Egg Boy Receives Riotous Applause from the Audience of John Oliver on "Last Week Tonight"

The legend of Egg Boy endures.

The tragedy of the Christchurch massacre has left many reeling, as we seek to reckon with its unimaginable carnage. In Australia, we’re also debating the culpability of political leaders and social commentators in the radicalisation of the white supremacist alleged to have killed 50 innocents.

It’s gut-churning, heart-breaking stuff.

And perhaps that’s why a weary nation has turned its attention—and hearts—towards Egg Boy, AKA Will Connolly, the 17-year-old who cracked an egg on the head of Fraser Anning, a far-right Australian senator who blamed the shootings on Muslim immigration.

A GoFundMe page for Egg Boy has raised more than $55,000 (initially for his legal fees, and "more eggs", but now largely for donation to the Christchruch victims). It was followed by a Change.org petition to boot Anning out of Parliament (even though the current legislation wouldn’t allow such a thing), which became the biggest online petition in Aussie history, with more than 1.3 million signatures.

And now, Egg Boy has been endorsed by one of the few political commentators we want to hear from now (or ever): John Oliver, of HBO’s Last Week Tonight.

On the most recent episode, which aired yesterday, Oliver examined Egg Boy’s actions and came to the following conclusion: "The real cause of Fraser Anning getting hit with an egg is Fraser Anning saying things that prompt people to throw eggs at him. He may be the victim today, but usually he’s a huge f***ing a**hole." The audience loved it.

However, though it’s been easy to champion Egg Boy in the days following the massacre, many are calling on the media to re-evaluate why coverage is centering on a white teen.

To be absolutely clear, I still love eggboy and to reiterate, egg all white supremacists. Eggboy should call us to action, not make white people think that Australia is good after all and the work of fighting Islamophobia is done.

— Alison Whittaker (@AJ_Whittaker) March 17, 2019

In seriousness, it is easy for white Australia to engage with #EggBoy without speaking about the problem- us. So let's address it. Australia is racist. This is not new information. Let's stop leaving the targets of racism to speak out and fix it. It is up to us. #WhitePrivilege

— Carolyn (@thecarolynator) March 16, 2019

With that in mind:

• Over at SBS, the identified victims of the Christchurch shooting are being memorialised.
• One of those victims, Naeem Rashid, will be posthumously awarded a national award for bravery by Pakistan's Prime Minister for tackling the shooter during the attack.
• Abdul Aziz has been recognised for potentially saving dozens of lives when he confronted the alleged killer at the Linwood mosque. However, he says, "I didn't save them; Allah, God, saved them."
• Australian-Muslim writer Randa Abdel-Fattah has penned a comment on the threat of white supremacy at The New Arab.
• Faisal Al-Asaad, an Iraqi-born writer based in Australia who lived and studied in Auckland, offered his response to the Overland literary journal.
• The Guardian published an opinion piece by Ghassan Hage, exploring how the media and Australian politicians failed to identify white nationalism as "one of the most dangerous trends that we have in society today."
• Finally, as previously reported, students assembled in Christchurch to perform the haka, a ceremonial Maori dance, in memory of the victims.

Header Image: HBO