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Video: John Oliver Shreds Miss America's Claim To Be "Leading Provider" Of Scholarships To Women
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 22, 2014
Modified Sep 22, 2014
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 22, 2014
Modified Sep 22, 2014
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Last week, Miss New York was crowned Miss America, and while the win was an unusual three-peat for the Empire State, non-native New Yorker John Oliver was not satisfied with the victory.
On Last Week Tonight, Oliver pointed out that many contestants actually do very well given the insane questions they are faced. For instance, one judge asked, "The savagery of the ISIS threat to our security was demonstrated by the gruesome videos of two journalists and an aid worker being beheaded. What should our country’s response be?" Oliver's reaction: "That’s right—they asked one of the contestants to solve ISIS. And she only had 20 seconds to do it!"
While Oliver was incredibly impressed with the answer ("Holy shit—that's better than I could do in that amount of time"), he wasn't impressed with Miss America's claim as the "national's largest scholarship program for young women with $45 million made available annually." Because that $45 million number seemed like bullshit: Last Week Tonight could only find $4 million in funds—it seems like Miss America is doing some fancy calculating:
Oliver recommended other groups that offer scholarships to women: Society of Women Engineers; Jeanette Rankin Women’s Scholarship Fund; and Patsy Mink Foundation.
Tagged
john oliver
Miss America
scholarships
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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