LOS ANGELES, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver does not begin its new season until next weekend, but its host still wanted to mark many students' return to school this week by offering a satirical cheat sheet for what they will study in the upcoming academic year.
The web-exclusive video, in which Oliver insists people can survive nicely with only basic math skills after they graduate, has gotten about 1.8 million views since it was posted on YouTube Sunday.
Highlights of the clip include a rundown of who died in the reading-list staples Of Mice and Men, Romeo and Juliet, The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, as well as the British comedian's complaint that western schools do not educate children sufficiently about the cultures and histories of countries outside of Europe and the Americas.
"You will also learn that Africa and Asia are places, but that's about it," he noted. "You will leave school knowing as much about those two continents as I do about actor Penn Badgley. You'll know it's something that exists in the world, but you won't be able to give any facts about it, other than its general shape."
