Last Week Tonight host John Oliver addressed conspiracy theories that have been circulating online throughout the coronavirus outbreak — enlisting celebrity friends Alex Trebek, Catherine O’Hara, Billy Porter, John Cena, and Paul Rudd to squash the fake news.
Before diving into his segment on misinformation, Oliver tackled the Trump administration’s push to open schools amid the coronavirus pandemic, regardless of advice and judgment from medical experts.
“Mike Pence doesn’t think CDC guidelines should impede schools opening? Then what exactly are they for?” Oliver asked. “These are public health guidelines. They shouldn’t be skimmed and ultimately deemed inconsequential to our current situation. They’re not Mary Trump’s book.”
Oliver then countered White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow’s notion that it will be easy for schools to open in the fall, provided children socially distance and get their temperatures taken regularly.
“Safely reopening schools is going to be incredibly hard,” Oliver pointed out. “They are not designed for social distancing and years of budget cuts and the economic downturn are going to make it very difficult for them to upgrade their facilities.”
The host eventually reasoned that “So many of the decisions that could make schools safe involve what we can all do outside of them,” referring to mask-wearing and following all CDC guidelines.
During his main segment, Oliver discussed why people are susceptible to believing conspiracy theories, and guessed that one factor could be President Donald Trump’s
“[Barack] Obama was born in Kenya, Antonin Scalia was murdered, and that millions of fake votes were cast for Hillary Clinton,” he listed. “Conspiracies are sort of like ugly buildings and deeply tragic adult children in that Donald Trump loves to unleash them into the world and then refuse to take responsibility for them ever again.”
Although Oliver claimed to believe some factless theories himself, admitting that he thinks the Royal Family was involved in Princess Diana’s death, the host ultimately invited several celebrities to spread the truth to his viewers.
“Yeah, we got Alex Trebek to make a 90-second video gently urging anyone who watches it to be careful with what they encounter and share online. So you can show your grandparents that and then talk to them about it,” Oliver said, joking that people are more likely to take the Jeopardy! host more seriously.
“This global health crisis has everyone a lot of questions. But that’s a good thing. If nobody ever asked questions, Jeopardy would be a very weird show,” Trebek said. “But the thing about asking questions during a global pandemic is sometimes the answers you find on the internet might seem convincing but they’re not actually true.”
Trebek’s full video, along with the other stars’ clips can be found on a website titled “The True True Truth,” which includes quips like Rudd
Watch above, via Youtube.