John Oliver Calls Out Fox News

If you needed more convincing that John Oliver is one of the best human beings on this planet, then here you go: during his Mar. 13 episode of Last Week Tonight, Oliver shut down a Fox News anchor who honored men on International Women's Day. As he talked about how different countries acknowledged International Women's Day, Oliver eventually included a segment on the U.S. and shared a clip from the Fox News show On the Record. For whatever reason, Fox News' anchor Greta Van Susteren gave a shout-out to American men, and Oliver was not having it.

As a preface to the video in which Van Susteren honored International Women's Day, Oliver warned, "If you think you know where this is going, you're wrong." And he couldn't have been more right. Van Susteren started her segment by calling out the men who are "yelling at the TV every time I pop up at 7" and talking about "the most unconscionable things done to women around the world."

Specifically, Van Susteren mentioned the women who live in Afghanistan and are controlled by the Taliban — the awful Islamist terrorist group who, Van Susteren said, disallows women from doing basic things like listening to music and going to school. Moreover, Afghani women who don't follow the Taliban's orders are at risk of getting publicly stoned to death in a stadium, Van Susteren said in her segment.

This all seemed to be heading in the right direction as Van Susteren highlighted the hardships that some groups of women face in different parts of the world. However, she somehow thought it was reasonable to make the claim that on International Women's Day we should honor and thank American men because they are nicer than the Taliban. I wish I were joking.

That's right — on the one day a year that is set to celebrate and empower women all over the world, Van Susteren celebrated men in the U.S. because they don't treat women like the Taliban does. There is no denying that women are mistreated all over the world, but Van Susteren comparing an extreme Islamist terrorist group to average American men is just ridiculous.

The 2016 theme for International Women's Day was #PledgeForParity, which encouraged people all over the world to take action so that women could achieve equality with men in all aspects of life. Van Susteren even acknowledged the severe gender pay gap in the U.S., which denies women equal pay for equal work with their male counterparts, but that clearly didn't matter enough to her.

But it goes beyond the gender pay gap; women between the ages of 18 and 24 are most commonly beaten by an intimate partner and 1 in 5 women have been victims of severe physical violence by an intimate partner, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Similarly, one in three women have been sexually harassed at work, according to a survey by Cosmopolitan.

During her show, Van Susteren dedicated a significant portion of her conversation to men and encouraged women, on International Women's Day, to acknowledge the great men in their life.

On this International Women's Day Eve, it'd be a good time for us women to recognize that American men... let's give American men a shout-out. Things aren't perfect. For instance, we still don't have equal pay for equal work. But American men are, by very far, the best men on the planet. And we American women, we may not say it, but we know that and American men deserve to hear that from us.

On the only day of the year when women are supposed to be celebrated, it was disturbing to see Van Susteren diminish women's accomplishments all over the world by instead thanking men for having higher standards than a terrorist group.

Oliver said it best when he lamented, "You know, there may be no more fitting tribute to the state of women internationally than someone giving men credit for basically nothing."

Watch the entire clip below.

Images: Giphy