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In an episode dedicated to unpacking the 2024 presidential election results, John Oliver‘s through-line toward making sense of Kamala Harris‘ loss was a running joke pinning the blame on Katy Perry‘s “ill-advised” cover of Whitney Houston’s “Greatest Love of All” at a last-minute rally.
While the Last Week Tonight host said that everyone seemed to be spinning their “own personal wheel of blame” to “generally make sure it lands on whoever you were mad at in the first place” — from progressives to bad campaign tactics to key demographics — he has someone else in mind.
“Personally, I kind of would like to imagine that everything that happened on Tuesday is Katy Perry’s fault because at Kamala’s Election Eve rally, she did this ill-advised cover,” he began, playing a clip of the pop singer’s admittedly off-key rendition.
“I mean, you are right, they can’t take away your dignity because you just surrendered it willingly,” he joked, referencing the hit song’s lyrics. “I know, I know that she’s trying to do a nice thing there but why would you try and cover Whitney Houston — the voice? Say what you want about Lee Greenwood — which in my case is about 18 minutes of rigorously fact-checked insults — but at least when he played Trump rallies he wasn’t trying to do Freddie Mercury’s part in ‘Somebody to Love.’”
He continued, “Now, did that drunk bachelorette karaoke night performance doom the whole Harris campaign? Probably not. But it feels good to think so because it’s an easy answer to a difficult question.”
Oliver also took the time to hit back at critics that have said Harris didn’t move right enough on her policy stances, saying that campaigning alongside Liz Cheney was about as conservative as possible “unless you literally dig up Henry Kissinger’s corpse and prop it up at a rally in Michigan as Katy Perry sings ‘Rolling in the Deep.’ It’s OK not to have the range for a song, Katy.”
Throughout the program, the political comic touched on what the country can expect next and what they can do.
There was an obligatory hit at Donald Trump ally Elon Musk: “Seeing a man worth $300 billion dollars tell the country to ‘endure hardship’ and ‘live within their means’ fills me with a feeling that, apparently, I cannot say out loud for legal reasons.”
Additionally, Oliver admonished congressional Democrats who were looking to dip early, leaving the floor struggling with attendance problems. “I believe Kimberly Kardashian might have said it best,” he quipped, before playing a clip of the socialite-cum-actress’ memeified slogan “Get your f—ing ass up and work.”
He added, “I’m mad at the prospect of four more years of people saying, ‘So, is your job like so much easier with Trump as president?’ No, it is not. No it f—ing isn’t. F— you so much! You don’t know what you’re talking about. F— you quite a lot!”
On a more earnest note, Oliver advised viewers to “do what you gotta do” to grieve: “Throw your phone into the nearest body of water, scream into a well, punch a tree, curl up into a ball and watch The Princess Diaries all the way through and then, at the end, when ‘Miracles Happen’ starts playing, shriek, ‘No they f—ing don’t. Don’t lie to me. People can be sh–s.’ But try to not completely obliterate yourself in despair.”
Oliver tempered his bit by adding that grassroots-level organization and local politics have actually seen wins amid the election, with the passage of progressive legislation like abortion protections and the election of pro-LGBTQ+ candidates.
In ending the night, Oliver said that people can resist and protest even while exhausted and on “fumes,” hurling one final zinger directed at Perry: “And don’t just take that from me. Take it from one of the world’s greatest ever singers being covered by a different singer.”