Period of mourning was 'very strange'

John Oliver has said it was ‘pretty shitty’ of Sky to censor his jokes about the response to the Queen’s death.

The comedian opened his HBO show last week by commenting that Britain was ‘reeling from the shocking death of a 96-year-old woman from natural causes’.

But that line – and more jokes mocking bizarre corporate displays of mourning – was cut from the UK broadcast.

Speaking on Late Night With Seth Meyers he expressed his frustration at the move.

‘It’s literally not a joke,’ Oliver said. ‘Scientifically, it’s not a joke. That’s just a fact with a kind of dick-ish inflection, that’s all it is.

‘And yet they cut it out, which is pretty shitty because apparently all we’ve heard all week is the Queen had this incredible sense of humour. Just non-stop. Oh, she was so funny. Seth, she was so funny. The Queen, she was razor sharp.’

He also suggested that portrayal might be exaggerated, talking about her platinum jubilee sketch with Paddington: ‘I’m watching a bear carry her comedically in a scene. She’s giving that bear nothing back.’

And he spoke about how then ten days of enforced mourning was 'very strange' and that the  decision to cancel football while cricket and rugby  were allowed to continue was 'tangible class warfare'.

In the footage that was cut from Last Week Tonight, Oliver said of the Queen’s death:‘It is a big moment which, for some reason, absolutely everyone felt that they had to weigh in on from Crazy Frog, which tweeted out "RIP the Queen candle emoji" – a tweet that it’s impossible to read without mentally  "Ring ding ding ding ding ding bem" – to Domino’s UK which posted, "Everyone at Domino’s joins the nation and the world in mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Our thoughts and condolences are with the royal family."

‘Which, I guess, is nice, although if the world is mourning, they should maybe tell the US Domino’s account, whose most recent tweet as of this taping is "if ur reading this it means u need pizza like to confirm."

‘Get your fucking house in order, Domino’s! A LADY IS DEAD!’

He ended the segment by saying: ‘The Queen’s death is sadly not the only traumatic event that Britain has had to deal with this week, because on Tuesday, Liz Truss, basically Margaret Thatcher if she were high on glue, became its new Prime Minister.’

Here was the cut footage: 

Published: 21 Sep 2022