S3 E16: Brexit & the NRA: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Season 3, Episode 16. June 19th, 2016. John Oliver enlists a barbershop quartet to propose a smarter alternative to Brexit, and discusses the NRA after a mass shooting in Orlando.
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[@blaster915]

I swear watching old Last Week Tonight's is just "heres what's going to go wrong, we try and fix it but the bad thing happens anyways because the world sucks".

[@PremierCCGuyMMXVI]

It’s also crazy as 90% of the stuff that was going on pre-2020 or even pre-2017 we are still dealing with today. It’s just different faces. As an example the protests at Furgenson, MO in 2014. Literally the same thing in 2020 and yet everytime a white police officer murders an innocent black American, white media screams “it’s a racial reckoning” than like two minutes later we completely forget about it. Or Trump refusing to accept the election results when he loses. Forget 2024 or 2020, or even the 2016 general election. During the 2016 GOP Presidential election primaries Trump screamed fraud after losing the Iowa caucuses and the Wisconsin primary to Cruz. But was completely fine when he started winning later on. And than there is gun control and gun violence. Been going on for years, even decades, and Republicans never budge. Really wish democrats had a trifecta in Washington with a super majority in the Senate so we can finally solve issues Republicans have refused to even think about for decades. Unfortunately that will never happen because people in rural and exurban America vote republican no matter what.

[@karolinawww6834]

They did predict so many things right

[@troutopera]

It is more, these are things going wrong or are unfair or cheat people with goverment approval. It offers solutions although it would take a lot of people to lobby to change things. Polls show that the majority of the population prefer things the government has no intention of fixing. That's why it's Called American Democracy .For non americans, American politics is entertainment, Like a horror movie,

[@svenw-u3f]

What did america try to fix his running today still 😓

[@Izandaia]

That kid must've been absolutely giddy at getting to sing "fuck" that many times in front of a national audience.

[@TheRealSkeletor]

*international

[@roseberkman]

There are a couple of times you can see him nearly break into a smile when a naughty word comes up. It's adorable.

[@JonRuisiCustomDev]

The young vocal soloist in the song that closes this episode was great.

[@Palia_Playz]

He was really good! Wonder where he is now?

[@Batters56]

As a Brit in 2024 this is painful.

[@Western_Pesto]

R.I.P. Jo Cox

[@b62boom1]

Tomorrow is the day everything hopefully begins to change, my friend, we've been through 14 years of hell!

[@Batters56]

@@b62boom1 did you not hear Starmer? We won’t go back in in his lifetime? Way to energise the youth vote!

[@nicksmith1415]

I feel like crying after watching this and I don't live in a country that sponsors school shootings

[@christopherjones6802]

Which way did you vote?

[@moogle68]

That song at the end of this episode was fantastic. It's been a while so I had forgotten it, but as soon as they showed the kid in the middle that starts it off I had a massive hit of nostalgia that reminded me of how epic the song was at the time this episode aired. Kind of wish the song was uploaded separately and available for download.

[@birdstrum1555]

Posting on 1 July 2024, the 182nd day of the year. The U.S. has had 260 public shootings this year. 274 people have been killed and 1130 have been injured in these incidents. Anyone who thinks this is okay at this point is deliberately ignoring what's actively happening around them.

[@manlord-be3zy]

not being rude to you(obviously

[@Khalkara]

Nobody pretends it is "okay" though, the problem is that conservatives are cowards and pretend to be against it but actively oppose any legislation that actually meaningfully solves the issue: Gun control

[@nicholasdickens2801]

It is shocking how they feel that this is an acceptable sacrifice.

[@vincentvdh9]

That number has slightly increased now

[@h0gheadS]

Uh... muh freedoms... we have to fight the government... uh... it's muh right

[@TheNinthGeneration1]

It is surprising that in the 21st century, we still take oral yes and no and go with the opinion of the speaker of which side was louder. We have buttons and computers that can tally the results, but instead we go with a personal opinion on volume. No wonder nothing gets changed.

[@TheNinthGeneration1]

@@strandedstarfish even then, at least you can count each hand, unlike trying to figure out how many people said something, especially when the speaker themselves agree with the winning side.

[@Daedalus117]

It is really stupid, but they do have the right to call for a count at least. If nobody did that, then I guess they didn't really care enough to contest it

[@TheNinthGeneration1]

@@Daedalus117 it should be the default, volume doesn’t equal percentage

[@weareallbornmad410]

​@@strandedstarfish We have button counts in Poland, and had for as long as I lived. Where in Europe are you?

[@karlbassett8485]

@@strandedstarfish In the UK all MPs leave the floor and walk through a door for yes and another door for no. The count is exact.

[@andlabs]

Shocking to see that Joe Manchin actually tried to do something legislative once

[@michaelf8221]

And the NRA backstabbed him, showing him once and for all that he would have to be against stuff rather than for stuff.

[@Omni0404]

"When you say you're going for Chinese food, what do you say?" "I'm going for Chinese food." 🤯

[@Nixahma]

Average person in the Netherlands just says "I'm going to the Chinese (singular)" or "Do you want Chinese (adj.)". No idea what's going on in Britain

[@PremierCCGuyMMXVI]

11:23 why can’t they do a proper vote? Hearing is subjective

[@robr177]

They do it that way on purpose. It kind of looks like they are taking a vote, but the speaker just decides regardless. You can clearly tell, sometimes, that he says "the nays have it" when it's obvious they don't. It's all bullshit, and they know it and don't even try to hide it because they know nobody will ever do anything to change it.

[@Rowsy91]

for time purposes if anyone questions the results they do an actual count but from what i understand a lot of votes happen like this in the interest of time Most votes im sure they know what side is going to win before it even takes place, most voting is pretty partisan in politics today

[@staciehatfield3642]

We need a super cut of all the times John has sarcastically responded with "...cool." And also a super cut off every time he's said "Holy shit!" in response to some bonkers thing.

[@Batters56]

25:30 …and we ended up with the worst of all worlds a hard Brexit that ended freedom of movement and added trade barriers, but immigration went UP!

[@ulutiu]

surprised? not in the slightest

[@szahmad2416]

Congrats on the new PM, by the way. He's an a**hole, but he's not a Tory.

[@katashworth41]

@@szahmad2416Not in name, but in practice yes.

[@szahmad2416]

@@katashworth41 agreed.

[@nicholasdickens2801]

It always would do because it showed a path for the EU to just channel people to the UK.

[@kelandryyemrot1387]

That song is GOLD

[@revolutionaren]

watching this today is especially depressing 😢

[@pineapplesandjellies]

God, I remember seeing the Brexit segment on LWT at the time and having a brief flare of hope that if enough people saw it we wouldn't leave 😩

[@missaniebananie6473]

This is why going out and voting is so important. I really hope it goes better over there soon. The white nationalist riots have got to stop and I hope that one of these days y’all go back to the EU

[@w0lfyovi294]

Watching this gives me PTSD from all the racism and xenophobia I've lived through after moving to UK in 2016 and working my heart out in the NHS

[@karlbassett8485]

The EU published a report in 2019 that showed the UK was just about the LEAST racist country in Europe. The UK isn't perfect, but I suspect many people in places like France, Spain, Italy, Germany etc are getting far worse. Why do you think asylum seekers risk their lives crossing the Channel in rubber boats to get out of France and to the UK?

[@star2705]

Yikes, I'm sorry you've been having such a rough time. Thank you a million times for working for the NHS!

[@TomNewton-u3u]

we shouldve listened to the Austrian rapper! hind sight is 20/20 😭

[@Enjoyurble]

I really wish our policy for elections was No Scrubs. TLC was right, John. TLC was right...

[@NielvanSteenderen]

The song at the end was utterly hysterical 😂 and some 😢 given the current affairs

[@socialisttrafficregulator2015]

Always DO enjoy John Oliver.

[@Suhuva]

The US could look at any other country in the world like Switzerland when it comes to gun laws. "No evidence that gun laws would stop gun violence" yeah nah. Switzerland has in scale pretty much the same amount of guns per person but they have gun laws and background checks. We're not hearing anything about gun violence from there at the same rate if at all compared to the US.

[@michaelf8221]

We have more than 2x guns per person in the US than in Switzerland. Your point still stands, but the number of guns there is really not close to the number of guns in the US.

[@ymri_yt]

I've seen dumbasses who use Switzerland as an example of why we don't need gun control. "They have almost as many guns as we do and they don't have mass shootings, it must be something else," and then they ignore everyone screaming the obvious answer at them.

[@nicksmith1415]

Brexit was so good we've thrown trillions of pounds away just to get it

[@karlbassett8485]

Well since the UK left the EU we've grown faster than Germany and France, unemployment is very low, inflation is down, so it seems to be doing okay. What exactly have we "thrown trillions" at?

[@HappyThoughts-HAPPY-THOU-xx3gm]

Seeing a 10 year old sing the works “fuck you” in the most monotone voice imaginable made my day.

[@chrispiccolo7186]

Where is that boy singer today, he's amazing

[@tybo103]

He crushed that

[@TKaePetras]

I think that boy is John Oliver's son. Not positive, but I thought I heard John say so at the end of that skit. Absolutely not sure though.

[@TheRealEvilkitten3]

@@TKaePetras no, he's not. his name is jonah halperin, he's been in a couple things but i think he may have stopped acting bc this is the most recent thing he's been in according to his imdb page.

[@PinataFreaks]

I still haven't gotten over how much Boris Johnson looks, sounds and behaves like he was a character on Little Britain.

[@WolfRites]

13:11 I love the scattered applause. Almost like people suddenly caught on to the fact that they suddenly had to do shit.

[@alexisyukioyamato1127]

God, that episode aged like wine

[@backupplan6058]

Shame the victims can’t.

[@TalamarAmV]

Australia the Uk and Switzerland are proof that it does work.

[@missaniebananie6473]

Gun control? Japan, Canada, and Germany are also good examples.

[@lykosvon9142]

I gotta be real whenever I hear a call for a yes or a no, I’m wrong with what I hear more of 😂

[@Z_MIB]

I guarantee the house chamber doesn't allow guns. The next time a representative says gun control is useless, ask them if they would support a bill allowing civilians to bring guns into the house chamber. I'm 100% certain that they wouldn't know how to answer that question. Just in case the Secret Service is getting concerned reading this, I do not own any guns and I do not support violence in any form.

[@karlbassett8485]

The NRA does not allow guns into their annual convention.

[@blipmachine]

I have too many episodes to catch up with and make the watch bar fully red.

[@donaldwhittaker7987]

Things don't change very much.

[@davidlewis8814]

“Crooked-toothed scone-goblins” ha ha savage

[@marybarry2230]

That song at the end was awesome!🤣

[@pikeyMcBarkin]

great job with the end performance!

[@russanloke]

Oh man, i wish spain being too hot was an effective way to keep people OUT of our beaches :')

[@RichardA.-yi5sz]

Be careful what you wish for. Global warming might just grant your wish.

[@MrJoshmister]

there's something so satisfying watching a little swearing on national TV, about a topic they know absolutely nothing about 😂

[@nopenope5042]

“You actually have to show up every fvkn day.” *takes 3 weeks off*

[@missaniebananie6473]

God, I miss watching these and feeling optimistic about these stories. All the bad shit happened and the solutions were HERE. Britain reaaaalllyyy regrets leaving.

[@tipulsar85]

The timing on this one....

[@tiagoteixeira4961]

As an european, I didn't know that Brexit was still a topic. I thougth that they were already out 😂

[@Rowsy91]

this is from 8 years ago

[@philiprowney]

My family only came over in the 60's to a rural part of the UK... I'd say 'A Chinese' leaving the word 'meal' out as we know we are talking about food.

[@johndeitman5059]

I think the problem was using a derogatory word not that he didn't include the word meal at the end of his sentence.

[@alanaj5]

Seeing the boy singing in that waistcoat reminds me of the spitting image sketch when the conservatives won the 1987 election. They had him singing a German nationalistic anthem.

[@slagathor330]

I've got to admit that I both do and don't enjoy watching How The World Gets Effed in Under 10 Years w/John Oliver.

[@manda60]

BOY BREXIT HAS AGED GREAT EH

[@Thortok2000]

Was there anything that ever got fixed by a LWT episode or is it all just a slow descent into awfulness with someone constantly telling us how not to do so and being ignored?

[@albamartinez4777]

I’m really bummed he didn’t roast Spain, my country 😭

[@CatThatLostHisHat]

They forgot it existed, which is fair.

[@elaineb7065]

According to the song at the end your weather does that for you...

[@russanloke]

Es que parece que no, pero no estamos tan mal! (Comparando con los USA por lo menos!) 😬

[@charliegreen5361]

OK, Brit here and the most inaccurate part about that song is the fact that there wasn’t an entire section of it where they were shitting on France.

[@vladd415]

Whooo, Romania got a mention!

[@pvught390]

Four years after Brexit, the British are still waiting for the benefits of Brexit.

[@liquiddenmark1315]

First love your show, but what the fuck do you mean by saying…what would happen if Denmark was a suicide note? Best regards from a Danish viewer 🇩🇰❤🇬🇧

[@nopenope5042]

How much money do you have to make to get more days off a year than the people who can’t afford to watch your full episodes on HBO max?

[@JolactusJ5x5]

Man, how long is Earth's racist arc going to go on...

[@sciencenonfiction4109]

In 2018 or 2019 my ex got me a 9mm handgun for my birthday. In Florida, there was nowhere to submit the change of ownership form, so I had to just keep it with the gun. I wasn’t at all political back then, but it struck me as wrong.

[@harvisterc]

We were batshit crazy ffs

[@katashworth41]

Not only did my constituency vote for Brexit, but also the Tories again on Thursday (though thank fuck only by a couple of hundred votes).

[@josedenniolim]

Well UK just kicked out the Tories, I think they can rejoin the EU now.

[@BaconDragon]

Hahaha 🤣 Oh wait your serious let me laugh harder Hahaha Hahahahahahaha. Yeah the British are screwed

[@calumproctor981]

*you're Support for Brexit is (as literally as possible) dying. As of May 2024, 55 percent of people in Great Britain thought that it was wrong to leave the European Union, compared with 31 percent who thought it was the right decision. And that's with the voting age at 18. The Labour manifesto includes a pledge to reduce it to 16. We won't be rejoining anytime soon, but whatever Starmer said before the election there's a significant chance we will rejoin in his lifetime (his life expectancy is around 25 years).

[@pascaalexandru7575]

​@@calumproctor981you won't be joining it at all I believe. When you want to join, EU will have a strong negotiating stance, which is gonna rub the wrong way those big British egos.

[@weareallbornmad410]

​@@calumproctor981 Friend. Just because YOU want to join us doesn't mean WE are going to let you. You made your bed. Now sleep in it.

[@calumproctor981]

@@weareallbornmad410 I'm Scottish, so I'm not so sure about the "you", although I take the point. That said, there is little prospect of the EU preventing a major economy from rejoining. Equally, however, it would be on less favourable terms (we had a nice rebate going - maybe the only positive thing Thatcher did as PM). Fortunately, and unlike the previous batch of UK politicians, EU politicians are not generally petty.

[@andybray9791]

Imagine using your gun to turn on tv years show.. Boris Johnson looks like Barney rubble but more scruff.

[@martinjrgensen8234]

Nice to see nothing has improved in 8 years

[@zacharyhenderson2902]

And then they left 😂

[@billybob01234567]

WTF why are you posting an episode from 2016 in 2024?!

[@johndeitman5059]

There uploading old seasons to KZbin to act as a kind of library

[@brandonminkos6518]

Was that your son singing?

[@MsBrunoVarela]

I made a playlist in the correct order... kzbin.info/aero/PLOpXx5UbYp1vGOEdpIoL9FiWQuExZzAOg

[@ThatGuyHelm]

So umm... We left it.

[@karlbassett8485]

And we're doing fine. The utter disaster predicted by people like Oliver failed to happen. Since leaving the UK economy has grown faster than Germany and France.

[@Hayanomie]

Every day is orlando in Syria

[@sandorkovacs9271]

well this didnt age well...

[@alst4817]

Here after Trump got a sore ear

[@seanfagan8490]

Glad they are gone Brixit is great every other country made money except the Brits..

[@SabreSix1980]

Lol. Indeed, Brexit is great, just not for Britain...

[@TheDramon]

Yuut

[@LouiseAnnHalliday]

Oh, only £190 million a week Well that's much better

[@calumproctor981]

Have we taken back control yet?

[@fareedzaree7941]

Si why lying in the first place?

[@Dysiode]

Yort

[@Ozymandi_as]

Ah remembering the lies

[@gerardflynn7382]

What has the NRA got to do with Brexit?

[@JollyWailmer]

Yeet

[@surfacedfox]

Yute

[@Lol..No.]

Yoot

[@Gambit22003]

Firearm Law Advocates baffle me. Criminals don't follow the law, obviously. So how will stricter Firearm laws reduce Firearm crime, exactly?

[@weareallbornmad410]

Because firearms would be harder to get, Dum Dum.

[@Gambit22003]

@@weareallbornmad410 WRONG! Dum Dum. 🙄

[@Gambit22003]

@@weareallbornmad410 Just makes it harder on those who follow the law. Case AND point. They're not the ones committing all the crime.

[@Gambit22003]

@@weareallbornmad410 Dum Dum.

[@SabreSix1980]

How many mass shooting in the last decade were done using an illegal firearm?

[@JohnnyinMN]

A Brit discussing U.S. politics. Hope he moved back to his great island that ineptly voted for Brexit. They deserve each other.

[@pango-y8j]

He's an American citizen!😊

[@johndeitman5059]

He literally disagrees with Brexit in this video

[@philltolkien5082]

Don't come back.

[@marcusmccall8896]

It's pretty simple leave gun owners alone. I would never vote for anyone who pushed for any new laws or bans.

[@SabreSix1980]

Are you ok with drivers licenses? Do you think it's responsable to let any teen drive around in a vehicle of several tons, capable of ataining great speeds without any obligation of recieving lessons in safety or in how the road code works? Or does that sound like a disaster waiting to happen?

[@karlbassett8485]

John typically not telling the truth about Brexit. The EU is not an "economic union". It is a Political Union. It is a United States Of Europe, with most of the same federal features and powers the US federal government has. A President, a legislature, a supreme court etc all with the powers to make laws which member states are required to obey. It was only a lucky break in the treaty negotiations, and a Labour MP insisting, that got an exit clause added as an afterthought. Without that the UK would have been the same as Texas or California, legally forbidden from leaving. John is, like many Remainers (I suppose we should call them Rejoiners now) downplaying the EUs power to argue that being a member is a painless and trivial thing, that the EU is little more than NAFTA and that no sane person could possibly be against free trade. That infamous red bus and the £350 million a week claim? It was a Labour MP running the official leave campaign who put that slogan on that bus, and who said it in public first. But Oliver doesn't want to blame a left wing Labour MP when he can blame a Tory. (The figure was actually the correct UK contribution, but ignored the rebate the UK had negotiated. It wasn't the "real" figure, but it wasn't just a number the campaign made up out of thin air.) President Obama, China and others are against it? So? They (rightly) consider THEIR interests first, so they may prefer the UK to have remained but that's not the same as saying it was in the UKs own interest to remain. Gove's comment about "experts"? Well it's now eight years later and those predictions by those "experts" has indeed been proved to have been wrong. They were forecasting utter disaster for the UK if we voted to leave. Millions of jobs lost, all the banks would leave, all the car manufacturers would leave, house prices would crash etc etc. It's now four years since we left. The UK has grown faster than Germany and France and in 2025 is forecast to grow faster then them and Japan, and only slightly slower than the US. Gove was right after all. Those "experts" were indeed all wrong. That "of course!" at 24:58? Well no, the UK did not accept free movement to get a trade deal. There was no "of course about it". Oliver was wrong. Trade and regulations? Again John is wrong. ALL countries have to follow the product regulations for products they want to export to a country. The USA has to obey EU regulations for goods they want to export to the EU. BUT only for those individual goods they ship to that country. They are free to make their own laws for goods they want to sell locally or ship to other countries. Canada, for example, has a trade deal that allows them to sell meat in the EU, but the EU bans chlorine washed meat. So Canada has to follow those EU laws. But only for meat it wants to ship to the EU. Canada can freely ignore those laws for meat it sells in Canada. So the EU leaving means that UK companies and manufacturers can ignore EU rules unless (a) the UK chooses to keep those rules (and they have kept many, and many were good laws so why not?) or (b) they want to sell stuff to the EU. But every country on earth has to do that, even the USA, so that's hardly a big problem. As it is, with the benefit of some hindsight we left, Brexit happened, and none of the doomsday disasters predicted by Remainers came true. The leave campaign didn't lie. It was the Remain campaign whose clams all turned out to be utter rubbish. Oliver's passionate claim in this video that this will be a disaster were just wrong.

[@SixFeetRabbit]

The way the uploads go on this channel is awful, unsubscribe

[@pvught390]

Four years after Brexit, the British are still waiting for the benefits of Brexit.