On Mother’s Day, John Oliver goes HAM on the US’s crappy family leave policies

On last night’s episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver covered a big feminist issue: paid family leave. 

He wasn’t the only one to celebrate Mother’s Day by suggesting that we make mothers’ lives a little easier beyond cards, flowers, and breakfast in bed one day a year; Hillary Clinton’s campaign seized the opportunity, too. But unsurprisingly, they didn’t do it as profanely, or as entertainingly, as Oliver, who went in hard on the hypocrisy of a culture that makes motherhood a beloved, compulsory form of feminine martyrdom, but that, if budgets and policies are anything to go by — and they are — doesn’t really give a crap about mothers.

As he put it, “You can’t have it both ways. You can’t go on and on about how much you love mothers, and then fail to support legislation that makes life easier for them.” Then, with an assist from the great America Ferrera, he presented us with this honest Mothers Day commercial:

I apologize for the lack of transcript here, folks. If you want to provide one in comments, I’d be so very grateful.