Trevor Noah was John Stewart’s idea lol. Overall I’d still say he was alright but his accent and Trump being president and Covid really didn’t help any. John Stewart has got some big shoes for anyone to try and fill especially after he’d been doing the show so long. I think a real problem is that Trevor often leaned too far into the fact that he is different, that he is South African not American. He often used that to make jokes that seemed to fall against the audience for no reason. As opposed to all the successful comedy talk shows where the audience is with the joke.
That’s a great perspective that I hadn’t considered before, thanks for sharing.
Now that you mention it, that’s visible in Trevor’s standup specials that are all great - at least, every one that I’ve ever seen. Especially before coming to the USA while still in Africa.
He got to where he is today not in spite of but because of that attitude - the racist white establishment said “know your place” (ostensibly meaning “young/inexperienced comedian” but dog-whistling bc he is mixed heritage, which is treated as so much worse than black in that area), but he bucked the system and we just love that about him.
But it was not how The Daily Show was organized, so it did not mesh well with his own voice. Also, he’s not Stewart - nobody is, not Steve Colbert and not even John Oliver - so yeah that would be horrible shoes to have to try to fill for anybody.
Trevor Noah was John Stewart’s idea lol. Overall I’d still say he was alright but his accent and Trump being president and Covid really didn’t help any. John Stewart has got some big shoes for anyone to try and fill especially after he’d been doing the show so long. I think a real problem is that Trevor often leaned too far into the fact that he is different, that he is South African not American. He often used that to make jokes that seemed to fall against the audience for no reason. As opposed to all the successful comedy talk shows where the audience is with the joke.
That’s a great perspective that I hadn’t considered before, thanks for sharing.
Now that you mention it, that’s visible in Trevor’s standup specials that are all great - at least, every one that I’ve ever seen. Especially before coming to the USA while still in Africa.
He got to where he is today not in spite of but because of that attitude - the racist white establishment said “know your place” (ostensibly meaning “young/inexperienced comedian” but dog-whistling bc he is mixed heritage, which is treated as so much worse than black in that area), but he bucked the system and we just love that about him.
But it was not how The Daily Show was organized, so it did not mesh well with his own voice. Also, he’s not Stewart - nobody is, not Steve Colbert and not even John Oliver - so yeah that would be horrible shoes to have to try to fill for anybody.