John Oliver is auctioning off a bidet signed by Gwar vocalist Blöthar the Berserker, actual identify Michael Bishop, to boost funds for public broadcasting.
Footage from an interview Heavy Consequence just lately undertook with the costume-clad steel band was highlighted on Sunday evening’s (November 16) episode of HBO’s Final Week Tonight With John Oliver, throughout which the host took a take a look at cuts Donald Trump’s administration has made to public media.
Within the clip, Blöthar talks in regards to the significance of public broadcasting, highlighting Sesame Avenue and Fred Rogers as American nationwide treasures.
Oliver joked, “It’s each stunning and complicated to observe [Blöthar] utter the phrases ‘Mr. Rogers’, because it’s onerous to think about them in the identical universe. Though, I’ll say, I might like to have seen Gwar on Mr. Rogers.
He then launched into an affectionate parody of the late TV character, saying: “Blöthar, you might be particular simply the best way you might be. Your diseased undercarriage composed of abscessed-riddled penises makes you YOU!’”
Because the episode got here to an finish, Oliver launched an public sale to learn public broadcasting on the web site JohnOliversJunk.com. One of many gadgets is a bidet signed by Blöthar, with the outline as follows: “Bidet signed by The Berserker Blöthar from American heavy steel band GWAR. As mentioned on Final Week Tonight’s season 12 finale, Blöthar is a giant fan of public broadcasting greats corresponding to Mr. Rogers and Sesame Avenue.
“Regardless of the best way he seems. Bidet is a Kohler PureWash M300 mannequin with a chrome deal with, a quiet-close lid to stop slamming, quick-release hinges for straightforward set up, and a self-cleaning wand. Why a bidet, you ask? Properly, respectfully, we expect Blöthar may use one.”
Among the many different gadgets concerned within the public sale, which closes in six days, are a bucket of dolls, a visit to New York to satisfy Oliver himself, presidential wax figures, a variety of props from his present, and a Bob Ross portray, ‘Cabin At Sundown’.
Proceeds will go to Public Media Bridge Fund, which helps unbiased shops with a deal with rural and underserved areas.
In July, Blöthar hit out on the proposed cuts to public media, which adopted Trump signing an government order that will finish the federal funding for organisations together with NPR and PBS two months earlier than.
Blothar with a vital message about public media. Public media is in peril. Go to https://t.co/jYxXw24S35 to be taught how one can urge Congress to avoid wasting public media. Name your senators. Make a distinction. pic.twitter.com/uItxiEiubc
— GWAR (@gwar) July 14, 2025
“You recognize a few years in the past my private buddy, the nice Fred Rogers, he testified in Congress in regards to the worth of public media, about how necessary it was in youngsters’s lives,” he mentioned on X (Twitter). “He famously secured funding for Nationwide Public Radio as a result of he was capable of exhibit that it makes a distinction and that’s necessary. Mr. Rogers introduced love and lightweight into the world, right into a darkish and hateful world.
“Properly, now that’s on the chopping block proper now,” he added. “The Senate will vote on a Home-passed Rescissions Act this week that can get rid of $1.1billion in already accredited funding for public media. This may strip important providers. It may pressure rural stations to go off the air completely. They received’t have the ability to pay licensing charges the identical approach they did for music. This might very effectively silence the music.
Gwar, who’re at present on tour in North America – discover remaining tickets right here – got here beneath hearth from Trump supporters in September following their Riot Fest set. Throughout their set on the Chicago competition, they continued their long-standing custom of finishing up a mock execution on stage.
Earlier presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Invoice Clinton and Ronald Reagan have all been the topic of the fake assassinations earlier than, as have the likes of Michael Jackson and Mike Tyson.
When Trump and Elon Musk had been the targets in Chicago, it proved controversial. One individual wrote, “That’s not edgy, it’s grotesque and reckless and normalises violence towards an actual individual. This isn’t okay. Riot Fest and Gwar crossed a serious line,” whereas one other merely mentioned, “The left is actually sick.”
The band responded, saying in a press release to Billboard that the concept they’re normalising violence is “absurd”.
“We’re not millionaires which are afraid of what persons are going to say after they see what we do… We’re a bunch of artists that makes artwork, and it’s actually the concept what we have now executed is normalising violence… There’s nothing regular in regards to the violence that goes on at a Gwar present,” he added.
“It’s a cartoon, it’s Looney Tunes… It’s attempting to make violence right into a spectacle and present humanity’s absolute absurdity. That’s what Gwar is, it’s absurdism. To say it’s normalising violence is basically reaching.”
