John Oliver opted to start Sunday’s episode of “Last Week Tonight” by remembering simpler times in the U.S. — back when Donald Trump wasn’t president, but just another celebrity doing the ice bucket challenge. Of course, the HBO host was also quick to remind everyone that Trump did so because a cartoon character was among the people who nominated him.
Really, Oliver kicked off the show by highlighting various protests against ICE that took place around the country last week and into the weekend, saying he finds “real hope” in them. But he was pretty disturbed by the many accounts that sparked the protests, including one from a man who told local news that he and others were at a store and suddenly heard a friend calling out “ICE, ICE, ICE!”
“That is awful. Someone yelling ‘ice’ is almost never going to be a positive thing. Best case scenario, you’ve somehow time traveled back to 2014 and have to do an ice bucket challenge,” Oliver joked. “Something, by the way, that this guy did, because he was nominated by — and this is true — Mike Tyson, Vince McMahon and Homer Simpson. It was a simpler time.”
At that, an image of Donald Trump popped up, and indeed, that trio is exactly who he named as people who nominated him for the viral challenge back in 2014. He completed it using Trump-branded water while sitting atop Trump Tower in New York.
“I’ve been called out by everybody for the ALS ice bucket challenge!” Trump said at the time. “Homer Simpson, Mike Tyson, Vince McMahon, like, everybody’s going crazy over this thing! I guess they want to see whether or not it’s my real hair.”
Trump then touted the fact that he owned the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageant, so he was able to recruit the current pageant queens to dump the water on him (similarly, he once bragged that he would just walk into the contestants’ dressing rooms because he could, as owner of the pageants). You can watch the old challenge video below.
“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” airs Sundays at 11 p.m. ET on HBO. It is now streaming on HBO Max.
