This summer, the experts are already saying, will belong to the cicadas, at least in the Northeast. Due to their “unusually long reproductive cycle,” the large, noisy insects that will soon be crawling out of the ground and into humanity’s nightmares were originally conceived way back in 1999. The world was a very different place 17 years ago, and concerned comedian John Oliver wants to make sure these bugs have been fully debriefed on what to expect in 2016. In another web-exclusive video made during a bye week for HBO’s Last Week Tonight, Oliver gives the cicadas an update on what’s been happening in the new millennium. For instance, he says, “a lot fewer people are calling it the Willennium than we thought they would in 1999.”
So what else has the world been up to since the cicadas were conceived? Well, for very different reasons, both carbs and The Cosby Show have become scarcer. “The internet,” the host says, “no longer screams as you dial into it from your phone line.” Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake, then best-known respectively for Destiny’s Child and N’Sync, now basically rule the world. And what about Donald Trump? Oliver doesn’t even try to explain that to them. The cicadas only have a few weeks to live, so there simply isn’t time. Best to let them enjoy a world in which Dr. Dre is an electronics mogul and Macklemore is a rapper while they can.