John Oliver Challenges Vladimir Putin Over 'Space Gecko' Mating Experiment
The satellite was reportedly malfunctioning last week, placing the five geckos on board in serious danger. Oliver, the host of HBO's "Last Week Tonight," refused to accept that outcome.
"Don't you dare laugh at that," he told his viewers. "Don't you dare laugh at the fact that Russia has lost a satellite full of sexually active space geckos. There's nothing funny about that. This is like 'Apollo 13' all over again, only in Cyrillic and a quintet of Russian f**k lizards instead of Tom Hanks."
In order to avert the crisis, Oliver urged his viewers to fill out an online form letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin demanding he save the geckos.
"You can and should do more. You could go onto the Kremlin's contact page, which inexplicably has a form allowing you to write Vladimir Putin a letter. Which you can do at this address. Look, take this seriously. Don't be idiots about this. The Kremlin insists - this is true - that your suggestions be, and I quote, 'specific.' And I do not know of a more specific suggestion than: Go get those geckos!" he exclaimed.
Oliver went on to dismiss Russia's claim that they had reestablished control of the satellite on Saturday.
"They're clearly lying. They're just buying Putin enough time to run to a pet store, get five geckos, and parade them in front of us," he insisted. "Well, we don't want those geckos. We want the space geckos!"
View the segment below.