Comparison:
[concerning a public opinion poll wherein respondents were substantially off the mark concerning the amount of total foreign aid provided by America:]
. . . never has a poll shown such distance from reality as the one where one in eight men genuinely thought that they could score a point on Serena Williams in tennis.
John Oliver frequently uses analogies in his quest to inform his Last Week Tonight audience members. Here he riffs on a poll of men who were wildly off the mark (not to mention their swing) so as to contextualize another poll concerning profound misunderstanding of national and international financial decisions concerning aid for struggling countries around the world. Such analogies all allow Oliver to swoop in on a shot to create quick awareness.
Context:
[John Oliver offering insight to his Last Week Tonight audience concerning American citizens who mistakenly believe that the USA may give away up to a quarter of its budget toward providing foreign aid to needy countries around the world.]
I know in some ways USAID is an easy target with some populist appeal; many Americans think we spend too much on foreign aid. Opinion polls have repeatedly shown that the public estimates that a quarter of the federal budget goes to foreign assistance and they [would] prefer it to be just 10%, although all that really shows is that Americans have no idea how much we spend on foreign aid given that the actual share is less than 1% of the federal budget and never has a poll shown such distance from reality as the one where one in eight men genuinely thought that they could score a point on Serena Williams in tennis and let me just say this as a man of above average height and some knowledge of sports, if I played tennis against Serena Williams I would die.
Citation:
Oliver, John. "Trump 2.0." Last Week Tonight, YouTube, 17 Feb. 2024. Web.
(Image design by Lee Aigue; base image courtesy of Bing Feb. 2025.)
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