, who pioneered the “These Guys Are Weird” movement have strategically pointed out when Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance are weird. It’s a tactic Vance has tried but failed to use, but it has also irked Trump, Oliver says. “You know it bothers him,” Oliver said, noting how Trump tried to reject the label in a recent interview by claiming that no one has ever used that word to describe him. “Nobody has ever called you weird?” Oliver continued. “Baby, be serious.”
“You tried to buy Greenland. You stared at the sun during a solar eclipse. And you did that,” Oliver said, showing photos of Trump hugging and kissing the American flag. “That’s not something a normal guy does.” The late-night host argued that it’s especially hard to get rid of any “‘weird’ label because Republican candidates further down the ballot keep ratcheting it up, including some who won the primaries just this week.”
A typical example: The Republican US Senate candidate from Minnesota Royce White, a former professional basketball player, far-right podcaster and “diehard Trump supporter, as he will tell you,” Oliver said before playing a clip of White telling the camera, “Donald Trump could walk up on stage, pull down his pants and poop at the top of the podium and I would still never vote for you damn Democrats again,” adding, “Let that sink in.” Oliver then asked, “Is there a place where Trump could poop that would make you vote for the Democrats again?” He suggested a carousel, the inside of a gumball machine and even “White’s own toilet seat.”
Retired Navy Captain Hung Cao, who is a Republican candidate for the Senate in Virginia, is “also a very strange man,” as was made clear in an interview in which Cao expressed concern about Lovers Point, an area in Monterey, California, that he said has been occupied by Wiccans. “If Monterey is actually overrun by witches – which it isn’t – I’m frankly angry that there wasn’t a witchcraft story in the show. Big little lies!cried Oliver. “How could you keep this from us? Nicole Kidman “To show up at a moonlit orgy and announce, ‘We came here to see magic?'” he added, referring to the Oscar winner’s viral AMC ad. “Anyone’s head would have exploded.”
Wisconsin is – allegedly – the home of the Senator Tammy BaldwinRepublican opponent, bank boss Eric Hovde, or as Oliver called him, “Ned Flanders without the raw sexual charisma.” Amid accusations that he spends a lot of time in California, Hovde posted footage of himself bathing in a frozen lake as proof of his Wisconsin connections. “Challenging someone to meet you in a frozen lake to score political points is pathetic,” Oliver said. “I’d say it was a dick-comparison contest, but I suspect at the water temperature, yours just disappeared into your body.”
Oliver, who has spent recent episodes addressing Trump’s remarks about racism and calling Vance’s campaign team to confirm a certain couch rumor, tried to talk some sense into Republicans. “Look,” he said. “I understand Republicans want to escape accusations of weirdness. But the way they do that is to stop being so damn weird. Because fantasizing about your party’s presidential nominee taking a shit in front of you? That’s weird. Warning everyone about the influence of the Witches of Monterey? Weird. Inviting your female opponent to accompany you into a frozen lake? That’s very weird,” Oliver said. “And I apologize for laughing at those people. Partly because I know it’s not nice, but mostly because, as we all know by now, JD Vance,” who Oliver said “elsewhere in the episode looks like he’s stuck at 10% of the transformation into a werewolf,” “believes that every time someone laughs somewhere in the world, a child loses their groceries for some reason.”
