John Oliver's Bullshit 'Church' Has Made Thousands of Tax-Exempt Dollars

John Oliver’s televangelism stunt—in which he and Last Week Tonight created their own bullshit “church,” Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, and filed for tax-free status on asinine and apparently perfectly permissible grounds—has already racked up quite a few donations.

The Daily Beast points out an update on this most recent episode. “To be honest, slightly more of you responded than we were expecting,” said Oliver. People sent literal seeds and also some beef jerky, but cold, hard cash, too: “We have received thousands of envelopes with thousands of dollars.”

Again, it would be incredibly easy for Oliver to lavish all this money—tax-free thanks to the IRS’s lax rules regarding churches—on himself. Which is the point of this stunt. “Keep your money coming in to this address, and remember, the more money you send in, the more blessings will be returned to you, and that is still something I’m amazingly legally allowed to say.”