https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CzaLLqegol5\/<\/p>\n
I was a mere two days into my vacation last week when I got an emphatic text from my mother saying \u201cYou HAVE to vote!!\u201d<\/em> I was like, what do you take me for? I\u2019m an informed citizen who requested and turned in an absentee ballot well ahead of traveling out of state. Silly me, Mother Kismet wasn\u2019t talking about the general election. She meant New Zealand\u2019s Bird of the Century competition.<\/p>\n On the November 5 episode of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver<\/em>, titular host Oliver gave a call to arms for viewers to vote for his candidate, the p\u016bteketeke. After laying out his reasons for selecting the p\u016bteketeke \u2014 chief among them being excellent plumage, an elegant mating dance wherein partners present clumps of grass to each other, shared parental duties, plus it\u2019s just fun to say \u2014 Oliver confirmed the competition was not limited to New Zealanders. Then he unveiled the global campaign his team had rolled out on behalf of the noble p\u016bteketeke, a move New Zealand called \u201calarmingly aggressive.\u201d He concluded his pitch saying \u201cThis is what democracy is all about: America interfering in foreign elections.\u201d<\/em> Oliver shared the results on last Sunday\u2019s show. And the winner is\u2026 to be announced on Wednesday, because Oliver\u2019s fans crashed the voting site.<\/p>\n The p\u016bteketeke got 10,000+ votes in one night after the show aired:<\/strong> Oliver reported last week that the winning bird in last year\u2019s competition received less than 3,000 votes, a number he was confident they could surpass rather quickly and extensively. And sure enough, the conservation organization that puts on the contest, Forest & Bird, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that \u201cOliver\u2019s campaign for the p\u016bteketeke to win Bird of the Century has kicked off with more than 10,000 votes coming in overnight! Verifying emails is a massive ongoing job \u2014 as you can imagine!!\u201d A few days later, according to an email Oliver showed, Forest & Bird said that its \u201cvoting verification system was overloaded and temporarily crashed.\u201d<\/p>\n Oliver revels in the backlash:<\/strong> Oliver said that since the episode aired, not everyone has embraced his shenanigans with open arms in New Zealand. He included a montage of various media reports and other social media personalities who took issue with him, mostly because they like their own choice for bird better. The p\u016bteketeke campaign manager also pointed out \u2014 and gave some love to \u2014 the response from other bird campaigns who accepted Oliver\u2019s presence \u201cwith grace.\u201d Like supporters of the kakariki karaka, who put up multiple billboards with the message: \u201cDear John, don\u2019t disrupt the pecking order.\u201d Oliver said that he respects their aggression with the amount of billboards, but was not impressed with their bird choice at all, calling it a \u201cbright green cat toy.\u201d<\/p>\n The Zazu connection:<\/strong> Multiple people also referenced the fact that Oliver voiced a bird named Zazu in 2019\u2019s The Lion King<\/em>, including one billboard that said \u201cthe only bird worse than the p\u016bteketeke is Zazu,\u201d with a Photoshopped picture that shows Oliver with a Zazu beak and feathers. \u201cI\u2019ll admit, that\u2019s pretty good,\u201d Oliver said.<\/p>\n He teases because he cares:<\/strong> One thing Oliver wanted to clear up was the accusation that he makes New Zealand the butt of jokes because he doesn\u2019t like them. And while he did admit to making the country the butt of many jokes, he said \u201cIt\u2019s not because I don\u2019t like you, it\u2019s because I f\u2014ing love you.\u201d<\/p>\n A gracious, early victory speech:<\/strong> \u201cAnd for the record, all of your birds are great. And it would be an honor to lose to any of them when results are announced on Wednesday,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cAnd the reason it\u2019s so easy for me to say that is, we\u2019re not gonna lose are we? We\u2019re gonna win, and we\u2019re gonna win by a lot. And when we do that, the p\u016bteketeke will be your Bird of the Century, and there\u2019s nothing any of you can do to stop that right now. Maybe good luck next century, New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n [From Yahoo! Entertainment]<\/p>\n Man, I missed John Oliver during the writers strike. I need these weekly doses of whimsy, and greatly appreciate the extensive lengths and exorbitant funds he takes to provide them. And this competition isn\u2019t all silliness! It\u2019s run by Forest & Bird, New Zealand\u2019s leading independent conservation group. The eligible birds are endemic to the country (meaning they\u2019re not found anywhere else in the world) and most of them are decreasing in numbers. May the finest feathered specimen win and flourish.<\/p>\n As for Oliver\u2019s campaign, perfect. No notes. His efforts included building a giant p\u016bteketeke puppet to pose behind him on set, promoting the cause on Jimmy Fallon<\/em> in a p\u016bteketeke costume himself, and creating an info site complete with a p\u016bteketeke dressed as Oliver and the new show title Best Beak Tonight with P\u016bteketeke<\/em>. The heart of the campaign, however, was the collection of billboards, posters, and plane-flown banners put up in India, Japan, France, Brazil, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin (because of course). The best of these posters, hands down, were the ones deployed in England and New Zealand. England\u2019s signs read \u201cHelp Us Crown A Real King,\u201d (oh, snap!) while New Zealand enjoyed Lord of the Wings<\/em> film-style posters that decorated bus stops. Like I said, no notes.<\/p>\n\n