Late Night Last Week: John Oliver Grapples With TikTok’s Hold on Us in Season Finale

Oliver, with nuance, grappled with the proposed ban of the platform, including noting how it mobilized teenagers to political action, with some even calling their members of Congress to protest. The host was shocked. “Teens hate doing that. If you ever need to scare one,” Oliver said, “just hand them a ringing phone and say, ‘It’s for you.’”

If you’ve been too busy scrolling TikTok to actually read a history of it (we’ve all been there), Oliver provides a fantastic overview of the platform, one so good it will probably end up being chopped into bits and shared on TikTok. He discusses possible national security threats, the intricacies (and invasiveness) of the algorithm, and similar concerns when it comes to data collection by other apps. “Think of TikTok as a soft drink company in the 1800s,” Oliver said. “Sure, its product is mostly cocaine, but, hey, show me a child’s beverage that isn’t.” 

Following a discussion of the legitimate critiques and concerns one could level at the platform, Oliver discussed some of the more unfair ones. This includes the apparent xenophobia that fuels some of the concern over the platform’s ties to China, and the fact that many US tech companies would benefit from a ban of TikTok, including Google and Meta. 

Near the end of his monologue, Oliver closed with one of the more frustrating aspects of the TikTok debate: that many lawmakers say they are pro-ban based on classified information that they, in turn, cannot publicly share. Because if there is one group of people we trust, it is non-transparent members of Congress. 

“In a world where Instagram knows your location, Uber knows your childhood fears, and DoorDash has a 3-D rendering of your small intestine its executives use as a screensaver,” Oliver said, “claiming you’re protecting Americans’ privacy by banning TikTok feels like claiming you’re fighting climate change by banning the Kia Sorento.” “Sure,” he added, “it’s technically not nothing, but it is, in a larger sense, basically nothing.” 

Watch the full episode on Max, wait for the monologue to appear on YouTube later this week, or maybe, just maybe, you can find it elsewhere. 

No One Commits to the Bit Like the Late Night Crew

Of all the late night shows, no host and crew are better at taking a joke, driving it into the ground, and then rebirthing it from the ashes in a bit of hilarious, conceptual comedy than Seth Meyers and his team over at Late Night. That was on display in two hilarious segments last week featuring the Late Night staff. 

Writer and former late night host Amber Ruffin returned for another addition of “Amber Says What,” her semi-regular updates from the world of pop culture. But this week, she, like so many around the world, had the election on her mind. No matter the topic, Ruffin, like an MSNBC viewer on a lunch date, found a way to pivot back to the election, rehashing despondent cliche after despondent cliche. 

Ruffin, for example, provided an update on the recent Timothée Chalamet look alike contest held in New York City, only to then wonder, given the reelection of Trump: “God, am I going to be able to make all-white-people-look-alike jokes anymore? They’re my favorite!” 

Given how much attention the presidential election has taken up in the American news cycle the past many months, Meyers last week decided to give his audience an update on what has been going on across the pond in European electoral politics. Correspondent John Lutz was on the scene. But there was a bit of delay. A long one.

Emma Willmann Crushes in Tonight Show Debut

Eight years after giving her first ever television performance on The Late Show, Emma Willmann delivered a killer set last Wednesday, Nov. 13, in her debut on The Tonight Show. We’re certainly glad Fallon finally caught up to Colbert. Willmann, who has appeared on Netflix’s The Comedy Lineup, was there to plug an upcoming special on Don’t Tell Comedy, to be released this winter. 

Much of Willmann’s act last week concerned her parents. Willmann, who is gay, discussed her relationship with her father, who is conservative, but supportive. Willman reasons this is because she is attracted to very feminine women. “He doesn’t have to do any mental gymnastics,” she said. “Every time I’ve introduced him to a girlfriend, he’s been like, ‘Nice.’”

Willmann was similarly candid about her relationship with her mother. She mentioned that her therapist recently advised that she needed to set up a boundary between herself and her mother around money. “And I was like, I agree,” Willmann said, “but I should let you know, she pays for you. So …” 

The Daily Show on the Trump Cabinet

As promised, we return to the ongoing news of Trump’s (prospective) appointments to his cabinet. The selections are the stuff the dreams of late night comedy writers are made on. But the reaction that had me laughing the hardest was a segment from Troy Iwata, “reporting” for The Daily Show from outside The White House. 

For the dispatch, which he delivered to host Jordan Klepper, Iwata wore a trench coat and Groucho Marx glasses as he summed up the appointees. Klepper could not understand the fashion choice. “I don’t want to be on air right now,” Iwata explained. “The longer I’m on TV, the more of a chance Trump sees me and appoints me to his cabinet.” 

Let’s just say, things don’t end well for Iwata. 

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.