Must-See Morning Clip: John Oliver's Brilliant Takedown Asks 'How Is Ayn Rand Still a Thing?'
When we have so many other philosophers espousing selfishness, like Donald Trump and pretty much "everyone on Bravo," the John Oliver show last night wondered, "Ayn Rand: How is she still a thing?"
It's an informational segment, not a patented John Oliver rant, but it has his hilarious fingerprints all over it. For the unitiated, the narrator explains that Ayn Rand is famous for her philosophy of objectivism, "which is another way of saying being a selfish asshole." Her two most famous novels, which people with arrested development read over and over again, are The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, “stories about rapey heroes complaining about how no one appreciates their true genius.”
Of course, we all know that Ayn Rand is a favorite of teenagers, "but she is supposed to be something you grow out of, like ska music or handjobs,” the narrator points out.
Notable for not outgrowing Ayn Rand are inspiring thinkers like tech billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who named his 287-foot yacht Fountainhead, because "sometimes having a 287-foot yacht isn't enough to show you're a douchebag." Cuban even says he sometimes gets "a little too motivated" when he reads Rand's books. Scary.
Other leading lights who like Rand are Paul Ryan and Rand Paul, who insist that everyone run out and buy copies of her books right now. Shhh, don't tell them she was pro-choice and thought Reagan was an intellectual non-entity.
Funny, watch:
