Late Night Last Week: John Oliver Misses Out on RFK Jr. Bear Jokes

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 a John Oliver monologue on RFK Jr., Ronny Chieng on Trump, and Lewis Black roasting (get it?) our response to climate change. 

As summer comes to an end (sorry), the network late night shows are making the most of it. Stephen Colbert, Taylor Tomlinson, the two Jimmys, Seth Meyers, and staff were off last week. Yet thankfully, the non-network shows were here to guide us through the news. 

Let us begin with our recurring hero, John Oliver, whose team at Last Week Tonight focused much of their program on one man with too many bad ideas to list: independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Lies about vaccines, perverse plans for those on antidepressants (sup?), a history of associating with notorious individuals… the list goes on. 

Oliver does a superb job of highlighting the two versions of Kennedy: the one who plays up his experience as an environmentalist on mainstream media, and the other who pushes horrific ideas on fringe podcasts. The upshot: the dude may actually draw enough votes in swing states to impact the presidential race, and thus should be taken seriously. Oliver even shows footage of Kennedy himself urging Ralph Nader, who went on to help swing the 2000 election towards George W. Bush, to drop out. “This is the only time you’re gonna hear me say this, but RFK is, and don’t you dare take this out of fucking context,” Oliver said, “making a really good point there. 

But let us ask a more serious question: why must the comedy gods be so cruel? Why must they punish a pre-recorded show always so meticulously prepared to deliver the goods? I speak, of course, of the video RFK Jr. released just hours before the show, in which he admits to once taking the body of a dead bear, leaving it in Central Park, and then placing a bike beside it to make it seem as though the poor animal was run over. How did Oliver and his team feel when they saw this news? A team that across three episodes managed to work with a New York bakery to turn the host himself into a “Cake Bear.” 

RIP to the bear and all the good jokes Oliver could have made. 

Episodes of Last Week Tonight are typically uploaded to YouTube later in the week. In the meantime, you can watch the latest episode on Max or maybe, just maybe, find it online elsewhere. 

Ronny Chieng Tackles Donald Trump’s Racist NABJ Appearance 

So in more insane, but also not that surprising political news, on The Daily Show, host Ronny Chieng tackled Donald Trump’s racist remarks at the National Association of Black Journalists conference. Among other things, Trump said that Kamala Harris just recently decided to be Black. “I don’t know what’s worse, that he thinks she turned from Indian to Black, or that he thinks someone should ‘look into that,’” Chieng said. “Like, does he think the FBI is the Federal Black Investigators?” 

Chieng went on to discuss Trump’s other failed attacks, including a recent Fox News interview in which he implied that she would not be up to dealing with other world leaders because she is a woman. “I’m pretty sure Kamala can handle world leaders, okay?” Chieng said. “I mean she did just overthrow the President of the United States.”

Lewis Black Is Hot

In case you forgot, climate change is real, it is here, and Lewis Black is not happy with the extreme heat. It’s so hot out, Black said, you can’t even get down a slip n’ slide without “your nuts sticking to the vinyl.” Not only have we recorded the hottest day in history, but it is getting so hot on airplanes that soda cans are actually exploding in mid-air and injuring employees. “I don’t want to die in a plane crash because of Cherry Coke,” Black said. “I want to die because the Boeing guys forgot to tighten the screws.” So don’t we all. 

The cognitive dissonance around climate change has gotten so bad, that park rangers are now promoting the fact that you could actually bake banana bread in the windshield of your car. The National Weather Service is melting crayons to create fun art projects. And, oh yeah, we’re all still going to die, as Black reminds us with a scream. “It’s hard to know whether to be more worried about the record heat,” he says, “or the record stupidity.” 

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.