John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight and contender for Best British Human, has gifted his adopted country with a video in honor of Independence Day. But he also reminds viewers what our independence from Mother England has cost us young, scrappy, and hungry ruffians.
And frankly, Mr. Oliver, I feel personally attacked. Did you really have to lead with that barbed reference to American accents? “These beautiful vowel sounds could have been yours,” he crows, gesturing to his vocal cords. I’ll thank you to show more sensitivity to those of us who spent their childhoods acting out Frances Hodgson Burnett stories, desperately coaxing the dulcet tones of a posh London accent from our ill-equipped throats. And when the Spice Girls came along? Ah, to love was to suffer.
