Episode Review: John Oliver’s Latest: Water, Straight Up, Hold the Duck

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John Oliver Takes On The Horrifying Issue of Lead Poisoning

At some point, during the darkest days of World War II, one of Winston Churchill’s colleagues found him alone in a screening room, watching a Donald Duck cartoon. The colleague pointed out that this did not seem to be a particularly enlightening way for the Prime Minister to be spending his time.  Damn it, Churchill explained to the interloper, I am not here to be enlightened; I am here to be entertained. I don’t have the exact quote, but the story is true and certainly makes sense. Why not a Donald Duck cartoon, just to relieve a bit of the tension?

Very often, John Oliver offers us the equivalent of a cartoon in his weekly broadcast of Last Week Tonight. And, though every show he does is laced with at least some measure of the vicious sarcasm we have come to know and love, the one from Sunday, April 17th was no cartoon. Nor should it have been. His main topic, unlike the by now expected buffoonery of Donald Trump (speaking of cartoon ducks), was something too serious for ridicule. His primary topic was lead poisoning and the horrendous effect it has had on so many children.

Yes, we all know what a collection of bastards the Michigan politicians, from the governor on down, have been in regard to the Flint water supply situation. That, in and of itself would be stale news, no matter how dismaying. What Oliver’s major segment was about was that it’s not just Flint, Michigan where children are ingesting dangerous levels of lead—it’s a nationwide problem. And, by the way, as the host helpfully pointed out, there is no safe level of lead when it comes to water additives.

True fact, the U.S. government has standards of what they call “maximum allowable levels of filth” in the stuff we eat and drink, and, you know something? If there are five or six maximum allowable cockroach eggs in my order of Colonel Sanders chicken, so what? I’m there for the chicken, not the eggs, so down the hatch. Lead, on the other hand, has no or at least should not have any maximum allowable level. Far be it for me to launch into a second-hand diatribe that John Oliver has already done a lot more effectively. Better you should check out the link below. Let me say one more quick thing about this segment, and then I’ll move on. What Oliver could have said but did not is almost as creditable as what he did say. Having already established that lead poisoning has been damaging the developmental capacities of children for many years, he could very easily have made a crack about how that explains how Donald Trump has attracted such a following. He could have made that crack and maybe milked a cheap laugh from it, but he did not, so kudos for that.

In his earlier segments, he took another jab at Vladimir Putin, who many may think of as the Soviet version of Mr. Trump. Oops, I meant Russian. I wonder why a word like Soviet would pop into my mind when the subject of Putin comes up? In the other short segment, his eyes seemed to light up even more brightly as he got to poke some fun at the House of Commons. Nothing like bringing it all back home, I guess.

All in all a well-spent 1800 seconds, give or take a couple cockroach eggs.

Sources

Last Week Tonight, HBO, April 17, 2016

 

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Thomas Cleveland Lane

Thomas Cleveland Lane is a semi-retired freelance writer for pay and a stage actor for nothing more than the opportunity to make a fool of himself. Well, he does get a small stipend from the Washington Area Decency League, after playing the role of Hinezie in The Pajama Game, to never, ever appear on stage in his underpants again. When he has not managed to buffalo some director into casting him, Thomas can often be found at his favorite piano bar, annoying the patrons with his caterwauling. Thomas is the author of an anthology called Shaggy Dogs, a Collection of Not-So-Short Stories (destined to become a cult classic, shortly after he croaks). He is also the alter-ego to a very unbalanced Czech poet named Glub Dzmc. Mr. Lane generally resides in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and was last seen in the mirror, three days ago.
Thomas Cleveland Lane
Thomas Cleveland Lane
Thomas Cleveland Lane is a semi-retired freelance writer for pay and a stage actor for nothing more than the opportunity to make a fool of himself. Well, he does get a small stipend from the Washington Area Decency League, after playing the role of Hinezie in The Pajama Game, to never, ever appear on stage in his underpants again. When he has not managed to buffalo some director into casting him, Thomas can often be found at his favorite piano bar, annoying the patrons with his caterwauling. Thomas is the author of an anthology called Shaggy Dogs, a Collection of Not-So-Short Stories (destined to become a cult classic, shortly after he croaks). He is also the alter-ego to a very unbalanced Czech poet named Glub Dzmc. Mr. Lane generally resides in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and was last seen in the mirror, three days ago.