John Oliver tags in Stephen Colbert to take on confederacy

John Oliver took to Last Week Tonight last night to speak about confederate flags, statues, and symbols, and even brought along a very special guest.

Two of my most favorite talk show hosts on the same program? That… was… awesome!

Last night, John Oliver had one hell of a good episode of Last Week Tonight. With the debate going on involving the Confederacy and its accompanying symbols, it served as the primary focus of the show. Namely, Oliver wanted to address how many Confederate statues and flags are being taken down and how that has caused a backlash in Southern states.

Oliver essentially goes through the history of the Confederacy and their official symbols. For starters, the Confederacy isn’t as cast out as it might seem. Oliver points out that there are still ten U.S. military bases named after confederate soldiers. And still, more than 700 monuments and other tributes remain. History has not been rewritten in the way some people claim.

But Oliver is just beginning. Over 20 minutes, he explains everything that is wrong about this debate. That includes the revelation that only 38% of Americans realize that the Civil War was mostly about slavery. It’s a must watch segment for everyone talking about this matter.

However the best part of all comes in the closing moments of the bit. Oliver starts unveiling a set of four statues, one by one, which could replace the confederate statues we see everywhere. It starts seriously enough with Bessie Coleman and Robert Smalls monuments. But the best monument of all, as Oliver shows, would be the actual Stephen Colbert. To that, Oliver removes a blanket to reveal Colbert himself showing up on the show to join in on the bit!

You can watch the entire segment in the YouTube video below.

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New episodes of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver air Sunday nights at 11 PM EST on HBO.