“Please Don’t Nuke Us”: Weird Al Had A Musical Plea For North Korea On ‘Last Week Tonight’
Time for a little accordion-based diplomacy.
John Oliver has sought to defuse tension with North Korea the only way he knows how: by enlisting Weird Al Yankovic to serenade the hermit kingdom with a polka.
Weird Al’s performance came at the end of the latest Last Week Tonight deep dive, in which Oliver broke down life in the hermit kingdom, discussed their long-standing hatred of the United States, and attempted to explain the twisted logic that dictates Kim Jong-un’s provocative behaviour.
But the episode also turned up another interesting fact: North Koreans apparently really like the accordion. Oliver’s team even uncovered footage of a group of North Koreans playing a-ha’s ‘Take On Me’, which is every bit as strange as it sounds.
Enter Weird Al.
“Would you annihilate us if you had the chance? / That’s such an anti-social thing to do,” sung Yankovic in a desperate plea to the nuclear weapon state. “You’ve got us crapping our collective pants/ May I suggest you take it down a notch or two?”
“We’re not exactly sure why you’re upset / Did that Seth Rogen movie make you super mad?” he continues. “You’d like us if you got to know us I bet / We’re mostly harmless decent people hey we’re really not so bad.”
You can watch Yankovic’s entire Last Week Tonight performance below.