Sky censors John Oliver's Queen jokes

Broadcaster makes cuts to Last Week Tonight

Sky TV has censored John Oliver for talking about the Queen.

The broadcaster brings his HBO show Last Week Tonight to British viewers the day after it airs in the States. But on Sky Comedy on Monday, his opening section mocking over-the-top displays of mourning, especially by corporations, was notably absent.

In the cut footage, Oliver said: ‘Obviously, we need to start with the UK, which is clearly still reeling from the shocking death of a 96-year-old woman from natural causes

‘It is a big moment which, for some reason, absolutely everyone felt that they had to weigh in on from Crazy Frog, which tweeted out "RIP the Queen candle emoji" – a tweet that it’s impossible to read without mentally "Ring ding ding ding ding ding bem" – to Domino’s UK which posted, "Everyone at Domino’s joins the nation and the world in mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Our thoughts and condolences are with the royal family."

‘Which, I guess, is nice, although if the world is mourning, they should maybe tell the US Domino’s account, whose most recent tweet as of this taping is "if ur reading this it means u need pizza like to confirm."

‘Get your fucking house in order, Domino’s! A LADY IS DEAD!’

He ended the segment by saying: ‘The Queen’s death is sadly not the only traumatic event that Britain has had to deal with this week, because on Tuesday, Liz Truss, basically Margaret Thatcher if she were high on glue, became its new Prime Minister.’

Viewers took to Twitter to criticise Sky over the censorship, with one commenting: ‘We live in country where you can’t say ANYTHING that might offend the Royals’.

Another said: ‘Don’t censor my @LastWeekTonight. I am British, I am a monarchist and I CAN TAKE A JOKE!!! The coverage and forced mourning here is getting real out of hand.’

And a third commented: ‘Very disappointed in @SkyUK censorship of @LastWeekTonight with @iamjohnoliver – we condemn other countries for this sort of behaviour. The audience is used to his irreverent style and light hearted comments. The "target" of his remarks was corporate social media.’

On Sunday, Last Week Tonight won the Emmy for for outstanding variety talk series. Oliver said on collecting his award: 'We we know how lucky we are to get to make the exact show that we want, exactly the way that we want to make it… we know how lucky we are.’

Chortle has approached Sky for comment. In the meantime, here is the cut segment: