Will Ferrell and John Oliver teamed up on Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” to offer a “genuinely unique” alternative to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” Oliver discussed the song’s use during naturalization ceremonies for new Americans, as Oliver himself is personally familiar. “I 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,” he said on the show. He looked into the song’s use, finding that Greenwood is paid $700 a year for the use of his song at the ceremonies. This led to Oliver mocking Greenwood’s attempts to monetize a number of things throughout his career, including attempting to trademark “God Bless the U.S.A.” He called Greenwood “a tacky Bible salesman with views completely at odds with everything a naturalization ceremony represents.”

After airing out his grievances, he concluded Greenwood’s song was inappropriate for the ceremonies. “I’m not sure why it’s being played at ceremonies at all, not just contractually or even musically but because Greenwood’s past comments about immigrants have been, to say the least, off-message,” he said. Greenwood was criticized for comments he made at a July 4^th concert about illegal immigration and has also faced some criticism for appearing at the Republican National Convention, where he performed “God Bless the U.S.A.”

Oliver stated that new citizens “deserve [a song] genuinely unique to this country.” “A song that celebrates the nation new Americans are about to join,” he said, “and the process that they’ve been through, while also not soft-pedaling some hard truths about it.” His show then featured a song 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: “There’s corn dogs and apple pie/Fireworks lighting up the sky/Nascar, rodeo, barbecue/That stuff’s American/Now so are you,” Ferrell sings. He also added in some of the down sides. “Televangelists and fossil fuels/Metal detectors in all our schools/Private prisons and Mountain Dew/That stuff’s American/Now that’s your problem too.” The song also featured a person dressed as “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley running behind Ferrell in a reference to January 6. Oliver even offered to pay the government $701 to get rid of Greenwood’s version and use Ferrell’s instead.