Ardern meets Colbert
Late Show audience laps up Ardern humour and she grabs chance to plug NZ
What late-night American talk shows have shown is that New Zealand can thank its stars for prime ministers with senses of humour. While John Key simply had to read a list for his appearance on David Letterman’s show in 2009, Jacinda Ardern was on the chair before host Stephen Colbert. She had little idea what she would be asked, although Colbert’s regular conniptions about Donald Trump did make some question lines fairly predictable.
Unlike Ardern’s other interviews in the US, baby Neve’s only appearance was in the introduction and a photo at the start, at which the audience went “aaahhh”. Then Ardern had to rely on pure nerve and wit. She did this with some aplomb.
Ardern must surely have been a tad nervous — the show, watched by four million people, was the most risky of her US interviews, a minefield of potential diplomatic blunders.
Colbert asked about the world leaders at the UN laughing after a Trump boast and wanted to know if Trump was right to say they were laughing with him, not at him. As Ardern’s troupe of officials sitting at the very top of the Ed Sullivan Theatre hoped and prayed, the diplomat in her wrestled with the wish not to be a damp squib.
She informed him the leaders were laughing with Trump upon a second laugh, but remained mum on the status of the first laugh. That was “a spontaneous murmur”.
Then came a question about Trump’s notorious handshakes.
“I went in for a natural shake. I have a quite firm handshake, and I didn’t particularly notice,” Ardern said.
Colbert said he had noted her firm handshake, to which she replied “it’s the way we shake in New Zealand”.
That prompted Colbert to observe New Zealanders were “a very vital people — very vigorous”.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard us described in that manner,” Ardern said. “Vital. It makes us sound like a health product.”
It got her laughs, and if you do that in the US you’re winning.
But Ardern’s primary mission was to get in a sales job for New Zealand.
Colbert is a Lord of the Rings fan and Ardern came bearing gifts from one of the towns she grew up in, Matamata, where Hobbiton is based.
She offered Colbert citizenship of Hobbiton. “You get a mug,” she said, and as he questioned “where’s the paperwork”, she added in a certificate with calligraphy.
“Come to New Zealand and we’ll make the ceremony official. There’s a direct flight from Chicago from November, so it’s nice and easy.”
Plug for New Zealand in the US? Tick. Plug for Air NZ? Tick.
The show is pre-recorded. When Colbert muffed a gag, he said: “we’ll fix that in post [production]”.
How handy if a PM could prerecord every decision and word and fix it in “post”. The signs saying when to applaud might do well too. But on the night, Ardern needed neither.
She will deliver her own statement to the UN General Assembly today. Colbert wished her luck, then added: “I hope everyone laughs.”