John Oliver asked the internet to get horny for Liberty Biberty. The internet, predictably, understood the assignment.
In the hours and days after the Last Week Tonight host called on viewers to flood social media with sexualized images of Liberty Mutual’s fuzzy new mascot, a growing number of “Liberty Biberty” thirst-trap pics have popped up online—most of them apparently AI-generated.
And people aren’t just making Biberty sexy. Several of the images riff directly on Oliver’s original segment, pairing the puppet with Big Bird or Buck, the green Kiwibank sheep.
Oliver launched his anti-Biberty crusade Sunday night, declaring that while Last Week Tonight is “firmly on the record as being pro-puppet,” Liberty Mutual’s latest creation was an exception.
“That right there is a fuzzy testicle with teeth,” he said. “It looks like Big Bird’s sleep paralysis demon.”
Hence Big Bird’s recurring presence in some of the resulting artwork.
Buck’s appearances are even more on-theme. Oliver’s entire plan was inspired by what happened to Kiwibank’s mascot after social media users began sexualizing the sheep. When the New Zealand bank responded with copyright takedowns, the posts only multiplied, and Buck subsequently disappeared from Kiwibank’s social feeds.
Oliver saw a possible blueprint.
“As Kiwibank has taught us, love can do what hate can’t,” he said. “What I’m saying is, it may be time to thirst openly and enthusiastically after this atrocity.”
Last Week Tonight got things started with several suggestive Biberty illustrations of its own, drawn by one of the show’s staffers.
“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 then warned viewers they “might want to mute the word ‘Biberty’” on social media for the next week because “things are about to get a little spicy.”
So far, the internet appears determined not to disappoint him.
Among the resulting images: Biberty working out, Biberty cozying up to Buck, and plenty of solo glamour shots that suggest some people may already be operating well above Oliver’s requested four out of ten.
View a slideshow of some of the web’s best contributions below (click the arrows below to advance—or if you’re on your phone, swipe right):
