In a recent episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver revisited his past conflict with JK Rowling, prompting her to hit back sharply on social media
HBO host John Oliver has irked Harry Potter author JK Rowling once again over the topic of banning trans athletes. In a recent episode of Last Week Tonight, John criticised the right-wing’s obsession with wanting to ban transgender athletes in sports, including at school level. Rowling has retaliated at the TV host on X (formerly Twitter) asking him to ‘read the f**king room’.
What happened in Last Week Tonight latest episode
Oliver pointed out his earlier spat with Rowling regarding the same topic. The author had criticised Oliver in November last year when he showed his support to transgender athletes saying that they didn’t pose any threat to safety or fairness to cis-women athletes. Rowling, at that time, had retorted by saying that Oliver was happy to watch female athletes suffer injury, humiliation and loss of sporting opportunities.
Now, in the latest episode, Oliver reignited the spat and mentioned Rowling. “It feels a bit weird to catch that much heat from the creator of Harry Potter, especially when I clearly look like what would have happened to him if they left him in that cupboard for the rest of his life,” joked Oliver, adding that he stands by everything he said last year.
