{"id":301449,"date":"2026-06-09T16:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/301449\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T16:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:12:15","slug":"dont-stop-at-new-college-more-florida-ideas-for-john-oliver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/301449\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t stop at New College. More Florida ideas for John Oliver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comedian John Oliver blessed the airwaves with another meaty Florida takedown<\/a>, spending nearly half an hour Sunday dragging the state\u2019s hostile takeover of New College of Florida.<\/p>\n

On HBO\u2019s \u201cLast Week Tonight<\/a>,\u201d Oliver touched on college President Richard Corcoran\u2019s bloated salary<\/a>, that curious dumpster full of books<\/a> and other farcical facets of the Sarasota school\u2019s MAGA makeover. He distilled the debacle into a tragic thesis: \u201cThey have destroyed a rare haven for gentle nerds.\u201d<\/p>\n

From one gentle nerd to another, indeed. Oliver, who has called Gov. Ron DeSantis \u201cbusiness Fred Flintstone<\/a>,\u201d loves to rag on Florida<\/a> with good reason. Though I personally volunteer to come on the show and defend Floridians who have skin thicker than a frozen iguana in the bed of a Chevy Baja, it won\u2019t make a difference: Our state\u2019s comic potential flows like the Gulf of America.<\/p>\n

Florida is a prime target for Oliver\u2019s free-wheeling format, which leaves room for longer, weedier takes. You try blending analysis of merit-based scholarships and genitalia jokes in a 20-second bit. You can\u2019t!<\/p>\n

If the folks at \u201cLast Week Tonight\u201d enjoyed roasting New College, they\u2019re going to adore these irresistibly corrupt stories from Florida.<\/p>\n

Environmental scandals<\/p>\n

Floridians are feral about their love of the state\u2019s natural splendor, so it\u2019s a wonder why DeSantis keeps playing poker with protected lands. Take your pick of astonishing stories<\/a>. How about the smelly $83.3 million purchase of a crappy slice of land in Destin<\/a>? Or the clandestine scheme to build golf courses, hotels and pickleball courts across wild state parks<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Speaking of the latter, a whistleblower claimed<\/a> he learned of the plans via, yes, a Post-It note. Furthermore, he said a supervisor made him hide evidence in a digital folder titled \u201cDirectTV Subscription Info.\u201d This story writes its own jokes, a Pepperidge Farm gift basket stocked full of cheese.<\/p>\n

Hope Florida<\/p>\n

Here we have a scandal even bigger than the one involving, shudder, pickleball. In this melee, the administration diverted millions<\/a> of public dollars from the poor and sick to pay for lawyers, consultants and ads. The financial sleight of hand was designed to defeat amendments that would have opened access to abortion and recreational marijuana, causes DeSantis and friends didn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a thick one. Oliver would need at least 20 minutes to delve into the minutiae<\/a> of this slippery case, from the nonprofit element<\/a> to the Casey DeSantis of it all. But imagine the TV potential of our host connecting red strings on a corkboard in the manner of a true crime sleuth living in an abandoned shed.<\/p>\n

James Uthmeier<\/p>\n

\u201cLast Week Tonight\u201d could sustain a whole show with Florida\u2019s attorney general, Billy Zane to the state\u2019s \u201cTitanic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uthmeier, who is running to keep his appointed position<\/a>, is connected to the Hope Florida scandal. At least one Republican colleague has accused him<\/a> of fraud and money laundering. He\u2019s credited with suggesting<\/a> the idea for failed Everglades detainee camp Alligator Alcatraz<\/a>; he starred in a promotional video for it alongside metal riffs last heard on a free karaoke app.<\/p>\n

He loves to invite himself to proverbial parties, sending threatening letters<\/a> all over the state invoking culture buzzwords. He waded into a routine parental rights case in which everyone was minding their own business, spinning a deeply cynical view of surrogacy as slavery<\/a>. Oh, and he\u2019s being paid $100,000 for a side job<\/a> teaching at the University of Florida for two hours per week. Two is not a typo. Do your worst, Oliver.<\/p>\n

Mermaids<\/p>\n

OK, let\u2019s lighten up before we need cardiac intervention. Oliver should make haste to our balmy paradise and wiggle into a mermaid tail. Our reporter did so at Weeki Wachee<\/a> in a feat of physics that almost ended her. But, you know, she\u2019s fine! It\u2019s time for the friendly Brit to butter up his lower-body and sink into more delicious Sunshine State ephemera. Florida has so much to offer a program like his.<\/p>\n

Get Stephanie\u2019s newsletter<\/p>\n

For weekly bonus content and a look inside columns by Stephanie Hayes, sign up for the free Stephinitely newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Comedian John Oliver blessed the airwaves with another meaty Florida takedown, spending nearly half an hour Sunday dragging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,1384,126578,126579,12179,412],"class_list":["post-301449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hope-florida","tag-john-oliver","tag-last-week-tonight","tag-new-college-of-florida","tag-ron-desantis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}