John Oliver hails from the United Kingdom, but he became a United States citizen shortly before the 2022 election. He’s still a massive Liverpool F.C. fan, but it probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that he doesn’t maintain much sentimentality for the monarchy. He devoted this week’s deep dive to mercilessly trouncing this institution, and he began while highlighting the “complicated” reaction from some British citizens to Queen Elizabeth II’s death.
This includes a pair of young ladies (early in the above video) declaring, “It’s like I care, but I don’t” and “she ain’t done nothing for us.” In response, Oliver totally gets it and compares the situation with the bizarre way that And Just Like That… killed off a franchise-spanning character. “I had a similar reaction when Big died on the Peloton,” he began. “I don’t care because Big was pompous, good for nothing (and let’s be honest, voted for Trump), but I do care a little because I know that Carrie really cares.”
How much did Carrie care, exactly? “Look at her, there in his last moments, devastated, doing absolutely nothing.”
Granted, that’s an exaggeration. Carrie obviously cared, but there was plenty of criticism about how her character reacted. She didn’t immediately call 911, although to be fair, nothing would have saved Big at that point. She did cradle him during his final moments, and the aftermath of his death grew pretty complicated. He had left money for his ex-wife, Natasha, and Carrie also found that she couldn’t guess the password to his laptop. So yes, it was messy, just like the collective British response to Elizabeth’s death.
Oliver moved on to dissecting the fallout of Elizabeth’s imperialistic legacy, which she stoically held onto until her final days. Oliver, for sure, tore into the entire British family for “ignoring calls for true apologies and reparations to those who suffered tremendously because of what was done in their name.” Well… at least the Royals still have Piers Morgan on their side.