-Welcome back to "Late Night." We're here with John Oliver.
John, I've always appreciated over the years
that if you text me about something we've done
on the show, it is something
that no one else has liked or commented on.
I felt that way about your long-running Adam Driver bit
that came to a wonderful conclusion with Adam Driver.
-Yeah. Yes. -Can you just talk us
from the beginning of it, the seeds of where it started,
to the conclusion of getting the real Adam Driver?
-Yeah, the seed -- the initial seed was,
you know, one of our writers writing a very weird joke
out of absolutely nowhere.
And then the water on that seed
was, back when we had an audience in March,
feeling real resistance from the audience at the joke.
It felt like they about 40% enjoyed it.
And it logged in my head --
"Oh, let's try and do this again."
So we did it as a callback a few weeks later,
and they weren't really happy to have it back.
And so at that point, it became
something of an obsession in our staff.
And a few months into the bit, we kind of -- we broke it.
One of the writers had written something kind of saying,
"I don't know if he even --
It doesn't seem like he would enjoy this one.
It could be over."
That was as much of a ribbon as it felt we could put on it.
So at that point, we reached out to him and said,
"I don't know if you know what we've been doing.
There's no easy way into this conversation.
We've been making some comments about you,
and would you hypothetically be interested
in responding towards the end of the year?"
And the message came back from him saying
he has heard about it, he thinks it's very strange, and he's in.
So I thought, "Oh, great."
So we didn't know what we were going to do, but at least
we knew at that point that we had an end in sight.
And, yeah, as it turned out, what the end in sight was
was him calling into the show
and explaining the ways in which he was going to demolish me.
-It was also -- Watching it
is a real reminder that Adam Driver is a terrific actor.
-Unbelievably good. I couldn't see him.
I was doing it -- I could only hear him,
and it wasn't until I watched it back, you think,
"Oh, [bleep]. Look at him!
Look at him doing acting, as I'm giving him nothing back."
Like, he's literally performing in front of a tennis ball.
That's the equivalent of what he's getting back from me.
And he's doing such good acting. -Yeah.
-At a point where it really was not required,
but he was really flexing muscles.
-Yeah. It was a case -- And I say this as a fan of yours.
When you guys were on the split screen,
it was very hard to imagine anyone was watching you.
[ Laughter ]
-I can't be 100% confident it was there.
It was -- Every part of that juxtaposition
is [bleep] brutal. -Yeah.
-Acting ability, physically. Let's not lie.
Put those two things together,
and it barely seems like the same species -- barely.
-You've come here before.
You were on the show before Thanksgiving in the past.
And, unfortunately, you can't be here live,
so you missed getting to see the tree.
I know how you love stuff like trees.
-Yeah. I love it. -Holiday trees.
-One of the things I like the most, actually, is that --
Are you still being tortured by that Christmas music
going 'round and 'round at 30 Rock?
Is that still going?
-No, because that was for the ice-skating rink.
So we're actually -- It's not -- It's very un--
-That's a shame. I've always enjoyed the kind of --
the muffled killing-spree music outside of your office
for basically 3 1/2 weeks.
-The tree got off to a bad start.
I'm sure you saw this photo.
When it went up, it was as though they asked
for, like, a discount tree,
'cause no one was coming this year.
It looks better now, but I kind of wish --
Don't you wish it was that? -It's a huge mistake.
They should have left it like that.
I was so happy.
When they unveiled it and it just started wilting
and stuff fell off, I thought, "Yes! That's right."
Is it the tree we want? No.
Is it the tree we deserve? Absolutely.
Emphatically, yes, it is.
They should have just hung one string
with, like, lights broken across --
-Yeah, or put it right against 30 Rock
and, like, turned it around
so you couldn't see the [bleep] side.
-Or just lent it on the ground
and put a giant garbage bag half around it.
[ Laughter ]
That's -- That -- I just think that would have
been a more fun tree because no one wants a good tree right now,
do they? -Yeah.
-Do you think people want to live a lie?
Come on.
-Yeah, it was the bad-tree year, I agree.
Congratulations.
Your first Thanksgiving as an American citizen, John.
-Yes, yes.
-I'm assuming it's going to be a muted affair?
-Oh, yeah. That's right. Yeah. There's not much going on.
But as a new American, I'm already pushing the reality
of what Thanksgiving is about further and further down.
I'll forget about it next year.
[ Laughter ]
-I expect nothing less from you.
Hey, this is no surprise.
As always, it's a pleasure talking to you.
-You too. -Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy holidays. Thanks for being here, buddy.
-It is an absolute pleasure. See you soon -- maybe.
Back to quarantine.
It's going to be a while. I won't see you soon.