Sunday was a big night for HBO. Game of Thrones, Veep and Silicon Valley all had their season premieres. However, if you stuck around for not a season premiere but a new episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, you were definitely in for a treat.
OK, actually you probably thought to yourself, "Why did I stick around for this?" Oliver announced that his top story for the night would concern everyone's favorite governmental agency, the Internal Revenue Service. But before you could pick up your remote to turn on Sunday night's new episode of Mad Men waiting for you on your DVR, Oliver promised that there would be "a very sexy reward" at the end of the segment.
Considering that most people feel a lot of ill will toward the IRS, this was no small feat to take on. However, Oliver was up to the challenge of garnering sympathy for the IRS and making his viewers understand just how important it is to our government and our lives.
Yes, you have to spend every January through April getting your taxes in order, all of which ends with a grand finale of having to pay up. Even though the IRS facilitates all of that, believe it or not, working for this government agency is not always all that it's cracked up to be. As Oliver points out, you have high-profile individuals like Maine Gov. Paul LePage comparing the IRS to the Gestapo and people sending the IRS checks covered in mustard. Even those with the most negative view of the IRS have to feel a little bit bad for it when it has to deal with an insane number of tax law changes in one year (579, to be exact) and its budget has shrunk nearly 20 percent over the past five years.
But if all of Oliver's evidence still doesn't convince you to show some sympathy for the IRS, it's all right. The sweet song stylings of Michael Bolton and his special IRS-themed rendition of "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You" should be enough to make the IRS feel loved.
Check out the full segment below, or just skip ahead to Bolton's performance at around the 13:35 mark. Do you feel the love?
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