A U.K. broadcaster has been criticized by “Last Week Tonight” viewers after it cut jokes about Queen Elizabeth’s death from John Oliver’s latest monologue.
On Sunday night’s broadcast stateside, the comedian cracked wise about the enormous reaction to the death of the British monarch and ridiculed brands like Domino’s pizza for flocking to social media to pay tribute to her.
“Obviously, we need to start with the U.K., which is clearly still reeling from the shocking death of a 96-year-old woman from natural causes,” Oliver said after a segment about the president of Chile. “It is a big moment, which, for some reason, absolutely everyone felt that they had to weigh in on.”
“The queen’s death is sadly not the only traumatic event that Britain has had to deal with this week,” he added after his bit about the brands. “Because on Tuesday, Liz Truss, basically Margaret Thatcher if she were high on glue, became its new prime minister.”
On Sky’s broadcast in Britain, the episode cuts from Oliver’s comments about the Chilean president to his quip about British Prime Minister Liz Truss, according to Variety.
Another particularly savage joke during another segment in which he insisted “the nicest thing the Queen of England ever did for anyone was die the week that woman became prime minister” also didn’t make the cut, according to Rolling Stone.
Viewers took to social media to complain about the edit.
“Don’t censor my @LastWeekTonight. I am British, I am a monarchist and I CAN TAKE A JOKE!!!” one viewer tweeted, tagging Sky, adding that if Oliver wanted to joke about the queen, “I wanna hear it.”
“The coverage and forced mourning here is getting real out of hand,” the Twitter user added.
“Just watched this on Sky and they edited out the least offensive Queen bit imaginable really clumsily,” another wrote.
