John Oliver explains why 911 is in desperate need of saving

"Even the Dominoes app can tell where you are and they've barely mastered the technology to make a palatable pizza."
 By 
Andrea Romano
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Between poor location technology, butt dials and people treating it like their own personal IT guy, 911 has turned into a bit of a joke.

John Oliver explained on Last Week Tonight why the emergency dispatch is in need of some overhaul.

"Even the Dominoes app can tell where you are and they've barely mastered the technology to make a palatable pizza," he said.


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The problem, according to Oliver, is that the vital service can't seem to get any attention from the government without some explicit, perfectly avoidable disaster. According to the segment, even "six years from now, 911 could still be unable to find one out of ever five emergency callers."

This isn't just scary, it's frankly unacceptable, says Oliver. 

"The sentence, 'in six years I might not be able to find one out of five of you,' is only acceptable if you're speaking to the members of One Direction."

Since 911's struggles will take time to sort out, Oliver and comedians Rob Riggle and Wendy McClendon-Covey, took the liberty of creating a much more timely and fitting PSA to teach everyone about the state of our emergency services.

In case you were wondering, it's not good.

Via Giphy


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Andrea Romano

Andrea Romano -- comedy writer, craft enthusiast, lady -- was a Watercooler Reporter. She worked as an intern at Mashable beginning in January 2014. Andrea recently completed her Masters degree in Media Studies and Film from The New School and writes sketch comedy at Upright Citizens Brigade and The People's Improv Theatre. She once watched three Paul Rudd movies in a row on a bicoastal flight and didn't realize it until she landed. She does things like that a lot. Twitter: @theandrearomano

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