Last Week Tonight host John Oliver took aim at recently FBI-indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams, skewering the politician for his ties to illegal campaign contributions, particularly from political ally Turkey.
The comedian began the segment by outlining the charges against the embattled leader, which include conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bribery, and how seemingly every media appearance and utterance from Adams has not worked in his favor.
“Adams is entitled to due process like anyone else, but he has not been helping himself,” he said. “Last year, Adams said he’d be ‘shocked’ if anyone on his campaign had acted illegally because, quote, I cannot tell you how much I start the day with telling my team we’ve got to follow the law. I’m not convinced you have a ton of respect for the law if every day you have to hype yourself up into obeying it.”
Oliver particularly poked fun at Adams’ random appearance in 2017 Turkish rom-com New York Masali (Fairytale in New York), in which two supporting characters ask for various favors, including that Adams help add a story to a building and grant a license for the opening of a gyro restaurant.
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“You guys are from Turkey: Brooklyn loves Turkey,” he says in the cameo. “Brooklyn is the Istanbul of America. We love your food, we love your music, but I don’t understand Turkish. We could take a selfie though.”
After playing the clip, Oliver remarked, “It’s not a great sign when even the fictional version of yourself is being approached for political favors.”
He quipped afterward, making fun of Adams’ frequent declaration that any given city is the “New York of America,” that the remark was a “stretch.” He said, “I wouldn’t call Brooklyn’s climate Mediterranean, so much as ‘landfill that just hit puberty.’”
And while Oliver said the clip from the rom-com wasn’t great, nothing has failed to stand the test of time as much as Adams’ decision to grant disgraced rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was recently arrested on charges of sex trafficking, a key to New York City.
“The bad boy of entertainment is getting a key to the city from the bad boy of politics,” Adams says in the clip.
“Hey, hey, hey, hey! You might not want to associate with that guy ’cause things aren’t looking great for him,” Oliver said. “And if you’re wondering which one I’m talking to, the answer is yes.”
The comedic host ended his segment with a compilation of Adams claiming he was the “pilot of a plane” and everyone in the city was like the “passengers,” who should be wishing for a smooth landing, spliced intermittently with black-and-white videos of a rickety wooden plane crash-landing.