Video: John Oliver Wants Sympathy for Feds at IRS

In anticipation of Wednesday's Tax Day, Last Week Tonight 's main story this week was an examination of the utility of the Internal Revenue Service. In the piece, host John Oliver pleaded for empathy for the tax agency workers, compared the agency to a very important (and very gross) part of the body and even brought out a crooner to make the subject more appealing.

Oliver took Congress to task by noting the 20 percent decline in IRS funding since 2010 and cited instances of angry taxpayers sending understaffed regional tax offices checks covered in mustard. Oliver also noted the agency's terrible phone customer service , specifically mocking IRS' "courtesy disconnect" terminology: "You can't just put a nice word in front of an unpleasant one and change the meaning. It's like the phrase 'politely decline' or 'Care Bears.'"

Oliver noted that the tax agency is hated, but asked taxpayers to spare the agency's employees some sympathy. He showed testimony by IRS Commissioner John Koskinen that described the agency's older workforce -- less than 1 percent of IRS workers are under 25 -- and opined, "A government agency should not have the same age ratio as an Eric Clapton concert."

At the head of the piece, Oliver promised to give the normally boring subject a sexy spin. He did that at 13:30 with an assist from Michael Bolton, who sang about the infamous IRS recruitment problems and funding issues, all in his sexy croon.