The Duck Hunt video game-inspired duck stamp that John Oliver submitted to the U.S. government's duck stamp art competition has been disqualified. Every year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service holds the Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest to select one lucky winner to grace that year's Federal Duck Stamp. Every 98 cents of the dollar Federal Duck Stamp goes towards the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund to stop the destruction of migratory fowls' wildlife habitat. This year's contest included the stipulation that the entry must also include an accessory or scene related to waterfowl hunting. To meet the hunting-related requirement, Oliver's entry used elements of Nintendo's Duck Hunt.

Released in 1984 for the NES, Nintendo's Duck Hunt was a light gun shooter video game. The game featured a dog and shootable ducks, the latter of which can be considered the oldest Nintendo character, surpassing even Mr. Game & Watch. Using the NES Zapper, the player shoots the flying ducks on their screen. At the bottom of the screen, a panel displays the current level, the player's score, and the required number of ducks to shoot. Upon beating a level, the game has the dog smile while holding up a duck by its neck.

Related: 15 Things You Never Knew About Nintendo's Duck Hunt

On the comedian's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver T.V. show, Oliver explained that his Duck Hunt-related entry was unfortunately disqualified. The entry was an oil painting that featured a realistic-looking duck flying on the winning screen of the classic Nintendo game Duck Hunt. The entry was disqualified by the federal government due to the Duck Hunt panel at the bottom of the painting containing writing, which goes against one of the rules of the contest from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Thankfully for both Oliver and his audience, he had commissioned three other Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest entry paintings that did not break this writing rule. Though the other three entries qualified, they did not make it past the first round of voting. With all five of Oliver's entries either being disqualified or losing in the first round, the late-night host can probably hear the snickering of the Duck Hunt dog that sounds when the player loses the impossible-to-complete game.

Though John Oliver did not find success in the Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest, he is finding success in the monetary value of the paintings. Oliver is currently auctioning off all five oil paintings and will be donating their proceeds to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Federal Duck Stamp Program. The bidding will close this Friday at 10:30 P.M. EDT with one lucky winner owning the Duck Hunt-inspired masterpiece.

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Source: Last Week Tonight/YouTube, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service