I want to make a video, fisking John Oliver’s moronic piece claiming Australia’s gun laws “debunk” the “American gun ownership myth”. Spoiler: the only parts that are wrong are the parts where Oliver is moving his lips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem is, watching John Oliver gives me a very unpleasant physical reaction. Watching him literally makes me ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s not just how he smugly mangles context and cherry picks factoids, and mugs for the trained seals in his audience; that was Jon Stewart’s schtick, too. But I can watch (and heckle and fisk) Stewart and enjoy doing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Oliver could read a phone book, or “Goodnight Moon”, or even quotes from Margaret Thatcher and William F. Buckley, and I’d still feel my skin crawing, and start wanting to throw up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don’t even react like this to the useless Steven Colbert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I literally get ill watching Oliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only other thing like it? I get a headache watching Tim Burton movies. No kidding – I even got a headache watching one Burton movie even before I learned what it was and who directed it. It can be a Burton movie I love (“Nightmare before Christmas”) or hate (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”), but it’s the same headache. Something about his style. I don’t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But even that reaction is nothing like the one I get from John Oliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No, I’m not exaggerating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n