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Last Week Tonight host John Oliver isn’t one to backtrack and issue apologies, but he’s breaking tradition for the one and only Joe Exotic. On Sunday, the official Last Week Tonight Twitter account issued a “correction” for a 2016 segment about the Tiger King sensation, which, at the time, mocked his long-shot bid for president. In hindsight, Joe Exotic may not actually be the worst candidate from that election cycle.
In October 2016, Oliver devoted a full segment to the election’s third-party candidates, including Exotic, an Oklahoma libertarian. The Last Week Tonight show host praised Exotic’s “incredible campaign videos” about his homosexuality, his refusal to wear a suit, and the “judgement against [him] from some bitch down in Florida.”
“Wow, just wow,” said Oliver at the time (Tiger King viewers will recognize the segment, which also appears in Episode 5). “Joe Exotic is truly the candidate you’d want to sit down and have a beer with. Then another beer, and then several more beers until you’re drunk enough to try meth for the first time.”
After running through the rest of the third-party docket, Oliver concluded that Joe Exotic is “perfect” for the Oval Office, but four years later, he’s rethinking that statement. “CORRECTION: In our show on October 16, 2016, we raised the possibility that Joe Exotic might be ‘the perfect candidate’ for the presidency,” the Last Week Tonight account tweeted on Sunday afternoon. “In light of subsequent events, we must regretfully concede that he was, in fact, the second-least-perfect presidential candidate that year.”
So, about the “least-perfect presidential candidate that year.” While the show kept their tweet Trump-free, Oliver tore into the president in an at-home “Coronavirus III” episode that aired last night. The late night host ripped Trump’s “economy open by Easter” promise (which the president ultimately walked back on Sunday night), calling it “irresponsible” and a “massively botched” plan. “Trump has failed to give this crisis the seriousness it requires,” he said. “This was always going to be hard, but it didn’t have to be this hard.”
Last Week Tonight airs every Sunday at 11/10c on HBO. Tiger King is now streaming on Netflix.
