Recent jokes that John Oliver made in reference to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II have caused a bit of an uproar, at least among those who have heard them. The English broadcasting Sky apparently found a few of his comments to be in poor taste, completely cutting them from this week’s episode of Last Week Tonight.
Of course, the reaction to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II has varied. Some mourned her death with great passion. Others are critical of the monarchy in general, and aren’t quite so bothered. Regardless of which side of the spectrum you fall on, it’s easy to see why Oliver’s jokes might not have landed with everyone.
Strangely enough, it’s not like the jokes he ended up making are directly targeted at Queen Elizabeth II or anything like that. It’s nothing quite so malicious. It’s just that when the whole country goes through “National Mourning” following her death, even the lines he delivered could cause some problems. The key offenders were jokes such as:
Obviously, we have to start with the UK, which is clearly still reeling from the shocking death of a 96-year-old woman from natural causes. It is a big moment this week and for some reason absolutely everyone felt they had to weigh in on it.
Another line was about Liz Truss, the new conservative-leaning Prime Minister of the U.K. He said:
The nicest thing the Queen of England ever did for anyone was die the week that woman became Prime Minister. Because for at least a week, she’s not going to be getting justifiably destroyed for answers like that.
Sky has yet to release an official comment about pulling the jokes from broadcast. Last night, Last Week Tonight won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Talk Series.
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