John Oliver welcomed his new “business daddy” Sunday night in perhaps the most Last Week Tonight way possible: by ending his show with a series of increasingly sexualized drawings of Liberty Mutual’s new mascot.
Oliver devoted the show’s closing segment to “Liberty Biberty,” the fuzzy puppet currently appearing in a barrage of Liberty Mutual commercials—and made it clear he would very much like it to go away.
“That right there is a fuzzy testicle with teeth,” Oliver said of the creature. “It looks like Big Bird’s sleep paralysis demon.”
And he’s apparently not alone. Oliver played a montage of social media users pleading with Liberty Mutual to retire the mascot, including one who declared, “Neither of us can live while the other survives.”
But Oliver thinks all that hatred may be counterproductive. If outrage only gives brands more attention, he reasoned, getting rid of Biberty might require a different approach.
He found his blueprint in New Zealand’s Kiwibank, whose green sheep mascot Buck became the subject of sexualized social media posts over the summer. After the bank issued copyright takedowns, the jokes only multiplied—and Kiwibank stopped posting Buck to its social feeds.
“As Kiwibank has taught us, love can do what hate can’t,” he explained. “What I’m saying is, it may be time to thirst openly and enthusiastically after this atrocity.”
Oliver then displayed a series of suggestive illustrations of Liberty Biberty, drawn by someone on the show’s staff.
“We asked him for a four out of ten, and this is what he gave us,” Oliver said. “Liberty Mutual: Don’t make me ask him to go higher. You don’t want to know what a six looks like.”
He urged viewers to join the effort, warning others “might want to mute the word ‘Biberty’” on social media for the next week.
Then came his message for another corporation—and his first public remarks since Paramount Skydance completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO’s parent company, last Tuesday.
“I’m thrilled to be part of the Skydance family!” Oliver shouted as the show ended. “Hope you’re happy with what you bought, guys. We’re never gonna change!”
Watch the full segment at the top of this post.
