John Oliver takes shots at New Zealand once again!

Publish Date
Tuesday, 19 February 2019, 11:12AM

English comedian John Oliver has poked fun at New Zealand once again, this time over furniture company IKEA forgetting to put the country on a world map.

Earlier this month, a Reddit user revealed IKEA had wiped New Zealand off the face of the world when a photo of the US$30 map which was for sale in Washington DC was shared.

In the first 2019 show of Last Week Tonight which aired today, Oliver pin-pointed the "funny" mistake in a short segment.

It opened with a clip from ABC News which outlined the misprint as a costly mistake for IKEA, given the company was hoping to build a store in Auckland.

"Incredibly, this is not the first time this has happened to New Zealand. New Zealand gets left off maps all the time, now, do I think that is funny? Yes, yes I do," he said.

"New Zealand, which is basically Times Square if all the people were sheep and if all the neon signs were also sheep, keeps getting picked never in the dodgeball game of maps - that is objectively funny to me."

Oliver had his live audience in hysterics, laughing at the common occurrence and even outlined Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressing the matter in the past.

He also revealed both Tumblr and a subreddit had been created on the internet for specific examples of New Zealand being left off the map.

"... as well as, on large maps in multiple major airports including Munich, Beijing and Prague, which begs the question, where do they think these airports think flights to New Zealand are going?" he asked.

"Whether you like New Zealand or not, you can't deny, it is there - it's not just Australia's imaginary friend and they are trying their best."

In an effort to help New Zealand, Oliver and his team at Last Week Tonight created an image of the country which can be printed and stuck onto anything.

Posted to Twitter, members of the public are encouraged to download the image and post it anywhere they feel New Zealand is missing.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission.

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