John Oliver’s comments about ‘nicest thing the Queen ever did’ removed from TV

The broadcaster Sky has come under fire after it apparently cut comments television host John Oliver made about the Queen in the wake of her death.

The comedian commented on the passing of the Queen in his latest episode of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, which aired in the United States on Sunday (11 September), three days after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

Oliver made a number of comments about current events in the UK during the episode, including Liz Truss' move to prime minister and some of the more unexpected reactions to the Queen's death, but some of the same comments were noticeably absent from the version of the episode which aired in the UK on Sky Comedy on Monday, and which is streaming on Now TV.

In the original version of the broadcast aired on HBO, Oliver opened with a joke about the President of Chile before quickly turning his attention to the UK, saying: "We need to start with the UK, which is clearly still reeling from the shocking death of a 96-year-old woman from natural causes."

Oliver joked about how 'absolutely everyone felt that they had to weigh in' on the Queen's passing, citing tributes from the official Crazy Frog Twitter account and Dominos UK, which posted: "Everyone at Domino’s joins the nation and the world in mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Our thoughts and condolences are with the Royal Family."

Commenting on Dominos' tribute, Oliver said: "Which I guess is nice, although if the world is mourning they should maybe tell the US Domino’s account, whose most recent tweet as of this taping is ‘if ur reading this it means u need pizza like to confirm. Get your f*cking house in order Domino’s!" Oliver joked. "A LADY IS DEAD.”

The comedian also described Truss becoming prime minister as another 'traumatic event' faced by the UK last week, describing the new PM as 'Margaret Thatcher if she were high on glue' before adding: "I'm just going to say this, and you might not like it, but it doesn't make it any less true. The nicest thing the Queen of England ever did for anyone was die the week that woman became Prime Minister. Because for at least a week, she’s not going to get justifiably destroyed for answers like that."

Oliver's comment seemingly referred to Truss’s comments about refusing to introduce a windfall tax on energy companies as prices increase.

Don't censor my @LastWeekTonight. I am British, I am a monarchist and I CAN TAKE A JOKE!!! @SkyUK If @iamjohnoliver wants to have an intelligent, jovial, factual opinion about our queen I wanna hear it. FFS! The coverage and forced mourning here is getting real out of hand. 🤐😤

— Lindsay Sargeant (@SargeantLc) September 13, 2022

Oliver also acknowledged the new King in his monologue, saying: "Look, things are pretty f*cking bleak in the UK right now. This f*cking guy is about to be on all the money."

It wasn't until the episode began to air on Sky that viewers realised Oliver's comments about the Queen had been cut, with the new version jumping from the joke about the Chilean President to Oliver talking about Truss, omitting his comment about 'the nicest thing' the Queen ever did.

Dear @SkyUK , there was a VERY obvious edit in tonight’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - what gives? Presuming it was queen-related?

— James/Jim/whatever (@jimmybearlondon) September 12, 2022

Viewers have criticised Sky for the apparent edit, with one person tweeting: "Don’t censor my @LastWeekTonight,” while another wrote: "I am British, I am a monarchist and I CAN TAKE A JOKE!!! @SkyUK If @iamjohnoliver wants to have an intelligent, jovial, factual opinion about our Queen I wanna hear it. FFS! The coverage and forced mourning here is getting real out of hand."

LADbible has reached out to Sky for comment.