Sky has been criticised by UK viewers for cutting John Oliver’s joke about Queen Elizabeth II in the latest episode of his talk show.
In the HBO broadcast of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, which aired on Sunday night (September 11), the presenter opened with a joke about the President of Chile before turning his attention to the Queen.
“We need to start with the UK, which is clearly still reeling from the shocking death of a 96-year-old woman from natural causes,” he said, which was followed by laughter from the studio audience.
Oliver continued: “It is a big moment which for some reason absolutely everyone felt that they had to weigh in on, from Crazy Frog, which tweeted out ‘RIP the Queen’ [and a] candle emoji – a tweet that’s impossible to read without mentally adding [Crazy Frog’s dance music] – to Dominos UK, which posted, ‘Everyone at Domino’s joins the nation and the world in mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Our thoughts and condolences are with the Royal Family.’
“Which I guess is nice although if the world is mourning they should maybe tell the US Domino’s account whose most recent tweet as of this taping is ‘if ur reading this it means u need pizza like to confirm.,” he said. “Get your fucking house in order Domino’s! A LADY IS DEAD.”
Oliver then went on to make a joke about the new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, saying: “The Queen’s death is sadly not the only traumatic event that Britain has had to deal with this week because on Tuesday, Liz Truss, basically Margaret Thatcher if she were high on glue, became its new Prime Minister.”
However, in the version available on Sky Comedy and Sky’s streaming platform NOW Oliver’s joke about the Queen was not included, with the broadcast instead cutting straight to the gag about Truss.
Sky has since attracted dozens of complaints from angry viewers on Twitter, with many tagging Oliver directly.
Don't censor my @LastWeekTonight. I am British, I am a monarchist and I CAN TAKE A JOKE!!! @SkyUK If @iamjohnoliver wants to have an intelligent, jovial, factual opinion about our queen I wanna hear it. FFS! The coverage and forced mourning here is getting real out of hand.
— Lindsay Sargeant (@SargeantLc) September 13, 2022
@LastWeekTonight .@iamjohnoliver.
Sky cut out your joke about the queen last night. Cowards. Any chance you can put it up on here? They teased us with her picture and and truly amateurish cut.— Patrick Barker (@Patbarker) September 13, 2022
“Don’t censor my @LastWeekTonight,” tweeted one person. “I am British, I am a monarchist and I CAN TAKE A JOKE!!! @SkyUK If @iamjohnoliver wants to have an intelligent, jovial, factual opinion about our queen I wanna hear it. FFS! The coverage and forced mourning here is getting real out of hand.”
Another wrote to Oliver: “Sky cut out your joke about the queen last night. Cowards. Any chance you can put it up on here? They teased us with her picture and and truly amateurish cut.”
In August, Oliver mocked Liz Truss for not deleting a tweet in which she mourned the death of paedophile Jimmy Savile.
The post Sky criticised by viewers for cutting John Oliver joke about the late Queen appeared first on NME.
