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John Oliver defends a dying RadioShack from its gleeful critics

John Oliver commemorates Radio Shack with an expletive-filled PSA.

 

Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

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Posted on Feb 9, 2015   Updated on May 29, 2021, 2:26 pm CDT

John Oliver returned to Last Week Tonight on Sunday with a eulogy to RadioShack.

The electronics chain is filing for bankruptcy after decades of supplying us with batteries, transistor radios, remote-control toys, and similar items that most people now either buy online or don’t need at all.

As Oliver pointed out, the news media had been oddly upbeat about RadioShack’s demise, which he didn’t think was a laughing matter. Over 4000 stores are either shutting down or turning into Sprint outlets, leaving RadioShack employees out of work. The punchline is that RadioShack seems irrelevant to 21st century life, but John Oliver had a bone to pick with news anchors laughing at the company’s slow decline. 

And that’s how his eulogy turned into an expletive-filled PSA from RadioShack HQ.

Welcome back, John Oliver. We’ve missed you.

Screengrab via Last Week Tonight/YouTube

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*First Published: Feb 9, 2015, 8:32 am CST