Readers like you keep news free for everyone.
More than 5,000 readers have already pitched in to keep free access to The Journal.
For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away.
# dildo baggins
Remember when someone threw a dildo at a politician's head? John Oliver's response is glorious
The comedian has taken the bait and ran.
EARLIER THIS MONTH, a protester in New Zealand threw a dildo at the face of the country’s Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce.
Josie Butler, a nurse from Christchurch, said she was protesting against the Trans-Pacific Partnership – a trade agreement among twelve Pacific Rim countries that had just been signed in Auckland.
At the time, Prime Minister John Key said: “It’s appalling because that image has gone around the world and there are now people in countries all over the world saying the way New Zealanders theoretically commemorate or celebrate their national day is with a senior politician having a sex toy thrown at them.”
Joyce seemed to take the incident a bit better, tweeting:
Oliver, the host of Last Week Tonight, has obliged. And, in his own words, has gone for the “nuclear option”.
He has previously covered Key publicly apologising to a waitress for repeatedly pulling her ponytail, and New Zealand’s quest for a new flag.
On this week’s show he joked that he was going to put a moratorium on discussing the country until Joyce goaded him into covering the dildo incident.
To New Zealand’s credit, that woman was not charged with anything … If you threw something at a politician in this country, you’d be dead before the dildo hit the ground.
Oliver noted that some media outlets have taken to calling Joyce Dildo Baggins, describing this as “a play on words which, frankly, should be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature”.
Last Week Tonight made a flag commemorating the incident and sent it to Lord of the Rings director and New Zealand native Peter Jackson.
After Oliver’s monologue, viewers were then treated to a choir signing about the incident in a performance that also had giant flying dildos.
What a time to be alive.
Read: Throwing dildos at politicians not an appropriate way to celebrate New Zealand, says PM
Read: The Prime Minister of New Zealand had to apologise for pulling a waitress’s ponytail
