That’s funny.

John Oliver has recently been engaged in attacks on Danbury. Unlike some of Oliver’s other satirical condemnations, this lambasting has no basis. His comments are seething but entirely generic. They could just as easily apply to any town anywhere, in the same spirit that I always bash Fond du Lac – although I know nothing about it and it seems indistinguishable from every other boring, medium-sized midwestern city, including the one I live in. Oliver apparently just pointed his finger at a map, and it happened to rest on Danbury.

In fact, although his Danbury invective was laced with profanity, the concrete references to Danbury have actually been complimentary, using such terms as “charming railway museum” and “historic Hearthstone Castle,” and noting that “USA Today ranked it the second-best city to live in 2015” – followed of course by “Danbury, Connecticut can eat my whole ass. If you’re from there, you have a standing invite to come get a thrashing from John Oliver, children included, fuck you.”

In response, Danbury has proposed that the official name of its sewage treatment facility will be the “John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant.” Danbury’s distinguished mayor declared, “Why? Because it’s full of crap, just like you, John.”