John Oliver’s Danbury sewage plant: ‘I need this’

DANBURY — John Oliver has called on Mayor Mark Boughton to follow through with his joke to rename a city sewage plant after the comedian.

In Sunday’s episode of “Last Week Tonight,” Oliver said he would donate $55,000 to charities in the Danbury area, including $25,000 to the Connecticut Food Bank, $25,000 to a Donors Choose fund for Danbury teachers and $5,000 to ALS Connecticut, if Boughton followed through with renaming the sewage plant after him.

“I will happily do all of that if — and only if — your mayor makes good on his promise to officially name that sewage plant after me because I want this. I need this,” Oliver said.

Oliver also said he would pay to make the sign bear

ing the facility’s new moniker, if Boughton accepts.

Boughton was mum on whether he would accept the offer, but said residents should expect a video to drop on Thursday.

“John Oliver, I am coming for you,” Boughton said in his Facebook Live Monday evening. “I am coming hard, so hard you’ll never know what happened, and I’m going to take you out with our video on Thursday. And I will issue a challenge to you and you’ll have to meet that challenge or it’s on like Donkey Kong.”

Oliver gave the mayor one week to respond.

“I didn’t know that I wanted my name on your (expletive) factory, but now that you floated it, it is all that I want,” Oliver said.

Boughton called Oliver’s offer “just.”

“It’s a generous offer given in the spirit of getting a chuckle in a very difficult time and that’s how we’re taking it here, too” Boughton said. “These are difficult times, so any way that people can get a little bit of a laugh and at the same time do some good for some residents, that’s a good thing.”

Throughout the pandemic, Boughton has made music videos for those who donated to local food pantries. He has performed Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Old Town Road” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” among other songs.

If Danbury rejects the request, Oliver said he will put his offer toward what he called the city’s “rivals”: Waterbury, Milford and Torrington.

Torrington Mayor Elinor Carbone was unaware her city was mentioned on the show.

“I’m only vaguely familiar with (the fact that) there was this John Oliver person out there,” she said. “I don’t even know who he is. I really have no comment on it. I don’t know who he is or what his goals are.”

Mayors in Waterbury and Milford could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.

This is the latest exchange between Oliver and Boughton following the comedian’s expletive-laced rant about the city on a recent episode of “Last Week Tonight.”

In a tongue-in-cheek response, Boughton announced in a video posted on his Facebook page that he would rename the city’s sewage plant in honor of Oliver.

“We are going to rename it the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant,” the Republican mayor said. “Why? Because it’s full of crap just like you, John.”

The back-and-forth began earlier this month when Oliver explored on his show the racial disparities in the jury selection process, citing problems in a few Connecticut municipalities.

In the segment, Oliver noted Danbury’s “charming railway museum” and its “historic Hearthstone Castle.”

“I know exactly three things about Danbury,” Oliver said. “USA Today ranked it the second-best city to live in in 2015, it was once the center of the American hat industry and if you’re from there, you have a standing invite to come get a thrashing from John Oliver — children included — (expletive) you.”

But he said the responses from the Danbury community changed his mind.

“It’s an incredible place,” Oliver said Sunday night. “The truth is, things have been so bleak recently, I needed something like this, something to restore my faith in human nature.”

It’s why he said he was so disappointed when Boughton clarified renaming the sewer plant after Oliver was a joke.

In his latest episode, Oliver praised responses from Danbury Hat Tricks and Caio Ninja News — an online show created by a Danbury 8-year-old — to his previous rant.

“Honestly, Danbury might want to seriously consider changing it’s name from the Hat City to the Young People Who Seem More Than Capable of Taking Over My Job City,” Oliver said. “Although I’m not sure why they would actually want it. Yes, we both live in sad, empty voids where hope goes to die, but at least Danbury has a railway museum. We haven’t had one of those since season four.”

Caio said he would be happy to have Oliver’s job.

“Yes, John Oliver, I’m coming in hot for a P.G. spinoff of ‘Last Week Tonight,’ any time, any place,” he said in a Monday episode.

Oliver’s staff had contacted the mayor’s office last week for permission to use one of the city’s photos, so Boughton expected Danbury to be mentioned in the latest episode.

“They wouldn’t tell us what they were going to do,” Boughton said.

He said he fell asleep before the episode aired, but people messaged him about it all night long.

“My phone was blowing up,” Boughton said. “I knew there was something going on.”

It remains unclear what prompted Oliver to go off on Danbury. Messages with his agent have not been returned.

A spokeswoman with HBO said she did not know how Oliver became aware of the city. She declined to comment further on the offer.

“The show likes to let these segments speak for themselves,” spokeswoman Michelle Goldstein said in an email.

Oliver also made fun of Boughton and other American mayors in 2017 over videos they made seeking to attract Amazon’s second world headquarters. In his video, Boughton asked Alexa where the best place for the facility would be, and Alexa said Danbury.

In a new video, Boughton also mentions that Amazon has decided to open a distribution facility in Danbury, although it’s not the second world headquarters.

“And, oh by the way, thanks for showing that Amazon video,” Boughton says to Oliver at the end of the video. “We did get Amazon here in Danbury.”

John Oliver