John Oliver is auctioning off a bidet signed by Gwar vocalist Blöthar the Berserker, real name Michael Bishop, to raise funds for public broadcasting.
Footage from an interview Heavy Consequence recently undertook with the costume-clad metal band was highlighted on Sunday night’s (November 16) episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, during which the host took a look at cuts Donald Trump’s administration has made to public media.
In the clip, Blöthar talks about the importance of public broadcasting, highlighting Sesame Street and Fred Rogers as American national treasures.
Oliver joked, “It is both beautiful and confusing to watch [Blöthar] utter the words ‘Mr. Rogers’, as it’s hard to imagine them in the same universe. Although, I’ll say, I would love to have seen Gwar on Mr. Rogers.
He then launched into an affectionate parody of the late TV personality, saying: “Blöthar, you are special just the way you are. Your diseased undercarriage composed of abscessed-riddled penises makes you YOU!’”
As the episode came to an end, Oliver launched an auction to benefit public broadcasting on the website JohnOliversJunk.com. One of the items is a bidet signed by Blöthar, with the description as follows: “Bidet signed by The Berserker Blöthar from American heavy metal band GWAR. As discussed on Last Week Tonight’s season 12 finale, Blöthar is a big fan of public broadcasting greats such as Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street.
“Despite the way he looks. Bidet is a Kohler PureWash M300 model with a chrome handle, a quiet-close lid to prevent slamming, quick-release hinges for easy installation, and a self-cleaning wand. Why a bidet, you ask? Well, respectfully, we think Blöthar could use one.”
Among the other items involved in the auction, which closes in six days, are a bucket of dolls, a trip to New York to meet Oliver himself, presidential wax figures, a range of props from his show, and a Bob Ross painting, ‘Cabin At Sunset’.
Proceeds will go to Public Media Bridge Fund, which supports independent outlets with a focus on rural and underserved areas.
In July, Blöthar hit out at the proposed cuts to public media, which followed Trump signing an executive order that would end the federal funding for organisations including NPR and PBS two months before.
Blothar with a very important message about public media. Public media is in danger. Go to https://t.co/jYxXw24S35 to learn how you can urge Congress to save public media. Call your senators. Make a difference. pic.twitter.com/uItxiEiubc
— GWAR (@gwar) July 14, 2025
“You know many years ago my personal friend, the great Fred Rogers, he testified in Congress about the value of public media, about how important it was in children’s lives,” he said on X (Twitter). “He famously secured funding for National Public Radio because he was able to demonstrate that it makes a difference and that’s important. Mr. Rogers brought love and light into the world, into a dark and hateful world.
“Well, now that is on the chopping block right now,” he added. “The Senate will vote on a House-passed Rescissions Act this week that will eliminate $1.1billion in already approved funding for public media. This would strip essential services. It could force rural stations to go off the air entirely. They won’t be able to pay licensing fees the same way they did for music. This could very well silence the music.
Gwar, who are currently on tour in North America – find remaining tickets here – came under fire from Trump supporters in September following their Riot Fest set. During their set at the Chicago festival, they continued their long-standing tradition of carrying out a mock execution on stage.
Previous presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan have all been the subject of the faux assassinations before, as have the likes of Michael Jackson and Mike Tyson.
When Trump and Elon Musk were the targets in Chicago, it proved controversial. One person wrote, “That’s not edgy, it’s grotesque and reckless and normalises violence against a real person. This is not okay. Riot Fest and Gwar crossed a major line,” while another simply said, “The left is truly sick.”
The band responded, saying in a statement to Billboard that the idea they’re normalising violence is “absurd”.
“We’re not millionaires that are afraid of what people are going to say when they see what we do… We’re a group of artists that makes art, and it’s really the idea that what we have done is normalising violence… There’s nothing normal about the violence that goes on at a Gwar show,” he added.
“It’s a cartoon, it’s Looney Tunes… It’s trying to make violence into a spectacle and show humanity’s absolute absurdity. That’s what Gwar is, it’s absurdism. To say it’s normalising violence is really reaching.”
