John Oliver earned a wave of audible “oohs” from his audience on Sunday night, after making an unexpected joke about the death of Princess Diana. And it came unexpectedly early too.
To kick off the newest episode of “Last Week Night,” the HBO host did as he always does, and spent a little time on smaller stories, including midterm campaign ads and former Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin’ Minecraft city. But Oliver’s main story was about the Secret Service, which he teed up by noting how many movies the agency has been the subject of.
Oliver was particularly startled by the trailer for “Olympus Has Fallen,” which shows the president and his wife getting into a car accident on a bridge, only for the first lady to get stuck in her seat and fall into icy water below.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Oliver joked. “That scene really follows a key rule of screenwriting. If you want to make a man sympathetic, but you don’t know how, just kill his wife in a tragic accident.”
“Incidentally, I believe that’s the same strategy the British royal family had in 1997,” he quipped again, as a photo of Princess Diana flashed onscreen.
The audience immediately responded to the joke, and audibly at that. One woman could be heard unleashing a startled cackle, while most everyone else let out a long “ooohhhhh.” For his part, Oliver didn’t linger on the joke, he just moved right along.
You can watch the moment, and John Oliver’s full story on the Secret Service in the video above.
