If you missed the Washington Redskins’ defense for keeping their trademark, then John Oliver has you covered.
Just to catch you up, the team’s trademark was canceled in July in federal court on the grounds that it was disparaging to Native Americans. Washington then filed a hilariously vulgar defense of the name on Oct. 30.
Their defense was one of Oliver’s targets on his latest episode of his HBO show, “Last Week Tonight,” and as you can imagine, you shouldn’t watch this video at work.
In the segment, Oliver points out that the Redskins essentially are admitting their team name is no worse than any of the other names they deemed offensive and listed in their defense. He also called them out for saying that anything could be seen as offensive.
“But maybe the most obnoxious part of the Redskins’ entire 82-page appeal is when they argued, ‘Just about everything is potentially disparaging to someone,’ ” Oliver said. “Because, a) No it isn’t, and b) That’s not the (expletive) point. The word Redskins isn’t potentially disparaging to someone. It is currently disparaging to specific individuals.”
Oliver finished the segment with a dig at Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who has maintained the name is meant to honor Native Americans.
“Intending to honor something is a lot different from actually honoring it,” Oliver says. “Although, since you seem to feel differently, let me suggest that everyone now honor Dan Snyder by renaming their fantasy football teams, ‘Dan Snyder is a thin-skinned racist whose sunglasses look like something a tacky pedophile might settle for.’ Dan, don’t get upset. Everything is ‘potentially disparaging’ to somebody.”
