Review: John Oliver Takes a Glorious, Serious Look at Trump’s Wall

review

Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 4.52.07 PM

John Oliver: Enough to Tide Us Over

Perhaps the only disappointing moment of John Oliver’s latest edition of Last Week Tonight was his brief note at the end that he would see us in two weeks. By implication, that means he will be seeing someone other than us on Sunday, March 27th. Does his contract specify he gets Easter off? Must be nice.

All that said, Oliver gave us an outstanding effort this past Sunday to last us until April.  The main segment featured—once again—Donald Trump. Yes, as I have pointed out before, that makes a lot of segments for just one person, but this one person provides more material than anyone else we can think of, in or out of politics.

Not only was his main segment excellent, his shorter bits were outstanding, particularly the one he did regarding the despicable effort to ignore Mr. Obama’s nominee to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. Oliver ended the segment with a clip of Orrin Hatch saying it would be unsuitable to consider a Supreme Court nominee in such a “toxic atmosphere.” Oliver then pointed out that it was he and his party who were causing all that toxicity. In an apt analogy he pointed out, you don’t get out of doing the dishes because you shitted in the sink. Not an exact quote, but close.

In this week’s Trump segment, the host focused on Trump’s plan to build a giant wall along the Mexican border. His main point of ridicule was the glib estimate Mr. Trump put on the cost of the project, as you might expect from The Contractor General-elect. The first figure out of his mouth was four billion dollars. Later quotes upped the ante ever-so-slightly to ten—no, wait, make that twelve—billion dollars. Maybe that might not be so steep if that was the true cost. Oliver went into a comical but very well-reasoned discourse about how twelve billion would not even come close to covering the probable cost, which, to be fair, also factored the cost of ongoing maintenance.

Oliver went into a number of reasons why the giant wall would not work, which you are welcome to check out in the clip below, just in case you missed the original show. In so doing, he pointed out that George W. Bush tried a slightly less ambitious version of the project that would have been just as effective as burying all the money the government paid for it in an unmarked landfill. On the other hand, all that buried cash would not have perturbed so many unfortunate Texans in Brownsville and other locations hard by the Mexican border.

Trumps contention that G.W. Bush was a crappy president has been one of the few things he got right so far. So, that being the case, why take a particularly embarrassing part of the crap and magnify it exponentially? Trump’s wall if, God forbid, such a thing comes to pass, will surpass Bush’s wall considerably in terms of size and cost, but effectiveness? Probably not.

You know, come to think of it, maybe John Oliver should take his week off to go on a retreat to figure out where he is going to get so much comedic material, once Mr. Drumf is kicked—as kicked he surely shall be—to the curb.

 

Watch more late night tv comedy clips.

The following two tabs change content below.

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.