--- description: In what's now a weekly occurrence, the Last Night Tonight host had a look at a the week's top story with ample measures of outrage and humor title: Watch John Oliver Denounce Ferguson Police in a Remarkable Segment image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch John Oliver Deliver a Flawless Takedown of the Turmoil in Ferguson by [Eric Dodds](/author/eric-dodds/) ## Eric Dodds Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 18, 2014 2:47 PM CUT by [Eric Dodds](/author/eric-dodds/) ## Eric Dodds Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 18, 2014 2:47 PM CUT In what’s become a weekly occurrence, John Oliver provided a look at a the week’s top story with ample — and appropriate — measures of outrage and humor. The target of last night’s _Last Week Tonigh_t episode was the ongoing situation in Ferguson, Missouri in the wake of the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9. A few of Oliver’s best barbs: * “If the police wanted to distract everyone with a video that had absolutely nothing to do with Michael Brown’s shooting, they should have just released _Ghostbusters_ instead. It’s exactly as relevant to everything that happened afterwards.” * “Here’s the thing the \[Ferguson\] mayor doesn’t understand: As a general rule, no one should ever be allowed to say, ‘There’s no history of racial tension here,’ because that sentence has never been true anywhere on earth.” * “If you are white in Ferguson, you’d need to be snorting cocaine directly off your dashboard to get stopped by the police.” * “If you are getting high in your dorm room right now, you are not paranoid. There is a SWAT team outside and they are coming to get you.” Make sure you watch all the way to the end, when Oliver delivers an ultimatum of his own to match the one issued by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon on Saturday. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3136259/john-oliver-segment-ferguson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3136259/john-oliver-segment-ferguson/"},"headline":"Watch John Oliver Deliver a Flawless Takedown of the Turmoil in Ferguson","datePublished":"2014-08-18T14:47:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:43:14.470Z","description":"The Last Week Tonight host probably would have had even more to say after the events of last night","url":"https://time.com/3136259/john-oliver-segment-ferguson/","keywords":["Television","John Oliver","Last Week Tonight","Ferguson topic","Michael Brown"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eric Dodds","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eric-dodds/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3136259/john-oliver-segment-ferguson/","name":"Watch John Oliver Deliver a Flawless Takedown of the Turmoil in Ferguson"}}]}] ```