Did last week’s Daily Show replacement-host-announcement seem weird to anyone else? In retrospect, I kind of wonder if the whole thing was mishandled. We didn’t even get a leaked shortlist of contenders to replace Jon Stewart. Out of nowhere, Trevor Noah was anointed as the new host. Initially, the reaction was positive. Although most Americans weren’t familiar with Noah, we wished him well. Then some sites did cursory examinations into Trevor’s social media history and there were many tweets that seemed… bad. Sexist. Misogynistic. Anti-Semitic. Maybe even racist.
The whole thing was made worse by the simple fact that The Daily Show was on a break last week, so Jon Stewart couldn’t personally vouch for Trevor Noah on-air. Instead, Comedy Central issued a flurry of “give the new guy a break” statements and Noah even had to tweet an explanation: “To reduce my views to a handful of jokes that didn’t land is not a true reflection of my character, nor my evolution as a comedian.” Are you buying that? Eh. I will give comedians a break to try to work out their material, but the vein of casual misogyny running through Noah’s Twitter feed gave me pause, and I feel like he is doing a disservice to simply dismiss that as a “joke that didn’t land.”
Anyway, The Daily Show came back last night and Jon Stewart finally vouched for Noah on air. Here’s the video:
Jon says Noah “will earn your trust and respect … Or not. Just as I earned your trust and respect … Or did not. Or sometimes earned it and then lost it and then kind of got it back and then it was like, ‘F— that guy!’” Jon says his experiences with Noah have shown him that Noah is “an incredibly thoughtful and considerate and funny and smart individual, and I think if you give him that time it’s going to be well worth it.”
So, controversy over? Ugh. I feel sorry for Comedy Central a little bit, losing Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart within a year and trying to reboot their late night line-up with new faces. But I suspect that this will not be the end of it. And I’d also like to hear why Comedy Central felt like there were no female comedians capable of taking over for either late-night slot.
Photos courtesy of Trevor Noah’s social media.
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