Jon Stewart shocked us all last February when he announced that he would be leaving the Daily Show after 17 years as the show’s host. Speculation about the show’s new host ranged from long-time Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones to comedian Tina Fey. However, to our surprise and the surprise of many others, Comedy Central announced that South African comedian Trevor Noah would take Stewart’s coveted position.
While the appearance of the set was similar to that of the previous Daily Show host, the style and demeanor of Noah was much different. Noah’s style took a very different path than Stewart’s. While Stewart was known for his fiery rhetoric and frequent use of over the top shouting, Noah has a much more soft spoken tone, which seems to work better for him in the way he executes his jokes much more than when he tries to emulate his predecessor with voracious shouting.
Despite this, and much to our surprise, we found that we had trouble containing our laughter during the first episode as Noah poked fun at his African heritage, humorously informing viewers of emojis made just for the pope’s visit, and making fun of conservative’s exuberant reactions to the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner.
However, Noah’s best performance of the week by far came during his Thursday show where he integrated his internationalism into comedy by comparing statements made by Donald Trump to that of African Presidents. The calm and cool charm that Noah brings to the show allows him to better execute cunning references such as Trump’s tendency to use the escalator in Trump Tower, or to pull off lines such as, “Donald Trump is Presidential, he just happens to be running on the wrong continent.” This was a piece that was unique to Noah that we don’t think Jon Stewart would have been able to pull off as successfully.
Noah’s interviews, the traditional concluding piece of every Daily Show episode, were a mixed bag. Some were stronger, such as Tuesday’s with Whitney Wolfe, the CEO of dating app “Bumble,” in which Noah was able to explore an exploding industry with one of its leaders. However, Noah was unable to handle himself quite as well during his interview with New Jersey governor and presidential candidate Chris Christie, where we found him struggling to keep control of the direction of the interview or probe deeper into Christie’s answers.
While we think it is too early to tell how successful Noah will be on the new Daily Show, we think he has sent a message after the first week of his show. He is definitely not Jon Stewart, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.