Texas Reacts to John Oliver’s Comments on Iconic Gator Statue
El Paso has been the subject of conversation for John Oliver before on his HBO show Last Week Tonight With John Oliver; this past week it was the topic of his on Sunday. However... the thing that caught the attention was a short mention to what John said about the status in El Paso's San Jacinto Plaza. More specifically how we described the iconic alligator statue.
If you don't know the statue John was referring to, here it is.
Los Lagartos, aka the Fountain with the Alligators, has been part of El Paso's Downtown area since the 1880s. It has become one of the most recognizable pieces of the San Jacinto Plaza.
So what did John say about The Gators?
In a segment taken from Sunday's show (you can see the full 20 minute version on YouTube), he called the statue "magnificent" & then followed up by describing it as a "bunch of horny reptiles engaging in a sloppy swamp orgy". Needless to say, the clip was shared onto FitFam, and the reactions were quite mixed.
Some thought it was funny:
"Finally someone talks about our crocodile orgy statue, yay!" - danthefoxmusic
"Lmao that gator bit got me 😂 on this beautiful Monday morning! Now when I visit downtown and see it… that joke will be in my head haha" - predatorgrim
"That's what El Paso will be known as from now on. The city of the Horny Reptiles" - deinekes
"I can’t unsee the statue thing now" alicia915703
Others didn't find it funny
"Better put some respect on Chicano artist Luis Jimenez and his piece “Los Lagartos.”" -flight_fredd
"Not funny and really out of touch with what we’re going through here in EP. Not to mention people in Juarez are also tired of it." - claudia4eptx
"How dare he make fun of our pile of gators" - its_mandi
"Why they dissin on our gators" - xanex17
I know John Oliver probably meant it as a joke, he is a comedian after all, but I do hope one day he can actually come down to El Paso so he can see it for himself.
