“Terrifying Times;” the best of times

John Oliver, the vaguely hapless British scamp who serves as a genially inept correspondent on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” has a bit of a mean streak. Who knew?

Anyone who watches his Comedy Central special, “Terrifying Times,” will figure this out this Sunday. While Oliver’s work on “The Daily Show” is generally fairly benign, his standup show has some serious teeth.

Here are just a few of his sharp lines that draw blood:

(On the new American imperialism) “America has received so much criticism for its foreign policy when the only mistake you’ve made is you’re doing what you’re doing now in the era of 24-hour-cable-news. We didn’t do that. … I am glad that the massacre in Amritsar, India was only captured in watercolor.” (He displays the painting.)

“I think, deep down, this planet yearns for the days of the British Empire once again – they yearn once more to be treated that badly, that politely.”

(Championing the notion that textbooks discussing evolution should have a sticker stamped on them, declaring that evolution is just one theory, should be taken even further) “Slap a sticker on the Bible: ‘Of course, this could all be bu!!sh!t.’”

(On the Oreo Pizza, which since its obscene media launch has seemed to have mercifully disappeared) “That is the biggest imaginable f@%&-you you could ever issue to terrorists. … (It tells them,) ‘There is nothing you can do to us that we are not already doing to ourselves.’”

“You could grab any Fox (News) journalist square by the shoulders, shake them backwards and forwards, scream into their face, ‘Be worse at your job,’ and they’d be entitled to say to you, ‘How?’”

- “John Oliver: Terrifying Times:” 10 p.m. Sunday, Comedy Central.