John Oliver’s most recent Last Week Tonight finale not only brought his Adam Driver obsession full circle but also, more importantly, told 2020 to “get f*cked,” so it’s not a stretch to imagine that the HBO host was absolutely giddy to watch Inauguration Day. Yep, that’s the case, especially because Oliver became a U.S. citizen in 2019 and grew emotional while describing how he voted in his first U.S. presidential election. The former The Daily Show correspondent was thrilled to see the day’s festivities and loved the “formal jeans” of a serenading Garth Brooks (who called for unity and made the far-right big mad in the process), but Oliver also knows that there’s a ton of work ahead.
For sure, outgoing President Trump left a monumental mess to be cleaned up by incoming president Joe Biden. That includes, reportedly, no coherent plan for pandemic vaccination, but Biden’s already thrown down with a number of swift executive orders on other subjects and has declared the pandemic to be priority number one. So, it’s safe to say that his team has been hard at work, but Oliver realizes that there’s going to be rough months ahead. So, he’s offering some perspective here: it’s alright to celebrate “relief” for a day or two before worrying again:
“It’s gonna be important that we allow ourselves just to have a day — to have one day of feeling the relief before worrying about, yeah, there are monumental issues that we’re facing, there are systemic problems that have gone unaddressed for too long, there are real questions about whether the scale of Biden’s solutions will match the scale of the problems he’s inheriting, but I do think that has to wait till at least tomorrow. Give us a day.”
Granted, the initial day of relief is over by now, but there’s no stopping anyone from feeling relief during the first full day of the new administration, too. Beyond that, Oliver also points out the very “low bar” of being able to enjoy the inaugural festivities “without thinking you were about to get threatened by the incoming president.” Truth.
Last Week Tonight will return on February 14.