Late Night Last Week: John Oliver Gives His Closing Election Pitch

Every Monday ​​​​​​Late Night Last Week highlights some of the more notable segments from the previous week of late night television. This week John Oliver makes a passionate plea to American voters, Stephen Colbert talks with Ta-Nehisi Coates, a familiar face rejoins Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, and Jimmy Fallon gets wowed by card tricks.

Well, folks, here we are. The week of the presidential election, or, perhaps it is more apt to call it, the first week of the presidential election, as we are unlikely to know the results for at least a few days, and, depending on, well, how it all shakes out, endure months of legal challenges. As Chancellor Palpatine once put it, “I love democracy.” 

Last week, our favorite late night hosts were busy getting We the People ready for the election. Monologue writers have never had it so good. But the best writers are those who not only respond to the absurdity of the moment, but help us to understand the dark road ahead. Few issues have remained so central to the election as immigration, ranging from Trump ranting about migrants in Ohio, to false claims of noncitizens entering the country just to vote and tip the scales. As John Oliver said recently of that absurd notion, “It’s like assuming someone would break into a bank just so they could free the pens from their chains.” 

Oliver continued to discuss immigration on his October 27 broadcast. Specifically, he focused on Donald Trump’s plan to execute mass deportations should he win again, and the shameless lies he and his surrogates are telling about it. People who have immigrated to this country, Oliver notes, are essential to the United States in every way. For example, studies show that the lack of housing in the country, an issue all sides agree is a major one, could not be addressed without people who have immigrated here, whose skill and craftsmanship make up nearly one-third of the artisans who work in the field. 

The Trump plan would also cost nearly a trillion dollars over just a decade’s time, which Oliver notes to showcase just how horrible the plan is on every level. But he also made clear the money was not the reason for his opposition. “I don’t want to see a headline tomorrow that says, ‘John Oliver Blasts Detention Camps as ‘too expensive,’” he said. “But I do think it’s worth emphasizing the extent to which Trump and Vance are full of shit from a practical standpoint as well as a moral one.” 

The episode then pivoted to Oliver’s own experience immigrating to this country and becoming an American citizen. He shared the shocking (at least to me) fact that conservative singer Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A” has been a staple at citizenship ceremonies for years. Oliver and his team did some digging into Greenwood, including his love of Trump and history of selling overpriced Bibles with the lyrics to the song. They also found out that his American anthem is, in fact, not as tailored to this country as one might expect. 

On Monday, October 28, Jon Stewart also addressed Trump’s plans for mass deportation, playing clips from the campaign’s xenophobic rally at Madison Square Garden, during which Trump talked about evoking the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts. “Who the fuck told Donald Trump about the Alien Enemies Act of 1798? Cuz I’m gonna bet you something,” Stewart said. “He did not come to the meeting and go, ‘Hey, why don’t we use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. Would that apply?” 

Stewart once again showed himself as the master of the hard pivot, going from very silly, to very serious. He talked about instances of other groups of people, like Irish-, Italian-, and Japanese-Americans, being targeted by those who thought of them as lesser. “Every one of these groups was, at a place and time, on the wrong side of not being American enough,” Stewart said. “And right now you think you’re safe, cuz the group Trump was talking about, it’s not you.” 

As Stewart finished his monologue, an old Daily Show friend appeared. Jessica Williams returned to offer her own, more optimistic take. “Do not let them exhaust you. Don’t let the constant draining bullshit wear you out. Do not look away. Look right down that barrel and say, ‘Not today, apathy,’” Williams said. “I’m only having half a case of Trulys. And no matter what happens, we need to throw our arms around the people who need it the most and hang the fuck on.” 

But as for Stewart, a rich, old, white guy, Williams had different advice. “You can let go sweetheart. Let go, Jon,” she said. “I’ll tell them your story.” Stewart then informed her that he had, in fact, signed on to host the show (on Mondays) for another year. “Oh my God, you’re crazy,” Williams said. “You think you’re gonna live for another year? That’s optimistic!” 

Ta-Nehisi Coates Talks With Colbert About The Message

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert welcomed to the stage one of the country’s greatest writers and public intellectuals, Ta-Nehisi Coates, who joined to discuss his new book, The Message, which centers on his travels to South Carolina, Senegal, and Israel and the West Bank. The conversation between the two was not merely crucial and fascinating given Coates’ own worldview, but a showcase of Colbert’s great gift for making serious issues and ideas comedically palatable . 

Last month, an interview with Coates on Colbert’s own network, CBS, was the subject of controversy.  CBS Mornings co-anchor Tony Dokoupil reduced Coates’ work to that which “would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.” The CBS newsroom itself, after conducting an internal review, later found that the questioning and treatment of Coates did not meet their journalistic standards.

Colbert and Coates, as two great critics of the media and how we consume information, had a terrific conversation. “When you lose trust in the media that actually trains you, you have to find your own way, and you have to find your own method,” Coates said of his book. “And the thing that I was not seeing, was a Palestinian perspective. And I made a very, very conscious choice to center that.” 

Shin Lim Returns to The Tonight Show

The October 31 broadcast of The Tonight Show celebrated both Halloween and its twin holiday, National Magic Day. The Tonight Show has long been a hub for magic, including during the days of Johnny Carson, who began his career in entertainment as one. Fallon, thankfully, has kept that tradition alive and he, along with The Roots, have proven themselves to be fine participants in and fans of the magical arts. 

Fallon welcomed America’s Got Talent and Las Vegas stalwart Shin Lim back to the show. Lim’s card trips, optical illusions, and just general sleight of hand skills are a sight to behold. For this act, he had Fallon shuffle the cards and Questlove name a specific suit and card. The act ends with a simple, classic request, “Quest, check your pocket, inside your pocket,” Lim says from the other side of the stage. 

And Now, A Word on the Election From John Oliver

Let us end where we started, with John Oliver and the election. Recently, Oliver has voiced his frustration with HBO executives delaying the posting of clips from his broadcast to YouTube. Oliver’s public displeasure has clearly had an impact, as an exception was made this week and his main monologue from the November 3 broadcast is now available on YouTube. 

The focus of the episode was Trump and the election generally. “We’ve talked all year about the many good reasons not to vote for him. His mass deportation plans, his reshaping of the courts, Project 2025; everything he said or did before his presidency, everything he said or did during his presidency, everything he said or did after his presidency,” Oliver said. “And the fact it should be unconstitutional to have a Vice President named JD.” 

Oliver took full advantage of his final show before the election to remind his viewers of what is at stake, covering topics from Trump’s efforts to personally profit from a second term, to his racist rally at Madison Square Garden. He addressed the obvious elephant in the room: Trump can sometimes be funny, and it’s a fact that, Oliver admits, folks at Last Week Tonight have struggled with. “What’s ridiculous about Trump very effectively [distracts] from what makes him so dangerous,” Oliver said. See, for example, the hilarious phrasing from Trump that he would let RFK Jr. “go wild on health” if elected. As Oliver has covered in the past, that would just be plain horrifying. 

To end the show, Oliver focused on the future, discussing what he (and we in the audience) may be feeling and thinking about on election day and in the days ahead. He recapped some of the stories the show has covered this year, specifically those that have showcased the dangers of a second Trump term. But instead of ending on Trump, he discussed Kamala Harris, addressing specifically those with very fair critiques of Harris and the Biden Administration’s treatment of issues like immigration and the ongoing violence in Gaza. 

Oliver played clips of Muslim and Arab Americans voicing their pain and frustrations with the Biden Administration policies. He said he understood fully why they may not vote, and why many may not want to hear from him on this issue. But he added that he had been moved by many voices on the issues and wanted to play those voices. This included Georgia State Representative Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian–American, who discussed on TikTook the reasons why she is staying with the Democratic Party, one, she says, that is far more moveable on the issue than the Republicans.

“I know it is hard to imagine things getting worse on this,” Oliver said, “but to be fair, Trump has always been one to roll up his sleeves, throw on a very unflattering vest, and dig us into a new layer of hell.” He continued, “I didn’t really want the first vote I cast as an American citizen to be for Joe Fucking Biden, but here we are.” Indeed, here we are. 

Will DiGravio is a Brooklyn-based critic, researcher, and late night comedy expert, 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.