Each week, Late Night Last Week highlights some of the best late night TV from the previous week. This week, late night hosts react to Zohran Mamdani’s win, Diego Luna guest hosts for Jimmy Kimmel and talks immigration, John Oliver tackles the One Big Beautiful Bill, and Leave Him Alone Guy returns.
The week in late night television belonged to Zohran Mamdani. Even before his (presumptive) win of the primary to be the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, Mamdani made headlines for his appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert with fellow candidate, NYC Comptroller Brad Lander. The two, who had cross-endorsed one another, were interviewed by Colbert on June 24, the night before the election.
Colbert and his team posted the extended interview on YouTube. It is truly one of the finer conversations to have been conducted with Mamdani, who has been hit with a series of false, Islamaphobic attacks that have only escalated as his win. If you’re wondering who Mamdani is, this is a great place to start—as an interviewer, Colbert still has it.
Plus, it’s fun to see the bromance between Mamdani and Lander, who at one point decide they will try and settle things via arm wrestling. “I do appreciate your having Idris Elba on today,” Lander joked to Colbert, “so Zohran is not the best looking guy on the show.”
Following the election, hosts had fun with Mamdani’s win and his focus on making the city more affordable, including rent freezes and making public buses free to ride.
“Mamdani is 33 years old,” joked Jimmy Fallon, “After he won he was like, ‘My seven roommates are never gonna believe this!’”
“I for one cannot wait to get my free bus,” Colbert said. “I’m going to paint mine like the Mystery Machine.”
Hosts had even more fun with former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s loss to Mamdani. Cuomo, who Colbert described as the “guy at dinner who hasn’t blinked in an hour,” was considered by the political world as the clear favorite to win the nomination.
“During his concession speech, Cuomo said Mamdani put together a great campaign and added, quote, ‘He touched young people and inspired them and got them to come out and vote,’” Seth Meyers said. “Cuomo’s mistake was waiting until after he was elected to touch young people.”
Following Cuomo’s loss, Lander was seen celebrating throughout the city, including at his victory party, where he declared, “Good Fucking Riddance!” Colbert had some fun with that one, placing a dollar in the “Comptroller’s Swear Jar.”
“This is the city’s pension fund,” he added, shaking the jar to the camera.
Meanwhile, on the west coast, Jimmy Kimmel’s summer vacation began. In his place: Diego Luna, who was an absolute natural in the role. From dressing up as a Stormtrooper on Hollywood Boulevard, to chatting up celebrity guests, Luna was right at home in the host’s chair.
“I’ve always dreamed of doing this,” he said. “In fact, many times I found myself making films just to have an excuse to come here and promote them.”
While Luna’s comedic chops are apparent to anyone watching, his first monologue, on June 23, took on a more serious tone. With the chance to talk before a national audience, Luna, who is Mexican, spoke to the Trump administration’s ongoing assault on migrants to this country, and specifically discussed the ICE raids in Los Angeles.
“These have been a dark few weeks, it is not acceptable nor is it normal to separate families,” Luna said. “Violence and terror are not okay. Immigrants need to know that their struggle is yours as well.”
Luna’s impassioned monologue nearly brought Guillermo Rodriguez (Kimmel’s sidekick on the show), to tears. Watch it in full below.
On the June 29 episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver tackled that thing currently dominating the pre-July 4 news cycle: One Big Beautiful Bill. Yes, that is actually what it is called. And while a thing with such a name is so easy to dismiss (perhaps that is the point?), its passage would carry some devastating effects that even people who voted for it are against. See, for example, House Republicans who voted for a version of the bill that contained a 10-year ban on state regulation of artificial intelligence. Some, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said she wasn’t aware of that passage when she voted in the affirmative.
Oliver’s monologue heavily focused on one aspect of the bill: cuts to Medicaid. Yes, they’re in the bill, despite earlier promises from President Trump that the program would not “be touched.” “Okay, but there’s a few problems there,” Oliver said. “Following through on a promise not to touch something has never exactly been one of Trump’s strong suits.”
But Trump is not the only politician making disingenuous promises. Oliver plays a clip of House Speaker Mike Johnson talking about how the cuts are meant to target 29-year-old dudes who collect Medicaid as they play videogames all day. That, of course, is not true.
“How is it possible,” Oliver asked, “that Mike Johnson always sounds so old and out of touch, while always managing to look like a 12-year-old who dressed up as Stephen Colbert for Halloween?”
Watch for the knowledge, stay for Oliver’s analysis of Dr. Oz’s (yes, remember, Dr. Oz is the current head of Medicare and Medicaid) explanation of the cuts.
Finally, let us end with a bit of lovely silliness. Last week saw the return of a beloved Late Night with Seth Meyers character, “Leave Him Alone Guy,” played by staff writer John Lutz.
Last week, Leave Him Alone Guy came to the defense of Elon Musk, a frequent subject of Meyers’ barbs. If there’s anyone who needs to be defended, it’s the world’s richest man fresh off basically running the world’s most powerful government for the last few months.
“If you want someone to joke about, joke about me!” he declared, interrupting Meyers in the process. As is custom for the bit, Leave Him Alone Guy then offers a self-deprecating punchline: “You could make fun of the fact that I didn’t have my first kiss until I was 45.”
“But now I eat them all the time,” he added, reaching into his pocket. “Yummy little treat in the middle of a sketch.”
Meyers was quick to pounce on his nemesis. “Wait,” he said, “holding back laughter at the slip. “You think this is a sketch?!”
“Leave me alone!” exclaimed a wide-eyed Leave Him Alone Guy.
Will DiGravio is a Brooklyn-based critic, researcher, and late night comedy columnist, who first contributed to Paste in 2022. He is an assistant editor at Cineaste, a GALECA member, and since 2019 has hosted The Video Essay Podcast. You can follow and/or unfollow him on Twitter and learn more about him via his website.
