British comedian John Oliver has thrown his hat in the ring for New Zealand’s prestigious Bird of the Century competition – becoming the official campaigner for one of the candidates.
With competition organisers Forest and Bird turning 100 this year, they renamed their famous Bird of the Year contest to Bird of the Century.
Anyone with an email address is able to vote for a bird, regardless of what country they live in.
It now appears to have gone global, with Last Week Tonight host John Oliver revealing he would be voting. He is officially campaigning for the pūteketeke, a lake-dwelling bird found in the South Island.
“It looks like Pauly D f***** a swan,” Oliver said while explaining why he chose the pūteketeke.
“Even its name is fun to say,” Oliver said before repeating “pūteketeke” a number of times.
“It feels like your tongue is tap dancing.”
Pūteketeke are known for their ritualised courtship displays, where they pick up and offer each other water weed and then bump into each other's chests. The comedian made sure to capitalise on that fact.
“I’ve never identified with anything more in my f****** life!” He yelled after playing a video of the display.
Oliver highlighted the threat of extinction pūteketeke currently faces. They have a population of fewer than 1000 birds.
He announced his team had put together an “alarmingly aggressive” campaign to help the pūteketeke win this year's competition.
The campaign features bus stop ads across New Zealand, billboards in central Mumbai, animated billboards at the famous Shibuya crossing in Tokyo, and a poster on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
In London, there is a roaming billboard that reads: “Help us crown a real king”. They also flew a plane with a banner over Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
More absurdly, a billboard was also put up in Manitowoc, Wisconsin: “Because hey, not everyone lives in big cities, do they.”
“The point is, we are going all out for this thing,” Oliver said before walking in front of a giant pūteketeke puppet while God Defend New Zealand played in the background.
“What I want to do to the Bird of the Century candidates is what the pūteketeke does to fish in New Zealand’s lakes.
“That is, eat them alive and then throw them back up in a ball of feathers.”
“This is what democracy is all about. America interfering in foreign elections,” he exclaimed.
Oliver has a history of poking fun at some of New Zealand's more absurd cultural moments.
He previously devoted segments to the video of former finance minister Steven Joyce being hit by a flying sex toy and the 2016 flag referendum.
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