John Oliver returned to kick off his 12th season of “Last Week Tonight” on Sunday, and he put tech billionaire Elon Musk — or, as the HBO host called him, a “parasitic freak” — squarely in his crosshairs for the premiere.
Though Oliver had a lot to catch up on since his last show in 2024, he largely focused on the first weeks of Donald Trump’s second term, calling out the damage he’s inflicted to various government organizations. In particular, Oliver zeroed in on USAID.
Of course, the host was quick to note that it was actually Musk who’s been taking the sledgehammer to these departments, and scoffed at the fact that he did so by first emailing employees offering them a buyout to resign.
“Setting aside whether it’s even a real or legal offer, ‘Take this money now or risk being eliminated’ isn’t how you run the federal government,” Oliver said. “It’s how you run ‘Beast Games.’”
For those unfamiliar, “Beast Games” is a reality show on Prime Video, hosted by online personality MrBeast, in which a thousand contestants compete for a massive cash prize. Along the way, many must make decisions about how much money to take or indeed possibly be eliminated from the game.
Oliver also called out the employees of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who have been revealed to be anywhere from teenagers to men in their early 20s, with some even living in the government building.
“Yeah, it is madness,” Oliver said. “Imagine being a federal worker and having to listen to a guy who wasn’t alive for 9/11, ‘Shrek 1’ or ‘Shrek 2’ say to you, ‘You’re being downsized. Please leave this office which is now my bedroom. Also: Can you please buy me a beer?’”
But the comedian was particularly incensed by a post Musk made on social media earlier this month, in which the unelected billionaire complained that he “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper” instead of going “to some great parties.”
“First, no you could not, because any party you attend is definitionally terrible,” Oliver retorted. “And second, don’t you have like 100 kids? Go hang out with them on the weekends, you parasitic freak!”
“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” is now streaming on Max.
