Late Night Last Week: Late Night Reacts to the First American Pope

By Will DiGravio  |  May 12, 2025 | 3:25pm
TV Features late night
Late Night Last Week: Late Night Reacts to the First American Pope
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Every week, ​​​​Late Night Last Week highlights some of the best late night TV from the previous week. In this week’s late night TV recap, we round-up reactions to the elections of Pope Leo XIV and highlight John Oliver’s recent monologue on the work of the right-wing, religious organization Alliance Defending Freedom.

Last week, on May 8, the Papal conclave elected Leo XIV to lead the Catholic faith, making him (in case you haven’t heard from literally every media channel in existence) the first pontiff from the United States. In selecting the Chicago-born, now-former Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost to lead the church, the cardinals also handed a gift to the American media: never before has it been so easy to make the same jokes referencing the same few basic facts over and over again. 

See, for example, the most shooting-fish-in-a-barrel joke of all time from the host of The Tonight Show: 

“The new pope actually graduated from Villanova University,” Jimmy Fallon told his audience on Thursday night. “It’s wild that we have a pope who might have done a keg stand outside an Eagles game.”

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert kicked off his monologue by leading the crowd in a chant of “Pope. S. A.” From there, the host pivoted to a discussion about how each new pope must change their name. “You have to leave your old name behind,” Colbert said. “Which works out great for him because I’m pretty sure Prevost is also the name of a weight loss medication.” The new name, Colbert noted, was made “in honor of St. Leonardo of Caprio.” 

Colbert also took issue with the centuries-old tradition of releasing white smoke to indicate the election of a new pope. “Don’t reveal the pope via smoke, it’s 2025,” he said. “You reveal him via cake. It’s a pope reveal party!” 

On Late Night with Seth Meyers, the host dedicated very little time to the election of Leo XIV, but did speculate that perhaps the white smoke was “from the brats on the grill.” The team at Late Night then repurposed one of the most popular memes to emerge from the election: Leo XIV walking out to the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to the Chicago Bulls ‘90s entrance song, the Alan Parsons Project’s “Sirius.” 

Over on ABC, Jimmy Kimmel disagreed with Colbert and took issue with the Holy Father’s new name. “[It] is a shame because there have been 13 other Leos, we’ve never had even one Pope Bob, which would have been pretty great,” Kimmel said. “Leo doesn’t even sound like a pope name. Sounds more like the altar boy who got high and ate all the communion wafers.” 

Unsurprisingly, the best, most original monologue reacting to the news was delivered by Desi Lydic on The Daily Show. Lydic began her monologue by reliving the news of the pope’s election, showing a clip from We the People with Judge Lauren Lake, which was interrupted by a “breaking news” flash on Fox. “I was trying to come up with a way to explain why the idea of an American pope feels like such a contradiction,” Lydic said, “but I think the way the news broke here kind of sums it up.” 

Lydic then pivoted to the predictably hilarious and pathetic response from the right to the election of the pontiff, including criticisms that he did not speak in English during his first address and that he had criticized conservative policies, including the Trump Administration’s approach to immigration, in the past. “The new pope does not like JD Vance,” Lydic said. “He really is an everyday American.” 

On the night before Leo XIV was chosen, Lewis Black began his regular Daily Show segment by noting that it had been about three weeks since Pope Francis had died. “Why Pope Francis, God?” Black asked. “Why not every other world leader?” 

Black summed up the excitement leading up to the conclave, including speculation in the betting markets, increased streaming of the movie Conclave, and the guessing game over who might be the next pontiff. But he also had another idea. If the church really wanted to make history, they should elect the first Jewish pope, Black said, offering his own name for consideration. “All I’ve got to do now is glue my foreskin back on and I’ll fit right in,” he said, donning a red yarmulke. “Luckily, I keep it in my wallet.” 

John Oliver is pretty much the highlight of any late night TV recap, and as always, on Last Week Tonight, he was one step ahead of the game. Not only did he have a few pope jokes of his own, but his monologue for the evening centered on the relationship between politics and religion, and the increasingly uncomfortable (and unconstitutional) relationship between the two. Specifically, Oliver centered his monologue on the advocacy organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is currently backing a court case aimed at directing public funds to Catholic charter schools. 

The organization purports to back “religious freedom.” But, as Oliver made clear, that work is “selective at best.” The organization has supported many well-known court cases, including the Christian baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple, attacks made against the abortion drug Mifepristone, and the Dobbs case that ultimately led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Oliver pointed out the obvious: they are, unfortunately, quite good at what they do. 

Curiously, despite their success, Oliver noted, they remain relatively unknown to the public when compared to similar organizations, like the NRA. In his monologue, Oliver went through their history, including a discussion of their founder, James Dobson, who, Oliver noted, “Looks less like a real person and more like AI’s answer to the question, What do they look like without their hoods?” 

He went on to discuss the ADF’s legal tactics, including the design of their successful attack on Roe. Oliver also noted their anti-trans bigotry, including one instance where an effort to attack trans children in sports was fueled by a lie pushed by the organization’s spokesperson, Kristin Waggoner, whose daughter testified that her softball team was beaten by a team with a trans player. The problem? The player, the Late Show team confirmed, is not trans but just “had short hair and was good.” Plus, Oliver noted, they lost 16-6, hardly a score that could be blamed on a single person. “

Oliver’s sweeping monologue goes on to expose the organization’s hypocrisy, efficacy, and also their, well, just general creepiness. He plays a clip from a guest lecture delivered as part of the organization’s legal fellowship, in which an attorney discusses how gay sex is wrong because God designed male and female genitals to be the “perfect biological fit.” Oliver described this as “incredibly dark, old-time homophobia.” Plus, he added, “I think there are plenty of women who might say, ‘Perfect fit? I don’t want to be mean, but there is literally room for improvement.’” 

Will DiGravio is a Brooklyn-based critic, researcher, and late night comedy columnist, who first contributed to Paste in 2022. He’s been writing Paste’s late night TV recaps since 2024. 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.

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