HBO's John Oliver Rants: NRA TV Is Like a 'Deranged Letter From a Serial Killer'

March 5th, 2018 12:44 PM

Left-wing comedian John Oliver on Sunday became completely unglued, using his HBO show to hint at the “sexual tension” between Ivanka Trump and her father. He also sneered that NRATV is like a “deranged letter from a serial killer.” 

The HBO host, who has a long history of snarling at “racist,” “evil” conservatives, devoted much of his program to examining NRATV.  Oliver played one clip of an NRA narrator defending hunting and claiming, “Death is an undeniable fuel of life.” The HBO personality was repulsed: 

 

 

Oh, my God! That is less Planet Earth and more deranged letter from a serial killer. Although, to be honest, I'd respect the NRA a lot more if its slogan were just "The NRA: Because death is an undeniable fuel of life." I wouldn't like it, but at least we'd be clear where they were coming from.

But the NRATV biggest sin? Appealing to its audience with products people might like to buy: 

And there may be a good reason it sounds like an infomercial —  because it is. Many of NRATV's shows are sponsored by gun brands like Smith & Wesson. And behind the scenes of NRATV is an ad agency. It's called Ackerman McQueen. They've worked with the NRA for decades, and the Ackerman McQueen website proclaims, "Every brand must be its own media company." And that's what the NRA have done with their TV arm. They've got a product to sell, and they employ people who can sell that product. Even Dana Loesch, the clenched fist of truth, when she's not warning of the drug cartels and human traffickers in every single American city, is selling you some other shit. 

It’s a good thing that the liberal journalists Oliver admires don’t appear on networks pushing products. Oh, wait.

Earlier in the show, the host got truly disgusting and joked that Ivanka Trump has more sexual chemistry with her father than husband: 

 

 

In other words, [Jared] Kushner screwed up some important paperwork, keeps changing his personal wealth, and casually overlooked hundreds of foreigners. He truly is his father-in-law's son. The only real difference is one of them has electrifying sexual chemistry with Ivanka Trump and the other is Jared Kushner.

This is the same guy who said he would shoot Tim Tebow before Osama bin Laden, who derided American democracy as like a “four-year-old’s birthday party” and blamed Trump’s win on “racist” Americans. For more on Oliver's outbursts, go here

A partial transcript is below: 

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
3/4/18

11:07

JOHN OLIVER: There is, of course, still Jared Kushner: America's busiest business boy. Although he may actually have had the worst week of all, starting with this. 

... 


OLIVER: In other words, Kushner screwed up some important paperwork, keeps changing his personal wealth, and casually overlooked hundreds of foreigners. He truly is his father-in-law's son. The only real difference is, one of them has electrifying sexual chemistry with Ivanka Trump and the other is Jared Kushner.

...

11:26

Clip from NRA TV

VOICE: Somewhere over this horizon sit a million little dictators eager to purge humanity of its hunting instincts. The anti-hunters have imposed a false order on their lives based on a misconceived perception of the world. Death is evil, they believe, and so the purveyor of death must also be evil. Death is an undeniable fuel of life. 

OLIVER: Oh, my God. That is less "Planet Earth" and more "Deranged letter from a serial killer." Although, to be honest, I'd respect the NRA more if its slogan were just "The NRA: Because death is an undeniable fuel of life." I wouldn't like it, but at least we'd be clear where they were coming from.

...

OLIVER: And there may be a good reason it sounds like an infomercial —  because it is. Many of NRATV's shows are sponsored by gun brands like Smith & Wesson. And behind the scenes of NRATV is an ad agency. It's called Ackerman McQueen. They've worked with the NRA for decades, and the Ackerman McQueen website proclaims, "Every brand must be its own media company." And that's what the NRA have done with their TV arm. They've got a product to sell, and they employ people who can sell that product. Even Dana Loesch, the clenched fist of truth, when she's not warning of the drug cartels and human traffickers in every single American city, is selling you some other shit.