Last Week Tonight: the Finale, Bird Division

A couple of weeks ago, I posted here a very funny "challenge" of sorts that John Oliver made on Last Week Tonight to help make the Puteketeke the "Bird of the Century" in a contest held in New Zealand by the organization Forest & Bird.  It was a stunt that even by Oliver's own admission was "alarmingly aggressive”.

On Sunday, he dealt with the results.  And not surprisingly, it was a treat.

Unfortunately, the show only makes its Main Story available online.  However -- good news -- I recorded the Bird of the Century story off my TV using my mobile phone.  The sound is a bit tinny, but it's perfectly clear.  I thought of recording again, but...well, no matter how small it is, holding a mobile phone reasonably steady for eight minutes just one time is more than enough for this.

(How much is that?  The video was too large to embed on this site.  It was 1.3 gigabyte, and the limit is 1 GB.  However, I was able to compress it a little, and I think the quality is still just about as good.  But it took a long time and then to encode for the site.  But I digress.  And compress...)

By the way, just to reiterate -- as I noted in the earlier article, before putting this effort into operation, the Last Week Tonight people contacted Bird & Forest to let them know they wanted to do something (they didn't say what...) and asked if the organization was okay with that.  They were, so they were aware that the show was going to do something.  And it's important to know, too, that Forest & Bird particularly appreciated the worldwide attention that they got from the stunt, and also that they raise money off of this event.  And...well, let's just say that they did fine this year.

Of course, it's also worth making clear (which it likely is to most people) that this isn't an official national contest with any actual, substantive meaning.  And further, that any bird organization in New Zealand or anywhere in the world can have their own Bird of the Century contest if the way.

And in the end, the Puteketeke is an impressive-looking bird.  With, as John Oliver notes, a name that's so much fun to say.