Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Lethal injections & desert tree frogs
So why in the world focus on it during this show? Well, basically this was Oliver’s way to touch on an important, critical subject that nobody else really discusses. The death penalty remains an important subject of conversation, though it surprisingly hasn’t come across all that much as a central point in various Presidential campaigns. Maybe there are a lot of people out there who think as though this is a dead subject of conversation, but it’s not. It’s still an important subject and something that still needs to be focused on … which Oliver did.
Probably the harshest part of this segment was actually learning about some of the specific drugs that are used in lethal injections, and how they are then administered. It is a brutal way to die, and it’s also seemingly a sort of business nobody wants any part of at all.
Did we really learn anything about lethal injections within this segment? There’s certainly a heated debate to be had on this subject. We feel like a lot of Oliver viewers out there are already very much in the anti-lethal injection camp; perhaps this goal is to make them even more aware of its danger. Injections, in particular, can be so painful, in fact, that there are some people out there who would prefer the electric chair.
The ultimate reality here is that there is no real, easy way in which to kill people. No matter what option you choose, there’s a pretty high chance that the end result of it is going to be inhumane. It’s going to be something that generates a good bit of pain, and there is a pretty good chance it will not work properly. As Oliver pointed out, the main function of lethal injections is to make the people executing feel better, rather than just making things easier on the victim. They think that it’s more humane and since they don’t look into anything of the specific mechanisms that go into it, it just makes it easier for them to keep on doing it and supporting the death penalty at every turn.
So yeah, not exactly the happiest show of all time — yet, we certainly do think that some of the stuff about the desert tree frog before Oliver kicked off the main segment was fantastically adorable. That was him setting us up to be sorely disappointed when we got to the cold, sad truth on the other side of it.
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What did you think about the May 5 edition of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver? Be sure to share right now in the comments, and check back soon to get some other insight. (Photo: HBO.)