John Oliver Enlists Nick Offerman, Laverne Cox, and Mike From 'Breaking Bad' to Promote Sex Education Reform

Though Jon Stewart left us last week, we thankfully still have John Oliver here to deliver weekly truth bombs.

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Complex Original

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Sadly, Alabama made headlines last week for joining the coalition of the dumb by defunding Planned Parenthood. Alabama, of course, is one of those distinguished states with an astronomical teen pregnancy rate and state-supported policies to ensure such a rate continues well into the future. Never one to let Alabama beat them at their own game (and what a terrible, terrible game that is), Mississippi currently boasts a staggering 42.6 teenage birth rate alongside a perfectly nonsensical ban on condom demonstration in the classroom.

Though Jon Stewart left his Throne of Truth last week (I'm still in mourning), we still have resident hero John Oliver providing weekly truth bombs via Last Week Tonight. Sunday's takedown, with great urgency, was aimed at these baffling sex ed policies continuing to engulf the United States in decidedly anti-facts rhetoric. "Sex ed, when done well, can do so much good," Oliver tells the nation (please listen). "But, when it's done badly, it can do real harm." Highlighting the troublingly low rate of comprehension among current college students of what exactly "consent" is, Oliver uses the brilliant analogy of boxing: "Sex is like boxing. If both people didn't fully agree to participate, one of them is committing a crime. Abstinence-heavy messages do not help [fix this misunderstanding]."

To adequately drive home the point (again: please listen), Oliver enlists former sex ed tape star Jonathan Banks (Mike from Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) and a host of others (including the incomparable Laverne Cox) to give all the eventually sex-having people of 2015 the sex education video they so desperately need. Never heard Nick Offerman say "clitoris?" Well, now's your chance.

For more on the need for sex education reform at the national level (i.e. federal intervention), read this.

 

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