Dame Helen Mirren did no small favor for John Oliver on Sunday: she read several passages about forced rectal feeding, in an effort to get Americans to read the Senate torture report.
The host of “Last Week Tonight” was distraught to find that 57 percent of Americans are ignorant of one of the report’s key conclusions, that torture is not a successful strategy in tracking down terrorists.
Since so many people haven’t read the report and its graphic descriptions of torture committed by the American government, Oliver enlisted the Academy Award-winning Mirren to make a dent in people’s minds.
But before long he was asking her to stop, and begged to switch to anything else, maybe some Beatrix Potter.
“Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail, who were good little bunnies, went down the lane to gather blackberries,” Mirren began.
A placated Oliver asked for more.
“But while Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail were on their way to pick blackberries, Peter was chained to a wall in Farmer McGregor’s basement. He’d been badly beaten, and a tray of carrots and raisins was pureed and rectally infused,” she continued.
Watch the clip, courtesy of HBO:
John Oliver does more high quality, in depth reporting of a particular issue or controversy than some of the best news organizations out there. His dissection of the Miss America Pageant was a classic. It’s odd to think if you really wanted to know about an issue his research staff would be what you chose over that of the NY Times, 60 Minutes or most others.
I think it’s what makes the whole explosion of comedy-journalism both frightening and wonderful.
The Daily Show really started something. Now if we can get The Nightly Show to step up a little more (I still enjoy them, but not quite as much), it would be wonderful.
Torture appeals to raw emotional urge for revenge - & for those consumed with these urges - the more painful, brutal & gruesome - the better, and they will distort a rationale about “effectiveness” to justify their cravings.
In one of the earliest books I read, the protagonist was tortured. She went down the training she had received about being tortured and that included things like saying anything so that, if you do say something that is true, it will all be muddled up so much they won’t be able to tell what is true and what isn’t, and constantly lie about what the plans were.
Are you talking about espionage or coordinating all the logistics of the Christmas Holidays with your spouse?