--- title: John Oliver on Sean Spicer Hitler Comments VIDEO description: John Oliver asys Sean Spicer's Holocaust comments were “$200 question on 'Jeopardy' wrong” on HBO's Last Week Tonight. canonical: https://time.com/4742360/john-oliver-on-sean-spicer-hitler/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-17T15:49:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:53.579Z og:title: John Oliver Laid Into Sean Spicer's Holocaust Comments og:description: “That‘s $200 question on 'Jeopardy' wrong." og:url: https://time.com/4742360/john-oliver-on-sean-spicer-hitler/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Oliver Laid Into Sean Spicer's Holocaust Comments twitter:description: “That‘s $200 question on 'Jeopardy' wrong." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # John Oliver: Sean Spicer's Holocaust Comments Were '$200 Question on 'Jeopardy' Wrong' by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Apr 17, 2017 3:49 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Apr 17, 2017 3:49 PM UTC John Oliver is no fan of President Trump, or as he calls him, “two words that give you a sense of impending doom, like ‘sewage enema’ or ‘United Airlines,’” but on Sunday night’s episode of _Last Week Tonight,_ he saved some of his ire for White House Press Secretary [Sean Spicer](http://time.com/4738171/jimmy-kimmel-sean-spicer-apology-bunny/?iid=sr-link6). It all stemmed from Spicer’s comments [when he said](http://time.com/4734994/sean-spicer-syria-adolph-hitler-chemical-weapons-holocaust/?iid=sr-link1) “someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.” The statement for which Spicer has apologized was false, which is where Oliver came in. “That’s not just wrong, that’s $200 question on _Jeopardy_ wrong,” Oliver said on his show. “Everybody knows mass chemical extermination was kind of Hitler’s thing. That and the mustache. You take them away and all you’ve got is an ill tempered Austrian with resting bitch face.” According to Oliver, when a reporter at the briefing asked [Spicer](http://time.com/4741595/melissa-mccarthy-snl-sean-spicer-easter-bunny/?iid=sr-link2) to clarify his statement, he managed to make it worse. “At no point during that was he in control of his own mouth,” Oliver said. “Most specifically, the moment he suddenly decided to coin the term ‘Holocaust center.’ Which sounds like the home arena for an alt-right hockey team.” Watch below the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4742360/john-oliver-on-sean-spicer-hitler/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4742360/john-oliver-on-sean-spicer-hitler/"},"headline":"John Oliver: Sean Spicer's Holocaust Comments Were '$200 Question on 'Jeopardy' Wrong'","datePublished":"2017-04-17T15:49:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:53.579Z","description":"“Everybody knows mass chemical extermination was kind of Hitler’s thing,“ John Oliver said","url":"https://time.com/4742360/john-oliver-on-sean-spicer-hitler/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","Holocaust","Late Night Television","John Oliver","Last Week Tonight","sean spicer","Late Night Comedy"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","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":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4742360/john-oliver-on-sean-spicer-hitler/","name":"John Oliver: Sean Spicer's Holocaust Comments Were '$200 Question on 'Jeopardy' Wrong'"}}]}] ```