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Jaylandis Sistrunk

Anna Payne

English 1101-03

March 12, 2020

Shameful

“Public shaming or as we call it in England, parenting”. This one of the many antics the

well-known comedian John Oliver has given on his show Last Week Tonight. This particular

show has its theme set around public shaming in which John goes into detail with his thoughts as

well as the audiences to try an introduce a sort of common ground between the pros and cons of

public shaming. While public shaming is said to be an impulse for bad behavior, people should

comprehend the disparities of the situation because it is different for all people, it can prevent

social interaction, and it’s not always disregarded.

Going back to the very start of the show John cracks a joke going “Public Shaming or as

we call it in England, parenting.” (0:00-0:44) Yes, it was a joke but I do think it might have some

insight on lifestyle in other countries. He doesn’t go into much detail on that due to it being only

a joke but elaborates on why this is the “Golden Age of Internet Shaming”. John Oliver states

that this day in age is basically time for public shaming. With all the technology being

developed, it wouldn’t be hard for someone across the globe to be or hear of public shaming.

Nowadays, its just like the news when we witness public shaming if can still call it that. There is
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so much of it going on that we can barely recognize praising someone for their accomplishments

or demean them for boasting or taking the fame from someone else’s work.

As the show continues with seriousness and back to laughter, John throws up the question

“Is all Public Shaming bad?” John Oliver goes into detail on why he thinks Public Shaming can

also bring good out of it. If evidence proves to be well, it can increase the countability of

someone doing something bad. This is a two-sided conversation though; If someone is caught in

a lie (someone with a high reputation on money) and word gets out to the media, their lives can

be ruined. Let’s say scenario is a wealthy business man who is interviewing potential employees.

He chooses the male and his reason is that his afraid to the sexual harassed label or assault

charge because the lady was quite pretty. Not saying he would do anything of that nature but

saying that out loud in “public” kind of set him up for being shamed.

The other side of the conversation is that sometimes its normal people who have never

been in the spotlight or done anything worthy of internet fame to get publicly shamed. Towards

the middle of the show, John brings up the trending “Aunt from Hell” on the news. As reported,

the aunt went to visit her nephew only to be hugged a little to hard and injure her wrist. The

media can twist and switch the words and actions of people to get viewer hungry for more. John

Oliver pointed this out when discussing about it. The auntie never really sued the kid but the

media made it sound as if she did. The auntie also went to the news and was stared on The

Todays Show to explain it all. If you look at the show, you can see as the header “Worst Aunt

Ever” speaks out. This doesn’t help her claim because she is still being labeled as the worst aunt.

As said before, this particular show has its theme set around public shaming and goes into

detail to try an introduce a sort of common ground between the pros and cons of public shaming.
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Though public shaming can be an impulse for bad judgment, people should comprehend the

disparities of the situation because it is different for all people, it can prevent social relations, and

jeopardize a person’s reputation for by people and media it’s not always disregarded.
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Work Cited

Public Shaming: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), LastWeekTonight,

March17,2019, https://youtu.be/Yq7Eh6JTKIg, (26:44)