Last Week Tonight with John Oliver addresses Dayton, El Paso tragedies

Before the August 4 edition of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the show’s host took a different approach to the intro. There was no theme song and no music. Instead, there was a cold open in which Oliver opened by discussing the situation in El Paso and Dayton immediately. He talked about the horrible tragedies in those aforementioned cities but, beyond that, he talked about how the President talks about immigration and other issues at his rallies. He talked about the way that he brushed off a comment about “shooting” immigrants who crossed the border.

In Oliver’s words, this is not something that can be normalized. This was a somber statement about how we can’t accept the current situation and how there must be another way to move forward recognizing the problems that we have.

This Last Week Tonight episode ran a couple minutes longer than usual, and it was probably in order to add this introduction. While we do think the entirety of this episode was taped earlier this evening, there may not have been a way to alter the remainder of the show to include El Paso or Dayton. Therefore, the producers and Oliver decided to add it in from the jump. It’s the sort of terrible circumstance that you don’t want to push back, and it’s also so serious that you don’t want to start talking about it amidst the upbeat theme song and the other typical stuff that Oliver uses to start his show.

Throughout the next few days, we’re sure that many others within the late-night community are going to do their part on their own in order to properly address the tragedies. It may not be the easiest thing for any of us to discuss or deal with, but we’re all in this together in this country. That’s one of the reasons why Oliver speaks about some of these issues in the way in which he does.

Related News – Be sure to get some more news when it comes to Last Week Tonight

What do you think about how Oliver chose to open tonight’s new episode? Be sure to share in the comments. (Photo: HBO.)