Late Night Last Week: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Recap the DNC

Late Night Last Week is a column highlighting some of the more notable segments from the previous week of late night television. Today’s installment features Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert broadcasting live from the final night of the DNC, RuPaul guest hosting for Jimmy Kimmel, Maya Rudolph on playing Kamala Harris, and more.

A legendary late night duo were broadcasting live from Chicago last Thursday night, August 22, after Vice President Kamala Harris closed out the Democratic National Convention with a speech accepting her party’s nomination. Jon Stewart was in the host’s chair for The Daily Show, while his good pal Stephen Colbert capped off a week of live coverage on The Late Show. As has been the case in recent years, Stewart was far more biting than Colbert, who took on more of a cheerleader role as he recapped the night’s events.

On The Daily Show, Stewart’s monologue took a summative look at the DNC’s four days in Chicago (Paste previously covered nights one, two, and three). Stewart noted the wide range of speakers who took to the stage to advance the party’s agenda. Anti-billionaire Bernie Sanders and billionaire J.B. Pritzker. Labor union heads and former CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. “People who have prosecuted sexual predators,” Stewart said as an image of Harris entered the frame. “And …” he added as an image of Bill Clinton appeared beside her. “There goes that booking,” Stewart said.

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“They had Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, gay Americans, Jewish Americans, Palestinian Amer—oh,” Stewart said, in reference to the DNC’s refusal to invite a Palestinian American speaker. “To be fair, it was only four nights, eight hours a night.”

Colbert, who has been chronicling every night of the convention, noted the big television ratings the DNC garnered in comparison to the Republican National Convention on their respective second nights. The DNC featured Barack and Michelle Obama as speakers, while the RNC gave the platform to Lara Trump and Marco Rubio. “That’s like saying we don’t have Coke, is diarrhea okay?”

The acceptance speech by Harris featured heavily in Colbert’s monologue. After some obligatory jokes about Harris’ criticisms of Trump and the kiss her husband, Doug Emhoff, blew from across the arena, Colbert ended on a serious note. “She is a prosecutor in the trial of Donald J. Trump,” Colbert said. “He is guilty as charged and now it is time to sentence him to four-to-eight years of President Harris.”

Back on The Daily Show, the best fucking news team in the business had a chance to offer their farewells to the DNC and the great city of Chicago. They had some fun with the convention’s emphasis on small town America, including Tim Walz’s discussion in his speech of growing up in a town of 400 people. The correspondents competed to see who grew up in the smaller town. But by the end, Ronny Chieng, a city man, had had enough. “We’re all godless heathens with no values and bedbugs, and we like it that way,” he said. “We don’t bake each other pies. I don’t take food from a stranger like a psychopath. And I have never talked to my neighbors. Ever!” Amen.

Colbert also welcomed to the show Mavis Staples and Jeff Tweedy, who performed “Freedom Highway” before the live audience. There wasn’t any comedy there, but if you see the words “Mavis Staples” and don’t click on the video, do you even like fun? Or have taste?

RuPaul Interviews Maya Rudolph

Meanwhile, the rest of late night pursued with business as usual, naturally mixing in some DNC jokes whenever they had the chance. RuPaul guest hosted for Jimmy Kimmel last week. With the eyes of the nation fixed firmly on politics, RuPaul took the opportunity to stand behind a podium and deliver a policy platform of his own. “First and foremost, I say we disband the Supreme Court,” RuPaul proposed during the August 22 broadcast. “The only Supreme who can tell me what to do is Diana Ross.” And then came the big idea. “Let’s rename all those boring states,” RuPaul said. “From now on, North and South Dakota will be known as Mary-Kate and Ashley.”

RuPaul also sat down for an interview with Maya Rudolph, who will reprise her role as Harris on the upcoming season of Saturday Night Live. Rudolph expressed her happy surprise that people seemed so excited for her to return to Studio 8H. “Everybody’s just ready for it, which is such a wonderful,” she said as the audience broke into applause. “I would never have believed you if you had said, ‘Hey, one day you’re going to be playing the presidential candidate.’ For me, to think that I have anything to do with this, by association, is mind-blowing.”

Conner O’Malley Returns to Late Night

Last week, Seth Meyers devoted much of his “A Closer Look” monologue to American politics and the DNC. On Thursday, he turned his attention to Mike Lindell, or, as he is more commonly known, the MyPillow Guy. Lindell went undercover at the DNC. He offered his followers the chance to watch along as he live streamed his antics, all for the bargain price of $2.00. It even came with a video of Lindell as he had his mustache shaved off. “Who is at home watching this?” Meyers asked. “If I didn’t know any better, I would think this was actually a police sting operation to identify America’s weirdest uncles.”

On August 19, the great Conner O’Malley returned to Late Night. A former writer and performer on the show, O’Malley sat on the couch in semi-character, playing the caustic man he so often embodies in his work, like his recent special Stand Up Solutions, short film Coreys, and directorial debut, Rap World. The dude has had quite a summer. O’Malley informed us that he was fired from Late Night for his political beliefs, and because he was Irish. “Seth, you are keeping me sane in this political climate,” O’Malley said, grabbing Meyers’ hands and shaking. “Literally, everyday I’m watching CNN and I’m saying, ‘What the heck is this law that they’re passing, ahh!’ And try to rip my own head off my body.” He continued, with a look at the camera: “I’m not so much a Democrat, I’m not so much a Republican, as much as I am a registered badass.”

Taylor Tomlinson Asks Fallon to Sign Fever Pitch

It’s always fun when one late night host visits another. On August 20, Taylor Tomlinson, the host of After Midnight on CBS, visited The Tonight Show on NBC. Chatting with host Jimmy Fallon, Tomlinson discussed her program and upcoming stand-up tour, Save Me. Tomlinson discussed the difficulties of being a stand-up comic, such as people assuming she will be good at certain tasks, like officiating a wedding. “This is so different,” she remembered saying to her friend, “I have to see you again.”

Later in the interview, Tomlinson worked up the courage to ask Fallon for a favor. After three stand-up appearances on the show, and now finally appearing on the couch, she said, she felt comfortable enough to ask the host to sign a DVD copy of the 2005 film, Fever Pitch. Tomlinson said it was one of her favorite movies to watch with her younger sibling. She also liked to watch the film when she was sick because of the scene where Fallon takes care of his co-star, Drew Barrymore. “Don’t watch it,” Tomlinson said as she turned to the studio audience. “Your expectations of men will be too high.”

Will DiGravio is a Brooklyn-based critic and researcher, 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.