John Oliver Torches ‘Fearmongering Lacrosse Injury’ Tucker Carlson for Obsessing Over Dr. Seuss: ‘The Books Weren’t Banned’

John Oliver went after Tucker Carlson and Fox News for incessantly covering Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ decision to stop printing six of their books — mocking the network for framing it as a “ban.”

Oliver also noted that while Fox News was obsessing over Dr. Seuss, FBI Director Christopher Wray was testifying in front on Congress on the Capitol attack, which he determined was largely instigated by right-wing militia groups.

During his testimony, Wray noted that although the FBI does not view extremism in terms of right or left, there is evidence that “militia violent extremists like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers” and others that have been placed in the “racially-motivated extremist bucket” were involved in the Jan. 6 attack.

“Now that testimony was pretty newsworthy,” said Oliver. “But while some networks took the hearings live Fox, not surprisingly, barely covered it. In fact, across conservative platforms, you’d hardly know that hearing happened because they were too busy with this.”

The host then played footage of Fox News hosts and anchors lamenting the cancellation of Dr. Seuss; he later speculated that they focused on the topic in order to avoid covering the issue of domestic terrorism in the United States.

“The books weren’t banned. Dr. Seuss Enterprises decided to stop printing six of them, and a company deciding which of its own books it will or won’t print is an example of free enterprise, not fascism,” said Oliver, adding, “And given how strongly all those commentators were defending those books, it is worth knowing what exactly they are defending.”

“The images in question include this old timey caricature of a ‘a Chinese man who eats with sticks,’ actually toned down from the original version where he was literally yellow and called this [‘a Chinaman’], and there’s also drawings that resemble monkeys representing people from Africa,” Oliver continued. “And are these really things that we want to fight for kids to see? To be honest, I’m squeamish about showing you to them right now.”

The host later played a clip of Carlson claiming, “What they’re really trying to eliminate is a very specific kind of mid-century American culture. A culture that championed meritocracy and colorblindness.”

“Ok, first: shut the fuck up, Tucker, you fearmongering lacrosse injury,” Oliver exclaimed. “And second, it’s a little weird to claim that mid-century American culture championed colorblindness when signs from the times explicitly demanded the opposite.”

The host then showed a photograph of a Black man drinking from a water fountain with the word “COLORED” written over it.

Watch above, HBO Max.