John Oliver's hilarious takedown of Arizona's abortion ban kept it real. What he said

Despite the best efforts of Republicans to backtrack on the issue, it looks as if the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision to uphold an 1864 law banning most abortions is going to stay in the news and the public consciousness for a while.

Certainly, comedy shows are doing their part. “Saturday Night Live” included a short “Weekend Update” story on the decision on its most recent show (now known for the “Beavis and Butt-Head” sketch that broke Heidi Gardner).

But “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” went deeper — and consequently was a lot funnier — devoting its Sunday, April 14 opening story to the decision and its fallout.

Oliver pointed out Kari Lake's hypocrisy. Of course he did

Oliver pointed out the obvious weirdness of a Civil War-era law having any effect on contemporary health issues. “All of that is horrifying,” he said, “including the fact that any kind of medical procedure is being dictated by a law from the 1800s, an era when doctors prescribed — and this is true — chloroform for asthma, cocaine for hay fever and tobacco-smoke enemas for cholera. And by the way, no thank you, I’ll just go ahead and die from the cholera if it’s all the same to you.”

More seriously, he pointed out that it’s “unclear exactly when Arizona’s abortion ban will go into effect. What is clear, though, is that this is not something the majority of Arizona citizens want,” he said, citing polls.

Then he went after Republicans and their hypocritical stance on the decision. He started with — and why not? — Kari Lake, “current senate candidate and possessor of big local real estate agent energy," who criticized the ruling shortly after it was issued.

By now, most people following the issue know that Lake not only called the 1864 law “a great law that is already on the books” when running for governor in 2022 but, as Oliver pointed out, “specifically cited its number.”

He played a clip of Lake doing just that on an appearance on “The Conservative Circus,” the podcast hosted by James T. Harris.

“Look,” Oliver said, “if you’re going to backtrack on an issue, at least double check you haven’t said the exact opposite into a microphone for something called ‘The Conservative Circus,’ which I know sounds like a phrase MSNBC would try to use as a sick burn for Trump’s motorcade or whatever, but it’s actually just some guy’s podcast.”

Oliver's jokes contained a lot of truth

Beyond the jokes, Oliver is right — the hypocrisy should be a part of every story written or broadcast about the issue. It doesn’t have to be a long essay, just a mention. Because it’s important.

Oliver noted that state Sen. Shawnna Bolick voted for a law passed in 2022 that was less restrictive but in effect affirmed the 1864 law, then called for a repeal of the ban after the Arizona Supreme Court decision. Oliver also noted that she is married to Clint Bolick, one of the justices who voted in favor of the ban. (This led to a quick detour to make fun of Bolick for appearing in dreadlocks singing some sort of version of reggae.)

Oliver also used a clip of state Sen. T.J. Shope saying that when he and others voted for the law they didn’t know “that any of us really actually believed that Roe v. Wade … was going to be overturned. So it was definitely more of a theoretical, I guess, than an actual.”

Oliver shot this argument down with a barnyard epithet. “But I do get that he’s in a quandary there. Imagine having a problem that started out as theoretical and suddenly became actual, even if you didn’t really want it to. That could completely (expiative) up your whole life, couldn’t it? If only there was some obvious parallel that we could use to illustrate how frustrating that would be.”

'Republicans own this'

It was all funny because Oliver almost always is. His show is basically what “The Daily Show” was in its glory years, during Jon Stewart’s first stint as host. Because beneath the comedy is truth, and Oliver pointed that out, as well.

“That is the thing,” he said, “Republicans own this. They got what they wanted — overturned Roe v. Wade, and now they have to deal with the consequences of that.”

And they’re going to have to for a while.

'Arizona going back to Civil War era': National media pounces on abortion ban

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. X: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: John Oliver's 'Last Week Tonight' skewers Arizona's abortion ban