The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (2015-Present)

Maybe this is an odd post to write since, to date, I’ve seen exactly one full episode of Trevor Noah’s Daily Show (a fact I plan to remedy posthaste.)  I haven’t been a regular watcher of The Daily Show – or any other news-media satire show – in years.  I always loved The Daily Show and The Colbert Report when I used to watch them, but they just fell off my radar after college.  Working full-time at a mentally-demanding job, sleep became a bigger priority than these shows.

In recent weeks, though, I’ve been dipping my toes back into the news-media satire pool.  Thanks to a few choice tip-offs from The Mary Sue, I found my way to John Oliver’s YouTube channel for Last Week Tonight and have been highly susceptible to getting sucked down that rabbit hole of “okay, just one more clip…”  I plan on checking out the full Last Week Tonight the next chance I get, as Oliver’s in-depth, fastidiously-researched explorations of his topic at hand.  But anyway, clips of his program having been priming me for getting back into The Daily Show.

I can’t say for sure what rock I’ve been living under, but although I knew that Trevor Noah was the new host of The Daily Show and had of course caused some media buzz with the immediately-obvious ways that he’s not John Stewart, I somehow completely missed the fact that he was from South Africa.  Luckily, I stumbled upon it earlier this week and was intrigued enough to turn to YouTube once more.  Very happy I did; it only took a couple evenings of watching clips from Noah’s version of the show for me to try out a full, live episode. 

Is he John Stewart?  Of course not, and he shouldn’t be.  John Stewart is John Stewart, and someone new coming in trying to be that is only going to disappoint.  He’s still ironing out a few early-run kinks – he fumbles a bit in his line reading at times, and his interview skills have a ways to go – and so, when he’s compared to a 16-year veteran of comedic commentary, he’s naturally going to be more unpolished.

However, he’s also sharp, funny, imminently watchable, and bursting with potential.  I like his stance as someone experiencing American healthcare, Republican debates, etc. for the first time, someone looking in on the insanity that Americans have, to some extent, grown accustomed to because it’s all they know.  Sometimes, that third-party perspective is just what’s needed to make the “you do realize how crazy this is, right?” point hit home.  And as a person of color, he’s also experiencing American race relations for the first time, which brings a really neat shade to race-related stories.  South Africa, obviously, has its own minefields where race is concerned, but the nuances are so different, and Noah’s perspective is great.  Plus, I like that he seems to come at the show from a generally-optimistic angle.  Even with aggravating topics (like blatantly Islamophobic statements from presidential hopefuls,) he’s more likely to shake his head at the awfulness and expose the ludicrousness of it all than get incensed.  He has a real talent for pointing out hypocrisy in a wry, biting manner.

Overall, it still feels very much like The Daily Show that I remember (many of the same writers who worked with Stewart remain,) but it’s developing a new voice and looking at old issues from a different vantage point.  I’m sold – I have a feeling Trevor Noah will only get better, and I’m excited to watch him get there.