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Trevor Noah to Succeed Jon Stewart on 'The Daily Show'


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Comedians can get away with a lot, but at their foundation, people have to like them. If he can't act like a decent person when he's not joking, he'll have a lot fewer people listening to him when he is.

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Yeah, even the NYT writer agrees that Noah should quit defending himself on Twitter:

But at some point, he will need to respond in detail, forcefully, bluntly and with humor. And maybe he should do so somewhere other than on Twitter.

 

I just read the story and think the joke stealing allegations seem thin. The example given ("the joke pokes fun at African-Americans who, in an effort to get in touch with their roots, give their children African names") is one that I imagine numerous comics have done over the years. The comics' punch lines were different.

 

There are several clips on YouTube that show late night comics telling essentially the exact same joke on the same night (which proves that there's no way one could have stolen it from the other). With Mencia I think he was essentially doing a whole Bill Cosby routine wholesale and the proof was pretty iron-clad.

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I'm disappointed that Jon defended him. Maybe he thought he had no choice.

When Jon signs off, I sign off. Waaa!

 

I think it's pretty expected. He's one of Jon's guys, and Jon is pretty supportive of the role that comedy plays in culture. And while he notes that Free Speach isn't Consequence-Free, in the wake of Charlie Hebdo he noted the role of Satire in civilization. 

 

So he may (probably) doesn't agree with the content of Trevor's Tweets, I'd believe he would think that Trevor has the right to make those jokes, but he has to live with the backlash that comes with them if they offend anyone.

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Yeah, even the NYT writer agrees that Noah should quit defending himself on Twitter:

I just read the story and think the joke stealing allegations seem thin. The example given ("the joke pokes fun at African-Americans who, in an effort to get in touch with their roots, give their children African names") is one that I imagine numerous comics have done over the years. The comics' punch lines were different.

 

There are several clips on YouTube that show late night comics telling essentially the exact same joke on the same night (which proves that there's no way one could have stolen it from the other). With Mencia I think he was essentially doing a whole Bill Cosby routine wholesale and the proof was pretty iron-clad.

Yeah, again the story here is no longer what's being tossed at him (old tweets, thin to non-existent joke stealing accusations), it's his total lack of savvy and wisdom in how to respond.  Frankly he's coming off like an immature jackass--using Twitter like some 13 year old girl replying back to her friends rather than giving any real substantive responses that indicate any level of caring, common sense, or maturity.

Even Facebook, as lame as it's considered now by the hip young set, would help.  Write an actual letter to people that's more than flippant dismissals and post it there.  Noah DOES have a Facebook page and seems to cross-post there with his tweets.  He's currently doing the same thing there as on his Twitter--leaving it alone and just pointing back to other people's articles, tweets and posts defending him.  Rather than bothering to defend himself with more than that one initial glib, dismissive statement he made.

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Comedians can get away with a lot, but at their foundation, people have to like them. If he can't act like a decent person when he's not joking, he'll have a lot fewer people listening to him when he is.

True. And while I didn't find any of his racist, misogynistic, fat-shaming funny, I saw that those were at least meant to be jokes (not excusing them). I don't think his anti-atheist tweets were. I think he meant what he said seriously. And since those were the reflective of the kind of bullshit I deal with every day of my life as an atheist, and he's reinforcing negative stereotypes that make atheists the least trusted minority, etc, and make our lives harder, I can't think of much else to say about Noah that isn't profane. 

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(edited)

 

If he was a genuine anti-Semite, I find it hard to believe he'd come to a working agreement under one of the most famous present-day Jewish comedians, from either of their perspectives.

Why not? Mel Gibson is an anti-semite and worked with lots of Jewish people in Hollywood. And it's not like Trevor Noah is going to be working with Jon. He's just taking over for him. I wish this logic was true, but it's the whole "I can't be racist because I have black friends" argument. 

Edited by wudpixie
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True. And while I didn't find any of his racist, misogynistic, fat-shaming funny, I saw that those were at least meant to be jokes (not excusing them). I don't think his anti-atheist tweets were. I think he meant what he said seriously. And since those were the reflective of the kind of bullshit I deal with every day of my life as an atheist, and he's reinforcing negative stereotypes that make atheists the least trusted minority, etc, and make our lives harder, I can't think of much else to say about Noah that isn't profane.

But that's how women feel about misogynistic jokes, too. They're not funny, and they do feed into a culture that is often harmful toward us.

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But that's how women feel about misogynistic jokes, too. They're not funny, and they do feed into a culture that is often harmful toward us.

I think you slightly misread me. I already said those jokes weren't funny, but they were meant to be jokes. The atheist tweets, I do not think were meant to be jokes. I excused neither. But let me be clear: Yes, all of the tweets in question feed the culture that is often harmful. I was simply making a distinction that I feel is telling.  

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It's a good piece in that it does address that race is part of this whole equation, but it doesn't take the cheap route of blaming all of the criticism of Noah on people being racist.  It correctly identifies Noah's total lack of apology in his single tweet defense of himself as being a key issue.  It also goes a few places to helping Noah by identifying his own part Jewish background--something IMO he darn well should have established himself--as giving him a bit of a pass on some of those jokes (although not at all on his "fat chick" jokes and many of the others).  

 

And all along I for one, and others also, have noted that being a bit unfamiliar with ACTUAL American attitudes about certain things vs. what an outsider deduces is dangerous territory, if the person doing so isn't introspective enough.  The part of the piece that mentions his whole routine about "mixed" people shows that ignorance and lack of true retrospection from him.  Of course Noah is totally right about the arrogant Americentric labeling of every single black person in the world as "African-Americans", but there's a heck of a lot more to the American attitude than that.  

 

In the end the writer seems to think Noah will be good for the show, which I disagree with, but it's a good and fair piece overall.

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I like the shots he takes at Jimmy Fallon and James Corden's shows. I cannot stand what's happened to late night in the wake of Fallon- the whole thing is dumb, playground, game show television aimed at adolescents. No fangs at all, like he mentioned when he referenced Tina Fey.

 

Sadly, I seriously doubt this guy is the one to liven things up- he's assuming right off the bat that he will be doing a political, left leaning show, but we have no idea if that's even the case. He seems to think he has no choice because of what Jon Stewart turned The Daily Show into, but if I were him I'd probably want to tear it down and make it something completely different, if only to avoid the comparisons. Constant comparison would be much worse than losing all the political influence and relevance. Even if the show loses all of that, it would at least allow him to be himself and build a fanbase with whatever it is he brings to the table.

 

I think he's probably right that John Oliver was the true successor if The Daily Show was to remain close to what Stewart made it. But that didn't happen, so now my only hope is that Colbert does something much edgier than I'm expecting him to, and that for the love of god, he does not start copying the bland late night guys with stupid lip synching battles and viral videos.

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Wesley Morris perfectly sums up my feelings about Trevor taking over the host's chair of TDS. Who knows what it will become and how it may differ from Jon's vision after the torch has been passed, and whether or not Trevor can give us the kind of nightly catharsis Jon gave us for many years.

 

Morris thinks he'll be fine. I sure hope so.

 

I too loved the shots taken at Fallon and Corden. Late night has become depressingly stupid since those two became hosts. Help us Stephen, you're our only hope!

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Trevor Noah finally acknowledges some of his jokes were horrible:

http://www.theweek.com/speedreads/567619/future-daily-show-host-trevor-noah-old-controversial-jokes-idiot

See? That was easy! Why didn't he do it sooner? Who knows? But better late than never.

I saw him on one of the late night talk shows a few days ago-- I forget who the host was... maybe Fallon? Anyway, I thought he was funny. And I've found his stand up act funny in the past. So, hopefully, he will be funny on TDS, and handle any future mistakes better, and have enough other people on his team to advise him. Honestly, Jon is so clearly past ready to go, I have been looking forward to seeing the show take a fresh viewpoint for a while now.

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His choice of GQ to make this announcement seems weird, and does make me wonder what audience he'll be chasing, but I'm trying to hang on to my optimism. The article itself gives a lot of background, that's really interesting and worth knowing, about his story. (I tried to edit this into my previous post, but the site won't let me edit, for some reason).

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It will be a sad, sad day in a couple of weeks time for many of us when Jon does his last TDS. Last night's show was an example of that.

 

As for Trevor, he's got some mighty big shoes to fill in late September. I wish him well and hope the born and raised South African has spent enough time acclimating himself to the ways and customs of the American public and its cultures and traditions so that he can do the host's chair proud.

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I have my doubts about this guy. After watching him on Seinfeld's web show, he just doesn't seem naturally funny. Also, I hate he knows nothing about NYC neighborhoods. He may be more global than Jon but the NY/NJ impressions will never not be funny.

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I saw him on one of the late night talk shows a few days ago-- I forget who the host was... maybe Fallon? Anyway, I thought he was funny. And I've found his stand up act funny in the past. So, hopefully, he will be funny on TDS, and handle any future mistakes better, and have enough other people on his team to advise him. Honestly, Jon is so clearly past ready to go, I have been looking forward to seeing the show take a fresh viewpoint for a while now.

 

That's where I'm at too possibilities. Jon has had an amazing run and was fabulous at what he did but he's kind of phoned it in the last couple of years, especially since he got involved in his movie. What I've seen of Trevor I've really liked and I think he'll do a great job with TDS. I'm sure there will be a few bumps along the way but I'm ready for something besides pizza and Trump.

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As for Trevor, he's got some mighty big shoes to fill in late September. I wish him well and hope the born and raised South African has spent enough time acclimating himself to the ways and customs of the American public and its cultures and traditions so that he can do the host's chair proud.

One of the things I learned from the GQ article was that after he had achieved huge fame and success in SA, Noah moved to Pasadena and spent a year traveling around the U.S. playing comedy clubs in all sorts of rinky-dink towns. So he's seen a fair amount of the U.S. I'm still not sure how well he will do as host, but I feel like I should watch at least his first month's worth of shows before I decide whether to continue.

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I have no doubt it will be an adjustment for viewers, and some of us will probably like it more (or less) than others. I think his track record is very mixed and at this point I don't really know what to expect. I think he will challenge us in a different way than Jon did, but I really don't know what way it will be. I'm curious, though.

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Speaking of which, what will the name be? Before Jon, it was just The Daily Show. He put in the contract that they would add his name. Has there been any announcement of what they'll call it, now? Whether they use his name, or not?

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Noah: "how are we going to bring all of that together looking at it from a bigger lens as opposed to just going after one source—which was historically Fox News.” Has Noah actually been watching the show? Jon's CNN-bashing has been just as epic as his Fox-bashing.

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Noah: "how are we going to bring all of that together looking at it from a bigger lens as opposed to just going after one source—which was historically Fox News.” Has Noah actually been watching the show? Jon's CNN-bashing has been just as epic as his Fox-bashing.

I have to disagree with that. CNN has certainly been a target, but after watching the Month Of Zen, FOX has taken the brunt of Jon's ire to a pretty extreme and comical degree. I personally could use a break from FOX news just because I think their speculative/anger coverage is so awful. I have a cringe response to a picture of all their "news people" at this point.

If Noah and the writers can diversify the satire, more power to them. I am looking forward to a broader version of this show and hope that we can see an incarnation which takes into account that 24 hour news is not as relevant as our current social media climate for information delivery. Speculative journalism is definitely worth mocking, but perhaps a dinosaur in the age of Twitter and all the instant first hand footage. Maybe the show could embrace and use this change for the better.

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so if we are going to stop mocking the oxymoron "speculative journalism" and switch over to monitoring current social media and internet information and instant first hand footage and reportage... how ironic would that be coming from the king of twitter trevor noah and his horrible mind set that there is humor in violence against women, violence against children, humor in racism, humor in misogyny... and my favorite... humor in violent racist misogyny (slug a woman if she won't put out) ?

 

people have said 'let it go' and 'give him a chance' and 'that was then and long ago and this is now'

well...   it was just last year, some of it... and it indicates a mindset... and that mindset is intolerable...

 

oh sure sure, even if he actually said he was mistaken, sorry and how and why it was wrong and how and why he is going to change (which he has not done) even then i would still have a problem with him...

 

my problem is that with the huge population we now have...

and so many with so much talent...

so many who could do a good job of hosting the daily show...

why pick this guy?

 

seriously...

there are sooo many others who deserve this spot and who would do US a comedic service!!

its an insult to all of them to put this unqualified doofus in this spot...

the daily show is ours... the viewers... comedy central just got lucky that they got to carry it on their channel.

 

also, i dont think its such a good idea to stop monitoring television news offerings... whether of the yellow press pretend-news variety or of the trust-me-i'm-valid news variety...  isnt that what the opposition want us to do? stop paying attention to what they are saying?

Edited by fluffykerfuffle
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 Trevor has the right to make those jokes, but he has to live with the backlash that comes with them if they offend anyone.

 

i dont think its so much that they offend... i think the issue is that those jokes set a jokey laughy atmosphere around these wrong behaviours of racism, violence and misogyny and i think kinda sorta rape... if a woman wont put out and you slug her... isnt that extortion to put out?  

 

unfortunately many people operate from a place of things being okay as long as everyone else in the society they live in is doing it... so if the guys in your community have a casual attitude about knocking the old lady around a bit... well... whats to stop you from slugging her when she pisses you off?  

 

and if everyone in town is bullying the local jews... you might even feel obligated to do the same thing in order to fit in...  its harmless right? a little insult a little shove... its all in fun hahahaha  ...but, as we all know, ultimately that can escalate to genocide...

 

its the jokes that set the tone.. the lightheartedness of activities... this is fun this is okay... we dont mean any harm... wheres your sense of humor...  ... ... and thats the beginning of it all.. the atmosphere where abuse is okay.

Edited by fluffykerfuffle
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Coming from someone who's enjoyed Trevor for a long time - his standup, his documentaries, etc. - I'm eager to see how he does. I think people need to remember that The Daily Show of the past several years was not immediate; it took Jon time to mold the show into what it became. I expect Trevor's start to be somewhat rocky as well, but I really do want to see him succeed. It'll be an uphill battle, but I hope people give him the benefit of the doubt and don't just pounce on him because of what he's done in the past, or the few missteps he's sure to make early on. 

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The statue of limitations on Trevor's handful of tasteless tweets - out of the many thousands he sent out - has long since past (and really, whoever decided to comb through his entire account in the first place needs to get a fucking life!).

 

At this point in time, the only thing that matters is whether a stand up comedian from South Africa can successfully fill the shoes of American outrage left behind by Jon. Trevor will have a few months grace period tops to work things out. After that, the pressure will be immense.

Edited by stacey
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I think he'll be fine, though like others have said, it took a while before Jon got the Daily Show to where it is/was.  It will probably take some time for Trevor to find his niche. 

 

My worry isn't silly tweets -- it's that he pretty much signaled he won't go after Fox News with the same fevor that Jon did.  I hope that changes, because their Bullshit Mountain needs to be called out still.  Especially since there is a presidential election coming up soon here in The States.

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The statue of limitations on Trevor's handful of tasteless tweets - out of the many thousands he sent out - has long since past (and really, whoever decided to comb through his entire account in the first place needs to get a fucking life!). Only the butthurt feelings of whatever Suey Park social justice warrior is out there is really offended by this.

Or people just don't care for that kind of joke, because it is over played and seen on Tosh.0 or the like easily.

Different strokes, ya know?

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the daily show is ours... the viewers... comedy central just got lucky that they got to carry it on their channel.

The Daily Show belongs to the company that produces it. Comedy Central pays to produce and air it. Luck has nothing to do with it.

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