Comedian John Oliver, a former correspondent on the “Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and current host of HBO’s popular “Last Week Tonight,” is known for his harsh takedowns of politicians, policies, and programs. On Sunday’s most recent airing of his show, however, he turned his sights to a new rival: the San Diego Chargers.
Oliver lamented professional sports teams’ use of taxpayer money to build beautiful, multi-billion dollar stadiums despite making millions in revenues from the stadiums for themselves.
“Sports teams are successful businesses with wealthy owners, and yet they still get our help,” he said.
Oliver signaled out the Chargers, St. Louis Rams, and Oakland Raiders as teams who have all threatened to move to Los Angeles if new stadiums aren’t built, something he said was “such a cliche that in the current Madden video game, if you want a new stadium, a good way to do that is to relocate a team, and the game even tells you the easiest choice financially is — guess where — Los Angeles.”
Taking on the Chargers more specifically, Oliver poked fun at San Diego rapper C-SICCNESS’s viral video “Save Our Bolts,” in which the group celebrates San Diego as the “second-largest city” (likely meaning in California): “San Diego, you’re the second largest city in California. That’s not nothing! That’s not nothing! That’s a solid number two.”
For his part, C-SICCNESS responded to Oliver’s jabs positively, telling NBC San Diego “there’s no negative publicity.”
Oliver took on the Chargers at a rather opportune time, as the San Diego City Council is slated to vote on Tuesday about whether to allow an initial $2.1 million in funding to go forward for an Environmental Impact Study of the proposed Chargers stadium.
And though Oliver won’t be voting, he’s certainly made his views apparent: “We have to come to our sense and stop signing these deals,” he said.
