Mark Boughton, the Republican mayor of Danbury, Connecticut, was very annoyed by the “impartial” from his point of view, the statements of the popular comedian John Oliver about the city he controlled. And the mayor decided to take revenge on Oliver in a very unusual way: to name the local sewage treatment plant after him.
“We decided to call this the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant,” the mayor said. – Why, you ask? And because it, like John, is full of shit. “
The mayor’s discontent was sparked by a recent episode on HBO’s Last Week Evening Review with John Oliver, in which Oliver discussed racial inequality in jury selection in several Connecticut cities. Mentioning Danbury’s “enchanting railway museum” and “historic Hearthstone castle,” Oliver added: “I know three things about Danbury: In 2015, USA Today ranked it as the second best city to live in the country; it was once the center of America’s hat industry; and if you are from there, then you (including children) are invited to return there to get a thrashing from John Oliver – “fuck you!” “.
It is not entirely clear why Oliver ran over Danbury. In 2017, he ridiculed Bouton and the mayors of several other American cities competing to bring the giant online merchant Amazon’s second headquarters to their municipalities. In a video clip, Bouton asks Amazon’s virtual service Alexa, “What’s the best place for a new headquarters?” And Alexa confidently replies, “Danbury.” The “revelation” of the service turned out to be prophetic. Amazon has indeed chosen Danbury as its headquarters.