John Oliver ‘blames’ Katy Perry for Trump’s US election victory
‘Last Week Tonight’ host is using singer as unlikely scapegoat
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.John Oliver has revealed his unlikely scapegoat for the 2024 US election result: Katy Perry.
The Last Week Tonight host, who fought back tears while criticising Donald Trump one the day before the election, shone the microscopic light on the result in the latest episode.
On Sunday (10 November), Oliver attempted to work out why Kamala Harris lost to Trump, explaining that American citizens are currently spinning their “personal wheel of blame” and “generally making sure it lands on whoever you were mad at in the first place”.
Oliver comedically offered the viewpoint that Harris’s loss can be attributed to “Firework” singer Katy Perry, who endorsed the Democratic nominee at her rally the day before the election.
He said: “Personally, I kind of would like to imagine that everything that happened on Tuesday is Katy Perry’s fault because, at Kamala’s Election Eve rally, she did this ill-advised cover.”
Oliver then showed a clip of Perry singing a patchy version of Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love of All”, which features the lyric” “No matter what they say to me, they can’t take away my dignity.”
The comedian joked: “I mean, you are right, they can’t take away your dignity because you just surrendered it willingly. I know, I know that she’s trying to do a nice thing there but why would you try and cover Whitney Houston – the voice?”
He then compared Perry’s appearance to singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood’s at Trump rallies.
“Say what you want about Lee Greenwood — which in my case is about 18 minutes of rigorously fact-checked insults — but at least when he played Trump rallies he wasn’t trying to do Freddie Mercury’s part in ‘Somebody to Love.’”
Explaining why he was planning on using Perry as a scapegoat, Oliver went on: “Now, did that drunk bachelorette karaoke night performance doom the whole Harris campaign? Probably not. But it feels good to think so because it’s an easy answer to a difficult question.”
The day before the election, Oliver fought back tears while endorsing Harris. The British-born comedian, who became a US citizen in 2019, told viewers: “Elections alone aren’t efficient for large-scale change, but they’re absolutely necessary for it to ever happen. Because it’s the day you essentially get to choose who you’d prefer to be pushing for the next four years and where you’ll be pushing them from.”
He said that he “so badly wants to live in a world” where Trump lost the election, stating: “I hope everyone does everything in their power in the next 48 hours to make that world possible.”
Trump’s win led to stunned reactions from the world of Hollywood.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments