Last Week Tonight with John Oliver offers Clarence Thomas a deal

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Photo: HBO

Did tonight’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver episode actually deliver one of the most shocking premieres in history? Well, if nothing else, we can say that they did something regarding Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that we never saw coming.

We could build this up for a long period of this article, but what’s the point? Oliver actually offered him a salary of $1 million a year for the rest of his life to leave the Supreme Court — plus also his own, very impressive RV (priced at over $2 million apparently) to “see who his real friends are” without any air travel. This came after a brutal, lengthy takedown of some of the Justice’s various moves and disclosures that have come out over the past few years.

You can argue that Last Week Tonight with John Oliver could have done this segment last year, but they waited — and clearly, they may have waited for the right moment. Oliver himself did frame this correctly when asking how in the world this was legal, largely because we honestly have no idea either. Also, how did HBO sign off on any of this getting on the air?

Well, John noted that Thomas has thirty days to decide to take the offer or not and honestly, the whole segment was probably created under the notion that it would never happen. Yet, this is easily the sort of segment that is going to get a flurry of attention, and it would have shocking, widespread consequences if it actually came to pass. Basically, it would create a vacancy on the Supreme Court within an election year.

It is segments like this, by the way, that serve as a reminder of why Last Week Tonight has won all of the Emmys that it has over the years. We aren’t quite sure how many others out there would be willing to even risk doing a segment like this.

What did you think of the Last Week Tonight with John Oliver “offer” to Clarence Thomas?

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