Challenging the numerous headlines cementing newly elected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as Britains Donald Trump, John Oliver examined the crucial differences between the two politicians on Sundays Last Week Tonight.
Given that Britains new leader is a clownish figure with silly hair and a passing relationship with the truth, you may already be thinking of the person youre almost always thinking about anyway, the host said. [The comparison] is neither exactly wrong nor exactly right. Johnson is actually a lot more complex than Trump in a number of important ways.
One major distinction, the comedian said, is how the two handle their public image: Oliver argued that Johnson is more calculating in how he presents himself to the world from his willingness to look ridiculous (like the time he got stuck on a zip-line during the 2012 Olympic celebrations) to his constantly ruffled hair.
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That right there is the key to Boris Johnson: Presenting his own lack of preparation so charmingly that you actually doubt hes unprepared, but he is, Oliver said. Can you imagine Trump having that level of self-reflection? With covfefe, the tactic was to present myself as a kind of sub-literate clown to distract you from the fact that Im a mound of skin tautly stretched across the howling chasm of the space where a soul should be. Its a very useful tool when employed well.
But the host argued that beneath Johnsons surface charm lurked some truly nasty qualities. For one thing, he is a liar, Oliver said. As a young journalist, he was fired from his first job at The Times of London for completely making up a quote From there, Johnson failed upwards to a job at The Daily Telegraph, where he built a following on a series of flagrant falsehoods about the European Union as their Brussels correspondent falsehoods that would help lay the groundwork for the Brexit vote decades later.
Oliver focused on one of Johnsons most ridiculous lies, that Europe was attempting to ban the prawn-flavored cocktail chip. Europe was never planning to abolish them, and they immediately pointed that out, the comedian said. But Boris allegation spread like wildfire and became a popular example of an out-of-control EU. And as recently as 2016, a full 25 years after his bullshit was debunked, Boris actually cited the great war against her British prawn cocktail flavor crisp as part of his case for Brexit.
Johnson has also relied on bigotry during his political career, Oliver noted, highlighting how he referred to gay men as tank-topped bumboys in 1998 and said burkas made women look like bank robbers and letter boxes in 2018.
Johnson is now tasked with guiding Britain through a massive political challenge: Finalizing the Brexit withdrawal deal by October 31st. If [he] messes up the Brexit negotiation, the pile-up of shit could be considerable here, Oliver said, as most economists believe a no-deal Brexit would cause a deep recession.
Johnson has now backed himself into a corner, the host continued. Because Parliament has rejected the EUs deal; the EU says there is no better deal to be had there is really no good way out of this. Meaning that hes pretty much now stranded The consequences of messing that up could have catastrophic ramifications for Britain, Europe and the world.