John Oliver mocks Ron DeSantis’s old dating tactic as ‘most bizarre he’s ever heard'

Ron DeSantis is by all accounts a happily married man now, but he used to be pretty ruthless when it came to looking for love.

This is according to one former classmate who revealed that the Florida governor set women a secret test back when he was a student at Yale University.

John Oliver seized on the slice of DeSantis’s past during Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight, branding it the “most bizarre dating tactic I have ever heard”.

The move was recalled by author Charles Finch in his pandemic memoir ‘What Just Happened: Notes on a Long Year’ and cited in a profile on DeSantis published by the Financial Times last year.

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According to a friend of Finch, DeSantis “would tell dates he liked Thai food, but pronounced it ‘thigh’,” the FT article states.

“If they corrected him, Finch wrote, he would find an excuse to leave” because he “didn’t want a girlfriend who corrected him.”

Responding to the anecdote, Oliver said: “If that is true, wow. Just imagine being on that date.”

The presenter then did just that, continuing: “You’re out to dinner and out of nowhere your date tells you that he really likes ‘thigh food,’ and you think, ‘Wait, did he just call Thai food ‘thigh’ food? I must have misheard.’ But then he goes on to say he knows a great ‘thigh food’ restaurant in the area, all while staring very intently at you, almost studying your reaction.

“So, as politely as you can, you say, ‘Wait, do you mean Thai food? Like, from Thailand?’ And then suddenly his face drops and he says, ‘Sorry. I forgot I have a doctor’s appointment tonight’ and he leaves - leaving you with both the check and the single greatest first date disaster story of all time.”

It comes as the darling of the Republican right continues to lay the groundwork for his expected White House bid and Donald Trump denies coming up with new nicknames for his rival.

Last month, the former president refuted claims that he'd been diverging from his preferred moniker – “Ron DeSanctimonious” – in favour of “Meatball Ron”.

“I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will,” he wrote on Truth Social following a New York Times report suggesting he’d come up with the new taunt.

“Even though FoxNews killing lightweight Paul Ryan is revered by him, Low Energy Jeb Bush is his hero and always at his side, his beaches and State were closed for long periods of time, his testing, testing, testing for the China Virus didn’t work out too well, and his loyalty skills are really weak, it would be totally inappropriate to use the word ‘meatball’ as a moniker for Ron!”

Later in the show, Oliver also alluded to Fox News’ loyalty to the Florida governor, saying: “I’ll put it this way: If Fox News ever went on a date with Ron DeSantis, they definitely wouldn’t correct him when it called it ‘thigh food.’”

Oliver himself, however, had no qualms about tearing the presidential hopeful to shreds, summing him up as a “petty autocrat and a bully” who has “no interest in hearing dissent, questions or indeed the correct pronunciation of Thai food.”

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