John Oliver’s ‘Donald Drumpf’ Episode Destroys Ratings Record
John Oliver’s “Donald Drumpf” episode broke viewing records for his HBO show last month, CNN Money reported.
Oliver’s show Last Week Tonight did a segment on the rising popularity of Donald Trump, and it was the most popular thing the show has ever done, according to The Hill. The episode received 23.3 million views on YouTube and 62 million views on Facebook. Furthermore, the network told CNN Money that the episode received around 6 million views between video-on-demand and DVR plays.
Previously, John Oliver’s most popular segment on his show’s YouTube channel had received 12.5 million views. That episode focused on a scandal within FIFA, the international soccer organization.
The episode starts with John Oliver explaining that Trump can be “objectively funny,” like when he made fun of Marco Rubio drinking bottled water frantically.
“There’s a part of me that even likes this guy,” he says. “It’s a part of me I hate, but it is a part of me.”
However, as Oliver goes on, he explains how dangerous he believes Trump could become. John Oliver explains that Trump doesn’t “tell it like it is,” as many argue, because PolitiFact has found his statements are mostly false. He also points out times when Trump has claimed he didn’t do things that he actually did do.
One of the lies Oliver focuses on is when Trump said he was invited and didn’t want to appear on Last Week Tonight, though Oliver claims Trump was never invited.
Oliver says Trump has thin skin because he’s constantly attacking anyone who says anything negative about him.
The main focus of John Oliver’s segment on Trump is when he starts to talk about how people trust Trump because they view him as a successful businessman who has a name everyone recognizes as being tied to the idea of success. This is propagated by the many luxury buildings with the Trump name on them.
To combat the idea of Trump’s name being associated with success and luxury, Oliver’s team did some research and found out Trump’s family had changed their name from “Drumpf” many years ago. Oliver argues that if he can get people to start calling him “Donald Drumpf,” then they won’t think about success in business when they say his name.
To get people to change what they call Donald Trump, Oliver announced he was starting a hashtag he wanted people to use called “#MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain.” The hashtag is playing off of Trump’s campaign slogan, which is “Make America Great Again.”
Oliver also had hats printed that he sold on the HBO website that feature the “Make Donald Drumpf Again” phrase, and they look almost exactly like the hats the Trump campaign is selling that have the real slogan on them.
The “Make Donald Drumpf Again” hats were so popular that they sold out of them quickly, and Jay-Z actually called HBO asking for a free hat. Oliver joked in a later episode that if Jay-Z or Beyoncé wear one of those hats, he will have to stop doing the show so he can spend time making more of those popular hats.
John Oliver had tried to avoid talking about the election, and specifically Donald Trump, on his show because he didn’t want to get caught up in all of the coverage that already existed. However, once Oliver saw how popular Trump was becoming, he apparently couldn’t stand by and watch any longer. John Oliver has also done a segment on Trump’s plan to build a wall with Mexico.
[Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images]
