US: John Oliver pledges to donate $55,000 if mayor renames sewage plant after him

In a recent funny back and forth between the HBO show host John Oliver and Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, Oliver pledged to donate $55,000 to Danbury, Connecticut charities if the mayor named the city’s sewage plant after him. The host of the comedy night show Last Week Tonight, joked on August 30 Sunday’s episode that he will give $25,000 to the Connecticut Food Bank, $25,000 to a Donors Choose fund, and $5,000 to ALS Connecticut if the mayor dedicated a sewage plant to him. In a televised show, Oliver insisted, “I want this. I need this.” He also offered to pay the mayor for the signboard bearing his name as an official owner on the plant. 

Responding to Oliver’s joke, Boughton said in a Facebook Live video, “John Oliver, I am coming for you.” He was further heard saying in the live-streamed video, “I am coming hard, so hard you’ll never know what happened, and I’m going to take you out with our video on Thursday. And I will issue a challenge to you and you’ll have to meet that challenge or it’s on like Donkey Kong.” Oliver had initially given the mayor a week to respond on his live show that aired on Sunday, August 30. He had further asserted that if the mayor did not heed his pleadings, he was going to have to put his offer towards city’s rivals, citing opposition leaders, Waterbury, Milford, and Torrington.

Republican mayor immediately agreed on Facebook video, saying, “We are going to rename it the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant, Why? Because it's full of crap just like you, John.”

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Feedbacks "changed" his mind

Oliver started the rant against the Connecticut city on recent episodes of HBO’s late-night ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver'. His first critical verbal assessment flew in on the 16 August show, wherein Oliver talked about the racial disparities in the judiciary and discussed other issues pertaining to the Hartford and New Britain, other Connecticut municipalities. Oliver even sarcastically said at an episode that aired in American households that Danbury, nevertheless, had a “charming railway museum” and its “historic Hearthstone Castle.” While he had said that Danbury was an “incredible place to reside” citing USAToday’s ranking in 2015, he said that people’s comments and feedbacks had changed his mind. He even suggested at one of the shows that the Danbury mayor must consider changing the name Hat City to the “Young People Who Seem More Than Capable of Taking Over My Job City”. 

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(Image Credit: AP)