Jacinda Ardern Hung Out With Stephen Colbert And It Was Extremely Wholesome

Americans love Jacinda Ardern.

It’s not hard to see why. The New Zealand Prime Minister is exactly what Donald Trump isn’t. She’s kind, caring, affable, smart, committed, and knows her way around a soundbite. Oh, and she genuinely believes that we should do something about the planet before it explodes into a horrendous fireball and kills us all. Which is weirdly unusual these days.

Ardern’s been a hit with talk show hosts for a couple of years now. But this week, the American obsession with Our Jacinda stepped up another level when Stephen Colbert spent an entire day with the New Zealand PM.

And guess what? It’s wholesome as hell.

The segment starts with Ardern picking up Colbert from the airport and driving him around the country. When Colbert worries that the Prime Minister should be busy doing, y’know, Prime Minister thing, Ardern drops one of many zingers.

“I’m a woman,” she tells the talk show host. “We multi-task.”

From there, the pair messily sing Queen to one another, and get recognised by a passenger in another car. Or, at least, Jacinda does — the smitten citizen ignores Colbert altogether, cause he’s just so keen to have a chinwag with his Prime Minister.

And then there’s the interview itself. In it, Colbert talks about the time that Ardern once auditioned to be in The Lord of the Rings — Peter Jackson didn’t cast her — as well as the politeness of New Zealanders.

Oh, and when Colbert tries to trick her into calling the election right now, she has another clapback for him.

“I’m young,” she says, retaining that affable, jolly smile. “But I’m not 12.”

The whole thing is glorious, and should be watched here in full, for a reminder of just how good those folks over in New Zealand have it.