John Oliver reunited with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show for the first time in 10 years – and had a message for Americans.
Before fronting Last Week Tonight on HBO, the presenter was the senior British correspondent – and stand-in host – for Stewart’s daily talk show.
On Monday’s episode (10 February), Stewart, after critiquing Donald Trump’s presidency, said: “It’s been a good run, America. It looks like we’re becoming less like the constitutional republic it’s been for 250 years and more like the monarchy that we all fought to escape from.”
Here, slow clapping could be heard, with Oliver suddenly appearing on screen to a rapturous response from the crowd. “The prodigal son appears to have returned,” the comedian said.
After Oliver told the audience that he was there “to gloat”, stating: “America had its little fun, experimenting with democracy. You fought so hard to get away from us, acting up, throwing all that tea into the harbour – you still owe us for that.
“The point is you told everyone you were going to be different, you weren’t going to turn out like the mean old dad that was horrible to you growing up so we sat back and let you spend your wild teen years, experimenting with your ridiculous ideas of checks and balances because deep down we knew that once you got that nonsense out of your system, you’d be back,” he said.
“Let me be the first to welcome America to its monarchy era. Congratulations everyone, you can take your place in the pantheon of great empires alongside the British, the Roman, the Klingon, Wakanda, whatever the Barbie elephant was the ruler of, I forget.”
Stewart, highlighting that things “didn’t end up so great for the British empire”, had stern words for Oliver in response.
“First of all, how dare you? We are technically between empires at the moment but we’re keeping our castles warm and our crowns bejewelled for the day that we get back onto our feet,” he said.
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“Imperial model isn’t for you? For a country that doesn’t want to be an empire, you’re doing a pretty fucking good impression right now. Invasions, economic exploitations and now suggesting turning Gaza into a beachfront casino? Even King George would have been like ‘I don’t know guys, feels like the situation is a bit more complicated than that and I’m literally dying of medieval brain disease’”.
