HBO’s John Oliver had two distinctly outrageous hot takes on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight. First, Oliver called ICE operations that seek to enforce immigration laws “state-sanctioned kidnapping,” and later, during his deep dive into presidential libraries, claimed that former President Ronald Reagan is in hell.
During the immigration portion of the show, Oliver praised people who are protesting ICE, “Perfect! Well done to everybody involved. And I absolutely love that that woman said, 'I came to bother ICE,' because that seems reasonable to me. If ICE can show up and bother some guys at their roofing job, then bystanders should be able to bother ICE at their state-sanctioned kidnapping job. It is only fair. And look, this administration is clearly still hell-bent on trying to intimidate communities with shows of force, which is why it's so important for them to be met with strong pushback each and every time because this administration is obsessed with appearances.”
Later, Oliver began his discussion on presidential libraries by playing a clip of a video that is shown at the Reagan Library that highlights Reagan’s love of horses. Oliver reacted by taking a Reagan quote and trying to make it weird, “And, look, my position on horses is clear, I think, but Reagan's quote, 'There's nothing as good as the inside of a man is the outside of a horse,' might be the dirtiest thing I've ever heard. He should've been put on a watch list. He should've been banned from petting zoos and merry-go-rounds.”
He then added, “I sincerely hope they don't have horses in hell, because they are not safe.”
Oliver’s animosity towards Reagan is nothing new. Back in March, Oliver claimed the best thing about Reagan was that “he’s dead” and that “if you brought Reagan back from the dead and told him all the racist shit Trump's managed to do in less than two months, he'd cum so hard he'd die again.” Also, back in June, Oliver tried blaming Reagan for the woeful state of air traffic control. Finally, Oliver isn’t the only liberal comedian to declare Reagan is in hell: outgoing CBS host of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert, is also fond of such “jokes.”
Here is a transcript for the October 5 show:
HBO Last Week Tonight
10/5/2025
11:18 PM ET
JOHN OLIVER: Perfect! Well done to everybody involved. And I absolutely love that that woman said, "I came to bother ICE," because that seems reasonable to me. If ICE can show up and bother some guys at their roofing job, then bystanders should be able to bother ICE at their state-sanctioned kidnapping job. It is only fair. And look, this administration is clearly still hell-bent on trying to intimidate communities with shows of force, which is why it's so important for them to be met with strong pushback each and every time because this administration is obsessed with appearances.
…
And, look, my position on horses is clear, I think, but Reagan's quote, "There's nothing as good as the inside of a man is the outside of a horse," might be the dirtiest thing I've ever heard. He should've been put on a watch list. He should've been banned from petting zoos and merry-go-rounds. I sincerely hope they don't have horses in hell, because they are not safe.
