John Oliver Reveals Hilarious Manchester United Twist Behind Choosing Mets Over Yankees

A minor league ballpark in Erie, Pennsylvania, turned into a grand stage on a balmy July night with a record sell-out crowd of 7,070 fans buzzing with excitement. The fans were there at the UPMC Park to witness the Erie Seawolves’ debut as rebranded Moon Mammoths—a creation of HBO’s Last Week Tonight. Midway through the event, host John Oliver faced questions from the media, and his answer about his own baseball fandom went viral, shedding light on a story that linked New York, English soccer, and the very heart of being a fan.

The comedian then dropped a hilarious curveball almost no one saw coming. And it wasn’t just a matter of New York baseball; it originated across the Atlantic. A lifelong Liverpool FC supporter, Oliver recalled his initial feelings towards the Yankees with an interesting revelation.

“Man United, a football team in England, they had a relationship at that time with the Yankees. So I already had a slight level of distaste for them,” Oliver said. Now, for any football fan, that explains it well. The Red Devils are Liverpool’s fiercest rivals, so this cross-sports grudge is perfectly reasonable.

Oliver was then confronted with the quintessential New York question: Yankees or Mets? And his answer was quick. “I realized that is no choice a human being should ever consider for too long,” he said, before further adding, “It would have to be the Mets.” Then came the knockout punch, with a smile: “You don’t get to move to a country and pick the Yankees without being an utter a–hole.”

But has being a Mets fan been a joyride? “Look at the stats. Not overwhelmingly fun,” Oliver said dryly. He then shared a perfect parable about his six-year-old son, Hudson. The boy’s real Mets fandom began in flames. Watching a slump, the little kid yelled at the TV, “What are they doing?!” And at that point of frustration, per Oliver, “he became a Mets fan for life.”

To really understand the depth of Oliver’s comments, one must understand the forgotten history he referenced.

It was the perfect backdrop for John Oliver’s punchline

The whole Erie event had been a living, breathing joke on Last Week Tonight. It celebrated the unique and often quirky promotional spirit of Minor League Baseball by offering a complete rebrand to one lucky team. The Erie Seawolves, the Detroit Tigers’ Double-A affiliate, won with a funny letter from their team president, who cheekily noted, “The Seawolves play baseball nowhere near the sea.”

The event showcased the kind of local, community-level small-town fun that is the hallmark of minor league baseball—the ideal setting for Oliver’s anti-corporate rant. The show’s writers dug into Erie’s local lore for inspiration. They came across a tale about a scuba diver named George Moon who’d found a 12,000-year-old mammoth fossil in a nearby lake. This strange, hyper-local story was the genesis of the Erie Moon Mammoths.

The event was a huge success, with Oliver throwing out the first pitch and selling snacks in the stands. It represented everything authentic and community-driven in sports—a stark contrast to the global business deal that fueled Oliver’s original “distaste” for the Yankees.

The “relationship” Oliver referred to was a major alliance unveiled in 2001. It teamed Manchester United with YankeeNets, the parent company that once owned both the Yankees and the NBA’s New Jersey Nets, now the Brooklyn Nets.

The Pinstripes, back then, had won four of the previous five World Series. The Red Devils, meanwhile, had won six of the past eight Premier League championships. It was a marquee alliance created to drive joint marketing and media growth and maximize merchandise sales. The end, however, wasn’t that sweet.

Oliver’s joke in Erie, therefore, landed perfectly. It was rooted in sports history, business, and the very identity of a fan.