HBO comedian John Oliver lined up footage of a West Virginia public meeting at which conservatives read from books they argued should be banned — and ridiculed them for the explicit content that came out of their mouths.
"Look, I admit, I don't remember that scene from The Giving Tree," he said as the reel of clearly uncomfortable citizens read sections out of books they claimed shouldn't be in school libraries. "But, I admit, it's been a while."
"I just want to mention, I have never said the F word ever in my life before just now," said one woman, after Oliver broadcasted her reading an extremely sexual segment of a book on his Sunday night show, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.
The comedian had been highlighting a proposed West Virginia bill that would impose severe penalties on people found guilty of exposing children to "obscene literature in schools and libraries."
"While that hearing was clearly ridiculous, the law itself is serious," he said. "Violating it can carry a felony charge with a penalty of $25,000 and a sentence of up to five years. Many have called it a book ban, although the bill's backers have pushed back on that, with one of the speakers who supported it saying 'we are not banning or burning, we are protecting.'"
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He added, referencing the comments he and his viewers had just listened to, "I tell you what you are definitely not protecting is my ears."
Oliver said, "The debate has featured some spectacular testimony from concerned citizens reading out material that they objected to."
The show then broadcast a montage of public meeting testimony featuring nine conservatives reading extremely explicit, sexual and, at times, obscene sections of books — all with background music of Chopin's Nocturne in E Flat Major.
