If John Oliver has one failing – and it’s not even really that much of a failing – it’s that he’s totally, absolutely, unapologetically British. He might live and work in the good old U-S-of-A, and might have done so for more than a few years now, but he still gazes back at his homeland with the kind of misty-eyed, stiff-upper-lipped reverence that only a true, proud Englishman can muster.
So it seems inevitable then that the occasional issue from the motherland would sneak its way onto Oliver’s stunningly brilliant HBO show Last Week Tonight. The big issue coming out of the Empire this week is the looming referendum that will decide whether or not Scotland pulls away from the United Kingdom and becomes its own independent nation. Oliver, in typical Oliver fashion, has a red hot crack at picking apart the issue, in one of his typically brilliant and hilarious extended pieces.
‘Course the only problem here is that Oliver’s entrenched British-ness does tend to shine through, making this one feel strangely biased towards the British side of the argument. Which is odd, given his track record thus far.
Still, the debate does have some far reaching ramifications – even here in Australia. And it will be of extreme interest to see if the Scottish people decide that it’s time to give the UK the flick, or if – when the time comes to make the hard call – they simply cannae do it.
