John Oliver blows up CNN, Applebee’s, Putin; Russian-Ukrainian Address – The Hollywood Reporter

John Oliver wasted very little time dealing with last week’s big news event on Sunday Last week Tonight: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He first turned to CNN and its online broadcaster last week when he cut from coverage of the invasion to an Applebee ad featuring a country song and a man wearing blue jeans and walking. his derriere rocking boots.

“CNN in its coverage of the sirens of the air raid in Kyiv somehow found a way to make the situation even worse when this terrible transition broke,” he said. , then play this clip.

Really, CNN? There is such a thing as tone and subtlety. Search. Because the mix of your ad and all the outbreak hell in Europe doesn’t work. pic.twitter.com/yhnag26JQ5

– Scott Whitlock (@ScottJW) February 24, 2022

Oliver said: “It’s not great, is it? It’s not just about them cutting for an ad for a restaurant whose food can only be described as ‘sometimes warm’, it’s just an aggressive American. From the country song that thinks listing food counts as lyrics to the song Boot Barn of man rocking his nonexistent ass. “

Oliver then read part of Applebee’s statement about the incident: “We are deeply concerned about the situation in Ukraine. … [The ad] It should never have aired, and we are very disappointed in the carrier’s actions.”

Oliver mused: “It’s some deft international diplomacy from the homeland of both ‘Oriental grilled chicken salad’ and ‘drunk goblins’.”

(After the opening sequence, Oliver performed a montage of “remarkable moments” in history interrupted by Applebee commercials, such as former President Barack Obama announcing that Obama bin Laden had died. was killed, Walter Cronkite told the nation that President John F. Kennedy had died after being shot, the verdict read out during the OJ Simpson trial and the news of Princess Diana’s death.)

Oliver then chastised former president George W. Bush for his words about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, reading this line from Bush’s statement: “I join the international community in condemning the invasion gratuitous and irrational of Vladimir Putin entering Ukraine.”

Oliver said: “Do your best, George. Not from you. You are not for this. Because that quote only makes sense if it ends with ‘Oh damn, now I hear it. Sorry. I will shut up now. ”

Oliver also noted that the Russian state media had been falsely reporting on Ukraine for a long time as part of their propaganda machine, along with Putin’s claims that he was fighting for “denuclearization”. anthropomorphize” Ukraine despite the fact that their president, Volodymr Zelensky, was Jewish and had a relative who died in the Holocaust.

Oliver also showed a clip of a conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Sergey Naryshkin, the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service in Russia, at a meeting after which the two sides argued over the last diplomatic effort. before invading the country but was threatened by Putin.

“Unfortunately for that guy, he clearly forgot the best strategy for public speaking in Russia, which is to just imagine the entire audience in their underwear, and Vladimir Putin pointing a gun. into your head. It really focuses the mind,” said Oliver, calling Putin “the autocrat, the tyrant, the fanatic. But other than that, he’s also a giant bitch. “