HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver spent much of Sunday’s show unpacking the term gerrymandering for viewers.
Oliver called “democracy” the “best Greek import that doesn’t have fruit at the bottom” as he explained that Democrats love to complain about gerrymandering. Oliver then played a montage of political pundits saying that gerrymandering is the biggest threat to our democracy.
Gerrymandering, as Oliver explained, allows lawmakers to reshape voting districts to shift the balance of political power, which can be a major problem for a democracy.
“Slow down, that is a bit much. The biggest threat to our democracy right now is clearly whatever tweet the president has planned for Cinco de Mayo,” Oliver joked. “We can assume it will be horrifying.”
Oliver’s comment was a reference to Trump’s tweet on Cinco de Mayo last year, when he famously tweeted a photo of him eating a taco salad at his Trump Tower desk.
Oliver then got serious, explaining that whoever draws the district voting lines has a ton of power, and compared recent elections to Neapolitan ice cream that is “75 percent strawberry.” Oliver said that modern technology has allowed gerrymandering to thrive and is now a very precise science.
The process can hurt being based on race, political party and even sure up seats for incumbents.
“This is by no means a new problem. Even the term gerrymandering goes back centuries,” Oliver said before offering a history lesson on the origin of the term. “Literally everything about Gerrymandering is stupid and wrong.”
Check out the video above.