City officials vow to name plant after HBO host

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City officials in tony Danbury, Connecticut, are slinging sludge back at the famous host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.”

After Oliver tore into the town on his Aug. 16 show, the city’s mayor posted a now-viral Facebook video vowing to name the town’s sewage plant after the HBO talk-show host.

“We are going to rename it the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant,” Mayor Mark Boughton said in the video post on his Facebook page Saturday, taken with the plant in the background. “Why? Because it’s full of (expletive) just like you, John.”

Boughton told USA TODAY by email that the “tongue-in-cheek” video was a “joke to return volley” at Oliver for his expletive-laden city criticism.

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In the “Last Week Tonight” segment on racial disparity on juries, Oliver veered wildly off topic to rant about Danbury, noting its “charming railway museum” and its “historic Hearthstone Castle.”

“I know exactly three things about Danbury,” Oliver said on the show. “USA TODAY ranked it the second-best city to live in in 2015, it was once the center of the American hat industry and if you’re from there, you have a standing invite to come get a thrashing from John Oliver — children included — (expletive) you.”

While the city’s effluent plant will remain the Danbury Wastewater Treatment Plant, Boughton told USA TODAY he might consider other measures if Oliver continues his attacks. “I will defend Danbury’s honor, whatever the cost,” he wrote.

Oliver also made fun of Boughton and other mayors around America in 2017 over videos they made seeking to attract Amazon’s second world headquarters. In his video, Boughton asks Alexa where the best place for the facility would be, and Alexa says Danbury.

In Boughton’s new video, the mayor proudly mentions that Amazon has decided to open a distribution facility in Danbury.

“And, oh, by the way, thanks for showing that Amazon video,” Boughton says to Oliver at the end of the video. “We did get Amazon here in Danbury.”

Contributing: Associated Press.

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