John Oliver gets to work on the feral hogs sweeping the nation

To be sure, as many of us city slickers learned in 2019 when a viral tweet first informed us of the danger of 30-50 feral hogs rushing your property while your children play in the yard, these animals are not a laughing matter when you’re face to face with them. And since that viral moment for the hogs, the problem has only gotten worse. “They cannot stop fucking,” says Oliver, showing a clip explaining how a sow can have about a thousand descendants within just five years. This rate of reproduction makes most of the efforts to cull the hogs’ population, especially in states like Texas where the problem is the most intense, nearly impossible. Oliver makes the case for some birth control methods, which certainly sound the least cruel, but there isn’t a great method of birth control for the sows. 

“The hard truth is that feral hogs are always going to be with us in some capacity, but that doesn’t mean that we have to surrender,” says Oliver. “In fact, we shouldn’t surrender. ‘Cause if I’ve learned one thing from the movies, is that whenever America gets invaded, it fights back immediately. After that is an appropriate pause for an inspirational speech. And if that is what America needs right now, then that’s what it’s gonna get.” Then he launches into his best Bill Pullman from Independence Day. Sure, this may not be the most solutions-oriented ending to Last Week Tonight, but it’s fairly rousing.