Last night, John Oliver took at look at the Egyptian coup and the verbal gymnastics we have to now play to avoid calling it a coup.
We begin tonight in Egypt, best known for its spectacular supporting role in Brendan Fraser's The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. How did Egypt not get nominated for that movie? Now, if you'll recall, in 2011, Egypt had a bonafide peaceful and popular revolution, ending the rule of longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak, and ushering in Egypt's first free election in 5,000 years — when, of course, Bird beat Eye with Lines Under It by a comfortable 8 points.
Bird ran a good race.
Then in 2012, Mohamed Morsi was elected president. And at last, Egyptians could enjoy the sweet fruits of democracy. Just one problem there. Egypt does have a rather warm climate, and you know what can happen to fruit.
JEFF GLOR, CBS (7/3/2013): Just hours ago, the country's experiment with democracy appeared to go up in flames. The military removed Mohamed Morsi, suspended the constitution, and installed the country's top judge as interim president.
That's right, interim president, or as it's increasingly being known, the only kind of president Egypt has. Well, so we've got an old-fashioned military coup on our hands. The army subverting the democratic will of the people. The Egyptian people must be devastated.
CLARISSA WARD, CBS (7/1/2013): Army helicopters flying Egyptian flags circled overhead, prompting roars of approval from the hundreds of thousands of protestors in Tahrir Square.
ALEX MARQUARDT, ABC (7/4/2013): A heart drawn in the sky, a message from Egypt's military to their supporters on the square below.
Oh, Egyptian air force, are you trying to seduce the entire population of Cairo? 'Cause first they did a sky-written Valentine, then some sky-written flowers,
and then some sky-written hookup plans for later.
But Morsi was barely in power for a — (to giggling audience) grow up, grow up — Morsi was in power barely for a year. What could he possibly have done to make everyone so glad to see him go?
BROOKE GOLDSTEIN (7/4/2013): Morsi was going around putting political opponents in jail, harassing them, physically intimidating them.
REZA SAYAH, CNN (7/3/2013): Imposing his will and sidelining liberal and moderate voices.
FOX NEWS (7/1/2013): The Muslim Brotherhood have curbed religious freedom.
MONA ELTAHAWY (7/2/2013): The economy's on the brink of collapse, unemployment is terrible, torture is more now under Morsi than it was under Mubarak.
Wow, that is an impressive amount of stuff in just 12 months. He really lived up to his campaign slogan: Morsi 2012: Same Tyranny, Now with Beards.
So with Morsi gone, everyone's happy. Except, here's the thing, they are not. Because you might remember from a little earlier, Morsi was democratically elected, which means a lot of the 13 million people who voted for him are pretty pissed off. Now they're pissed off first at the army, and secondly, they're mad with... guess who!
7/12/2013:
HOLLY WILLIAMS, CBS: Protestors like Alaa Reqaby say the U.S. talks about safeguarding democracy, but did nothing to protect Egypt's democratically elected president.
ALAA REQABY: Mr. Morsi will be back, will be back. Ah? Yes we can. I want to say it to Obama. Yes we can.
Hey, hey, hey! That is our uplifting slogan to be ironically appropriated and then sarcastically thrown back into our president's face! Get your own!
But OK, the Muslim Brotherhood is angry with America. Ooh, spoiler alert! That's fine. 'Cause at least this way, we have Morsi's opponents on our side.
HOLLY WILLIAMS, CBS (7/12/2013): They have their own complaints with the U.S. As this poster makes clear, they believe America was too close to Mohamed Morsi and his conservative Islamic party.
Holy shit! So even nations full of actual Muslims think Obama is a secret Muslim!
Video below the fold.
John then
mocked CNN's Rock Block.
Meanwhile, Stephen talked about Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) call for the U.S. to boycott the Olympics over Edward Snowden.
Stephen then looked at San Diego mayor Bob Filner's (D)
sexual harassment scandal, and contrasted it with New York City's ex-politicians trying to return to office, speaking with
Eliot Spitzer about his return to politics.
He then looked at the recent
New York Times piece about
college girls enjoying sex.
Stephen talked with actor
Jeff Bridges, and John talked with author
Sarah Vowell, which went long. Here's the unedited interview in two parts.
Part 1
Part 2