Moments Without Zen: How The Daily Show Is Fairing Under Trevor Noah

Ever since Jon Stewart turned a soft parody of celebrity gossip shows to a full-on satire of the modern news cycle and all of its sensationalism, partisanry and over-budgeted graphics departments, The Daily Show has been one of the cornerstones of political comedy in America. Whether people were on the left or on the right, there was always an interest in seeing how Jon and his correspondents would tackle the week's events. He was always able to find the absurd and the bullshit in a world that often posited itself as reasonable and honest. Many would come to be inspired by his work on The Daily Show that they would go on to create their own version, and his absence, former correspondents of the show have now populated the comedy scene seeing if they too could tug at the whiskers of the politicos and the pundits. But in his absence, there was only one who took his throne. He was Trevor Noah.

For as much progress as Trevor Noah has made on the show during his year or so on it, the decision to place him on to replace Jon Stewart remains to be one of the more bizarre choices on TV. Sure, he has a significant amount of clout in South Africa and managed to make some impact on the American scene, but it didn't seem like he would fit to take the mantle of a show with a massive audience. One which had so familiarized itself with the host that to even imagine a replacement felt like a betrayal. But as we all know, Jon was a stranger after taking over for Craig Kilborn. It seems unfair to constantly try to compare Noah against Stewart so I'll try to keep the comparisons limited. After all, Noah deserves a chance. Has he made anything of it though?

The long and the short of it is, no. Or at least he hasn't done enough.

Now don't take this to mean that I outright hate him. I don't really hold any strong negative feelings towards Noah. I was probably more positive about Noah taking the helm as other people might have been. After viewing some of his specials, I figured he did have sufficient enough potential to work on The Daily Show. Much of his act dealt with political matters and he was genuinely funny. Furthermore, considering that he was coming right along to the dawn of the Donald, he was pretty much given a golden opportunity to show his stuff. But at best all of it has left me with a dejected "Eh". 

Part of the problem is the material, which is just too by-the-numbers. Jokes at the expense of Republicans? Check. Attempts to connect with the youth via topical references? Check. Semi-serious calls for political reform with a liberal slant? Double check. It's especially with the last two that Noah trips up, as he'll make some sort of effort to seem woke by comparing trans issues with the iPhone having no headphone jack or by using the term "woke" unironically. It cheapens the effort at making a biting social commentary in favor of that sort of corporate hipness that has turned every fast food Twitter account into a snarky troll.

The humor isn't so much poignant as it is passable. Which is fine if you're trying to do a decent set, but for a show like The Daily Show, there has to be a little more. There needs to be a certain level of investment, a certain level of passion that comes from the humor. Jon can bring about the same amount of energy and interest into a subject he cares about deeply like the Zadroga Act or something far more trivial like the American diet. In political satire and political comedy, there is more to the joke than a surface-level observation, there is an underlying point. There isn't a sense of Noah's unique perspective, and since he's more interested in tackling the surface, the point that he carries through becomes limp and lifeless.

You can't blame Noah for being too shallow in his comedy - after all he is a foreigner. He can spout lengthy analyses of the Constitution all he likes, but he is aware that above his head still reads the words "that South African comedian". Which leaves him in a bit of an awkward spot. Should he just bring attention to it in very pointed ways or should he make the effort to assimilate and hope people can play along? He's done both, but neither really yield enough of a result. His efforts to play to the crowd can come across as too obvious, and the jokes done about his South African roots are too simple. Personally, I enjoy it more when he's able to compare and contrast between African politics and American politics. You get more of a sense of his strengths and how he's viewing what's going on based on what he knows. I do that all the time with Venezuela. Going more international and broadening the perspective could play quite well if done right. 

Course, why go for that option when you could just stick to the gold mine that is Trump?

Here's where we fall into the main problem with Noah, and really, just the main problem with the comedy scene as a whole. Trump is just too easy. Noah's jokes about Trump and his administration is where he falls flat the most, because you can see the punchline coming from a mile away. And it's not so much that the humor's so politically biased (though it's not like it's really helping the hyper-polarization in the US) more that it doesn't really tell me anything I don't already know. I can see that Trump acts like a complete idiot, a braggadocious buffoon. Unless you really push the limits on the kind of joke you can make at Trump's expense or have something far more to say about his actions that no one else is saying, there's not much else to it. There's a reason people people describe the humor as "Drumpf" - because it comes across as performative, stupid and circle-jerking. Every late-night comedian faces the same problem, but where it becomes a problem with Trevor is that the emphasis on banking on this humor overshadows serious issues within society and the genuine hysteria within the media.

The Daily Show existed to be an exaggeration of the world we're exposed through by the media. Under Trevor Noah, it has become an exaggeration of the criticisms the show faced: that it pandered too much to younger audiences, that it wanted to feel bigger than it was, that it leaned too heavily for liberals (I can't pretend that Jon wasn't left-leaning, but he was a lot more even-handed than Noah has been, and a little more subtle too). It is lacking a sense of purpose, a reason to be. Other shows like Last Week Tonight and Full Frontal have done a better job of providing what The Daily Show once did with different perspectives too. Without Noah distinguishing himself with his voice, there isn't anything else to gain aside from a abridged version of the world news with a couple of silly quips.