John Oliver's show "Last Week Tonight" examined the fact that for years a video featuring Trumpist Lee Greenwood's song "God Bless the U.S.A." has been played at naturalization ceremonies for new U.S. citizens.
The show found that when Greenwood discovered that his song was played at these ceremonies, he forced the U.S. government into a $22,000 for a six year licensing contract to play the song at these ceremonies, which Oliver says "is both a surprisingly small amount of money and also, I would argue, $22,000 too much."
When that contract expired in 2018, there was a new deal to pay $700 per year to play the song at citizenship ceremonies, but there was somehow a snag with whether the government could pay by credit card! The deal fell through, and the government lost the right to play the song.
"Last Week Tonight" produced its own song and video, performed by "an actual American treasure" to be played at citizenship ceremonies, and magnanimously offered to pay the U.S. government $701 per year to play it.
Here is Will Ferrell singing (at 14:19) what I'm calling "That Stuff's American, and Now So Are You," and not only is it a great song and very funny, but it's actually genuinely touching and more patriotic than Greenwood's.
