As America’s resident voice of reason, John Oliver was contractually obligated to weigh in on this week’s Syrian refugee hysteria, and last night, he delivered.
There’s so much to mock here that it’s a bit like shooting fish in a barrel—the Last Week Tonight equivalent of The Daily Show taking on Fox News—but there are way too many xenophobic fish these days, so Oliver gets right down to business. First off, Jeb Bush’s nonexistent idea for telling Christian refugees from Muslim ones: “A Christian has ears that protrude out from the head, whereas non-Christians lack external ears altogether. You know what? Hold on, I’m thinking about seals and sea lions.”
Next, the mayor of Roanoke, Virginia’s idea of Japanese internment as something we ought to replicate in 2015: “It’s one of the parts of FDR’s legacy his family would most like you to forget! And bear in mind, this is a man whose own biopic featured a scene of him getting a handjob from his distant cousin.” (Cue uncomfortable footage from Hyde Park on the Hudson.)
And then there’s Oliver’s idea for how we can make the refugee vetting process, which already involves the United Nations and an alphabet soup of U.S. government agencies, even tougher. Watch the clip below to see the whole, necessary takedown, including some useful advice for Thanksgiving dinner debates: