{"id":40812,"date":"2024-10-31T09:41:34","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T13:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=40812"},"modified":"2024-10-31T09:41:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T13:41:34","slug":"will-ferrell-and-john-oliver-offer-up-alternative-to-god-bless-the-u-s-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/10\/will-ferrell-and-john-oliver-offer-up-alternative-to-god-bless-the-u-s-a.html","title":{"rendered":"Will Ferrell and John Oliver Offer Up Alternative to \u201cGod Bless the U.S.A\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Will Ferrell and John Oliver teamed up on Oliver\u2019s \u201cLast Week Tonight\u201d to offer a \u201cgenuinely unique\u201d alternative to Lee Greenwood\u2019s \u201cGod Bless the U.S.A.\u201d Oliver discussed the song\u2019s use during naturalization ceremonies for new Americans, as Oliver himself is personally familiar. \u201cI am intimately familiar with the U.S. immigration process, having finally become a citizen in 2019. It was a long, stressful process capped by a moving naturalization ceremony,\u201d he said on the show. He looked into the song\u2019s use, finding that Greenwood is paid $700 a year for the use of his song at the ceremonies. This led to Oliver mocking Greenwood\u2019s attempts to monetize a number of things throughout his career, including attempting to trademark \u201cGod Bless the U.S.A.\u201d He called Greenwood \u201ca tacky Bible salesman with views completely at odds with everything a naturalization ceremony represents.\u201d<\/p>\n

After airing out his grievances, he concluded Greenwood\u2019s song was inappropriate for the ceremonies. \u201cI\u2019m not sure why it\u2019s being played at ceremonies at all, not just contractually or even musically but because Greenwood\u2019s past comments about immigrants have been, to say the least, off-message,\u201d he said. Greenwood was criticized<\/a> for comments he made at a July 4th<\/sup> concert about illegal immigration and has also faced some criticism for appearing at the Republican National Convention, where he performed \u201cGod Bless the U.S.A.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliver stated that new citizens \u201cdeserve [a song] genuinely unique to this country.\u201d \u201cA song that celebrates the nation new Americans are about to join,\u201d he said, \u201cand the process that they’ve been through, while also not soft-pedaling some hard truths about it.\u201d His show then featured a song<\/a> with actor Will Ferrell dressed as a country singer espousing the pros and cons of America. After some lyrics congratulating the new Americans on passing their test, the song highlights some staples of Americana: \u201cThere\u2019s corn dogs and apple pie\/Fireworks lighting up the sky\/Nascar, rodeo, barbecue\/That stuff\u2019s American\/Now so are you,\u201d Ferrell sings. He also added in some of the down sides. \u201cTelevangelists and fossil fuels\/Metal detectors in all our schools\/Private prisons and Mountain Dew\/That stuff\u2019s American\/Now that\u2019s your problem too.\u201d The song also featured a person dressed as \u201cQAnon Shaman\u201d Jacob Chansley running behind Ferrell in a reference to January 6. Oliver even offered to pay the government $701 to get rid of Greenwood\u2019s version and use Ferrell\u2019s instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will Ferrell and John Oliver teamed up on Oliver\u2019s \u201cLast Week Tonight\u201d to offer a \u201cgenuinely unique\u201d alternative to Lee Greenwood\u2019s \u201cGod Bless the U.S.A.\u201d Oliver discussed the song\u2019s use during naturalization ceremonies for new Americans, as Oliver himself is personally familiar. \u201cI am intimately familiar with the U.S. immigration process, having finally become a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":40797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-pop-culture","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nWill Ferrell and John Oliver Offer Up Alternative to \u201cGod Bless the U.S.A\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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U.S.A\u201d","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/10\/will-ferrell-and-john-oliver-offer-up-alternative-to-god-bless-the-u-s-a.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Will Ferrell and John Oliver Offer Up Alternative to \u201cGod Bless the U.S.A\u201d","og_description":"Will Ferrell and John Oliver teamed up on Oliver\u2019s \u201cLast Week Tonight\u201d to offer a \u201cgenuinely unique\u201d alternative to Lee Greenwood\u2019s \u201cGod Bless the U.S.A.\u201d Oliver discussed the song\u2019s use during naturalization ceremonies for new Americans, as Oliver himself is personally familiar. \u201cI am intimately familiar with the U.S. immigration process, having finally become 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