There’s really no better way to start the week than a dose of comedic reality by John Oliver.
I purposely forgo tuning in when his pretty much perfect show, Last Week Tonight, airs on Sunday night because its message and tone are always so fitting for a Monday morning.
You always learn something about a highly under-reported issue of social or political significance, get positively worked up about an injustice – which is usually complemented by a call to action – and laugh the whole way through.
Last night’s episode was especially enlightening.
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Oliver opened with an amusing AOL ad from 1995 about the wonders of the Internet, an essential of modern life that he says has evolved into a haven of harassment. And if you think that’s an exaggeration, Oliver sends his sincerest “congratulations on your white penis — because if you have one of those, you probably have a very different experience of the internet.”
The harassment Oliver refers to is the kind of abuse “any woman who makes the mistake of having a thought in her mind and then vocalizing it online” faces; anonymous attacks that can make people legitimately fear for their safety.
He then dives into a scathing, and hilarious, report on the astounding negligence expressed by the legal system in dealing with instances of revenge porn – an especially hot topic following Google’s announcement to curb non-consensual sharing of intimate images – and the shit women face when they’re susceptible to men with keyboards connected to the Internet.
It’s a must-see, and, as usual, the closing skit is absolute gold:
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