That guy who just kept quiet, I have a weird feeling that he ate it and not the dog

I feel like the sort of person who volunteers to cut up corpses in their spare time with no prior experience or training other than "they want to" is *exactly* the sort of person you DONT want to be a coroner.

In Italy you need at least 10 years of university education (6 med school, 4 forensic) to even begin to perform autopsies on your own. Just saying...

This episode reminds of an episode of Criminal Minds where Rossi and Blake go to the coroner and ask if he checked for signs of sexual assault and he says "She was a hooker, there wasn't a need" and they ask him where he went to medical school, and he says he was elected.

If it wasn't for John Oliver, I would not even be aware of stuff like this.

You know it’s a John Oliver story when he says “and then they contracted out to private businesses” and then everything goes horribly horribly wrong.

How to incentivize medical students to work as a medical pathologist: after working in the office for 4 years; you get debt forgiveness.

Being a Forensic Pathologist sounds like the medical equivalent of becoming a public defender. If you don’t incentivize students to take up the profession, they won’t do it unless they’re desperate.

"They asked me how well I understood theoretical physics. I said I had a theoretical degree in physics. They said welcome aboard."

The victim’s body had 37 knife wounds to the chest and stomach. It must be a cooking accident.

Anyone else watching this in 2020 after the medical examiner in Minnesota said that George Floyd WASN'T killed by asphyxiation?

In my home county, someone was found drowned in a bathtub with their hands tied behind their back and the coronors ruled it a suicide.

Today I learned that my cat on my left, and my cat on my right, are in fact coroners

So basically CSI and NCIS studio sets are better than the real thing ?

Aside from the utterly shocking facts exposed in this story, I think most of us were pretty blown away that Hugh Grant could have been going by Hugh Mungo Grant and yet has chosen not to.

This program hits the nail on the head. In a very concise, but yet respectfully humorous way, John Oliver has presented the day-to-day horrors and frustrations that Medical Examiners must deal with every day. I direct students interested in forensics and forensic pathology to this segment so that they have a little glimpse of what they will be fighting against and fighting for.

America: Spending billions of dollars for weapons America handling the victims of those weapons: Best I can do is an old garage

"Death by bonesaw and jumper cables should count as a natural cause and nobody needs to investigate those deaths." -Saudi Prince Salaman

I wanted his intro to be "Death; The number one cause of death in the world."

"They can sound the alarm when they spot the spread of infectious disease." 2020: *laughs manically*

"I tell people all the time, I almost became a neurosurgeon" is the most iconic line.

"They would "butcher" my last name" My man really dropped the most cutting edge pun of 2019 huh

Best line of this entire video, "I really did almost do those things!". I literally had to pause to process that for a second lol.

Another sad thing about coroner and medical examiner offices is how quick they are to completely write off people with a documented history of drug abuse. If they are informed that you have a documented history of drug abuse, any thoughts of an investigation into the cause of death are over, and that is what they're going to write on your death certificate. Cause of death: Complications due to history of drug abuse. Even if that has nothing to do with the actual cause of death.

It's just amazing how the USA functions as a 3rd world country

My mom passed away suddenly in December 2017. The medical examiner's office chose to not do a full autopsy, and only run a toxicology screening, as it was expected that she had passed due to interactions of medications she was on. Despite not even doing an autopsy, it took SIX months before the toxicology reports were returned to us. We nearly lost access to her life insurance, as the life insurance company told us they were giving us one month to get them a death certificate, otherwise we forfeit the policy. Thankfully my dad realized this was illegal, and after threatening to get the insurance commissioner involved, they changed their tune, and let us submit the certificate once we finally had it. I shudder to think how many people, deep in their grief and pain, just roll over and give up when companies try to take advantage of them like that, because they don't think they have any options. The whole death industry is positioned perfectly to take advantage of people at their weakest moments, and from funeral parlors to life insurance, it happens way too frequently, and is exacerbated by the issues with the coroner/medical examiner industry.

1:44 “They can sound the alarm incase if an infectious disease.” Relevant in 2020...

In the midst of COVID, this has suddenly become a hugely relevant problem that somehow isn't being talked about.

What's with USA's weird obsession with holding elections for public positions that should be filled by professionally trained experts? DAs, coroners, sheriffs, ... WTF? Just hold public examinations and tests, and hire the candidate with the best qualification like everybody else. Edit: C'mon people, I'm not suggesting that you should appoint those positions, but choose them in public exams, with binding results that are not controlled by the local authorities.

First rule of working in a lab, no food or drink.

This is why I will get my M E D I C A L D E G R E E Before entering the field.

I love this show because it's not clickbait and I think 'wow that's a pretty wierd subject how are they gonna make 20 minutes full of news clips and jokes about that' and then they do

"But that's just me speaking personally, as both correctly and objectively" is now my new favorite motto. EDIT: I'm not sure how I feel about this being my most liked comment on this website...

I'm amazed at how effective John Oliver explains depressing matters in a enjoyable way

in arkansas most coroners run for the job so they can get kickbacks from funeral homes. The coroner decides where the body goes.

Dr. Bennet Omalu, the guy who left after the sheriff changed autopsy findings, had an entire movie made about him back in 2015 called Concussion.

And here I am sitting in Germany, where a coroner needs to be a doctor (meaning six years of study in human medicine at which end you have a government supervised exam resulting in approbation) and then needs to be a medical specialist in pathology (meaning at least another six years of study, which again results in a government supervised exam). WTF America... how?

Just a tip from one of youre british cousin's america STOP MAKING EVERY OFFICE ELECTABLE!!!!

The fact that we suck at death investigations is one of many reasons why we're in the boat we're in regarding COVID.

The weird and wonderful thing about these clips, they’re educational, they’re funny as hell, and I always somehow forget this is a television production and not a KZfaq show, then fucking glen close shows up and I’m like “WOAH HOW DID HE GET THAT ACTRESS” when she literally is cast in like two HBO shows

Always wondered where my dog runs off to... turns out he's an Arkansas coroner.

I'm sorry.... WHAT?! THIS is how coroners get their job? WHY?! Nothing about this makes any sense whatsoever! You're determining what killed a person and possibly whether or not a criminal investigation takes place as a result, of course you should have some kind of medical background! That's the kind of stuff most people just assume because IT'S COMPLETELY STUPID FOR IT NOT TO WORK THAT WAY!

yeah, I was pre-med for my first semester of college, does that make me a doctor?

Plot twist: that license plate was supposed to say "Auto-Psy." Turns out the guy fancies himself a mechanic, and calls himself the Auto Psychic.

Surprised that John didn't announce he was running for the coroners office in Arkansas.

They asked me how well I understood theoretical medical examination. I said I had a theoretical degree in medical examination. They said welcome aboard.

Forever had only one season and i‘m still mad about it being cancelled.

Via humour he is actually raising an issue lead by developed countries. As a forensic student I'm damn happy to hear✌ anyway John you are fuckin awesome 😂

I am currently applying to medical school to become a forensic pathologist! I investigated the lack of medical examiners as an intern for the Colorado legislature last summer! After talking to hospitals, lobbyists, medical students, the lack of medical examiners derives from 1) lack of rotations during med school 2) as John Oliver mentioned, malpractice and outdated infrastructure and 3) appropriate pay. States can EASILY fix this problem via state funding - incorporating medical examiner offices into an agency of the state (not local) executive branch. The problem arises in convincing legislators that this underrepresented aspect of public life needs reform. TL;DR Contact your state legislator today! I’ll literally email you a prewritten letter or spoken prompt. You just fill in the blanks and send it to your congressman. Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk

wow. I feel like I'm more qualified to be a coroner just because I played through L.A. Noire.

John, PLEASE do a follow up on this story! There’s more interest than ever in all things criminology due to all the shows about it! Seems to me that can help to capitalize the absolute need for it..publicly shaming legislators seems to be the only way to fix deep seated messes. You know; it’s the American way!

Europe: Our medical system is almost criminally underfunded. US: 👀

1 of my fav Neil Gaiman quotes "coroner kicks the corpse , if it don't kick back he signs the certificate"

17:30 "epidemics potentially being missed" things that aged horribly

We waited 2 years for the cause of death of my mother AND father. They died of cardiac failure. Then they tried to bill the family for storing the cadavers. Then it took 2 more years to ger their ashes. When we found out they were be used at teaching cadavers. All 7 of my siblings showed up at the processing center with an extremely angry attitude (the men in my families are hardcore bikers). We got the remains in 3 days. The questions are, did we get their remains or ashes from a barbecue fest?

50% of comments: non-US citizens outraged about the unbelievably stupid way this works in the US 50% of comments: " _Forever_ was a good show, dammit!"

Who needs sleep when I have John Oliver

oh god. the more I watch these, the more I regret living in Tennessee.

Okay, but I just have to say that _Forever_ is genuinely a pretty great show, and the fact that it only got one season is a real shame. 😞

Thanks John. If we have to eventually find out what a shitty country we actually live in, we might as well be entertained in the process. Laughing is more fun than crying. Keep up the good work!

"That's just me speaking personally-as well as correctly and objectively" hahaha I'm definitely stealing that

Well this has aged like fine wine.

This is one of the rarest of rare occasions that someone was able to genuinely upstage and compliment John Oliver's flawless satire delivery.

This is good journalism. It's great that you continue to call out these issues, since the typical media fails to do so.

9:30 poor Dr. Harlan. His dog ate the body's spleen and kidney, while the cat got his tongue!

As a born and raised Missouri resident, everytime I hear Missouri in the news, a part of me dies.

And here I thought Riverdale was unrealistic with every character but seems like it would be really easy to bribe a coroner.

I'm slowly wondering if anything works in the US I mean John talked about literally everything and always beginns with "let's talk about ... and why it has problems"

Most pathologists do not like doing county autopsies. They learn quickly on medical school rotation if they choose pathology, an elective part of rotation in many states, that the county doesn't care unless it hits the news. Thus, they are unimportant and normally underfunded. If they choose to pursue it, there is a lot of work ahead of them. The potential pathologist needs to choose anatomic pathology as their career, and do a fellowship which is three years. Most would do four years of fellowship, as adding on an additional year of a clinical pathology fellowship means being able to do 'general pathology' which is what hospitals and medical research companies look for. They would then need to do an additional year of forensic pathology. So they would be ready to be a forensic pathologist at about thirty, and make less money than a general pathologist that only did a four year fellowship. Add in the fact that a lot of basic pathology is being farmed out of state or country, with only enough pathologists being kept on staff for odd cases and signing off on the farmed out work. Pathology is just not a popular field anymore, the job security is not there and the money is less than some of the other fields. All this is from listening to my father, the pathologist, over the years.

Of all professions, it would make sense to legally require medical examiners and coroners to *at least* be certified in the field.

Aaaaand this is eerily relevant today as they're JUST NOW getting to potential corona autopsies.

Coroners are elected? That's like electing judges, completely insane. ... wait a minute. Edit: Fixed a typo noted by gzerox2. Oh well at least it was not on any popular commen.. aaaaaand it's top rated comment on the video. Is this public shaming?

While on the topic of changing the death industry, "ask a mortician" is a great youtube channel that covers a lot of death-related issues worth being informed about. Highly recommend.

We need to start asking question about every system in our country.

This program is close to the heart of anyone who has suffered a loss in the family. Parent lost without an investigation is a tragedy.

I looked to my left like John said, and my dog was just sitting there looking at me and I said “You could be a coroner in Arkansas”

"We almost made it to our 11 year wedding anniversary." "I'm sorry, what happened?" "Oh, well we never got married. I don't know why you'd think that we did. I just thought about reaching our 11th anniversary." I mean, that's pretty close...

13:08 My face about half the time that I hear a clip that John plays on whatever episode I'm watching.

Ducky from NCIS is my favorite he’s so chill and interesting yet still super sassy

A single light bulb OVER MY DEAD BODY!

"in Arkansas, there is barely a bar at all [to become a coroner]" No wonder our town coroner pronounces everything as suicides or heart attacks.

It’s true!!! I live in San Joaquin County and it was drama here for awhile. It causes people to distrust the police even more if the coroner/ sheriff says they didn’t shoot!

This pairs up quite well with the story of the mortician who shoved a ceramics kiln, not even a furnace, full of bodies, and then just shoveling zip lock bags of mixed remains to give to the mourning relatives. This happened in the 80’s so one should think it’s the norm or that oversight hasn’t improved, which it has. But it does kind of showcase the problem: all too often these problems don’t get fixed, until it’s a true tragedy.

That man looked at the interviewer like he was thinking:"My dog will eat you...."

"And... what's yer 'sperience with doin' autopsies, son?" "Uh.. I cut tomatoes at Subway for a summer." "Yer the most qualified candidate yet... Yer hired, boy!" - Arkansas.

We can't even afford proper lighting for autopsies? Is our system (yes, our system) so broken that we can't even evaluate the deceased in a proper way?

My dad didn't want an autopsy and I didn't blame him. So when he died, it was an obvious death after we explained his history of heart issues. He didn't want to get cut open and messed with. I'm glad he didn't get one.

Gasp! The best show of Sunday night, hosted by a vulgar parrot! I love it!

this show is amazing and very accurate. Out of 92 students who i graduated from medical school with none of us went into pathology. i think allowing medical students to have more exposure to the specialty early on or making pathology a required rotation would certainly be a good place to start to assist with increasing the number of forensic pathologists.

I volunteered at the coroner's office and they relied on garden loppers to get open the ribs and a very cheap saw from Harbor Freight for cranial investigations XC

...anytime someone says "honestly..really, to be perfectly honest..." ..lies follow.

Tracy Morgan: "I ain't dying by Walmart." A call back to when he was nearly killed by a Walmart employed semi truck driver.

This is exactly the content I want from John Oliver. Surprising issues, that affect people on the local level in the US. Not all the stuff about Trump. This kind of content really makes me appreciate living in a developed country, without these issues that make people's lives harder in countries without the basic necessities I have. If I was a religous man, I would thank god for all the great things my people have.

In my small town in Kentucky, our coroner was a paramedic who had previously been an Army medic during Vietnam. He knew and had seen some ish.

Two fun facts: In the last KY coroner's election I voted in, there was a Republican nominee and a Democratic nominee. I thought the Dem looked marginally less unqualified (yes, that is the most appropriate phrasing under the circumstances), but it's KY, so the Rep won. A friend randomly died in her sleep one night. She had a lot of chronic health issues but had been more or less fine for a couple years. The person just wrote down "heart attack" without any testing. No idea how she died.

"I literally, almost became a neurosurgeon. I mean if I had just gone to medical school, I would be a neurosurgeon now." 🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦

Holy shit I live in Pensacola and the storage unit with the human body parts is right down the road from my house! (That was some _Silence of the Lambs_ shit!) _Why do I feel flattered John mentioned it?!!_ 🤣😂

This program, and this is true, in Europe is called: weekly reminders, why we should be happy not to live in the US

15:32 "that is just me speaking personally, as well as correctly and objectively" i need to use that

Old Guy: There is no way to tell how he died. Me: Personally, my money's on 'burned in a car behind a police station'