“The Daily Show” Squandered the Opportunity That Was Trevor Noah

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/how-the-daily-show-squandered-the-opportunity-that-was-trevor-noah

by flyingsky • 4 years ago

11 15 4 years ago

boredumb• 4 years ago

Trevor Noah squandered the opportunity that was "The Daily Show"

I commented above, but agreed. I never got the schtick of “you guys suck and I dislike this country I moved to” as a talk show.

Ok? You chose to come here, no one says we’re perfect. It’s bizarre to me to move and stay somewhere you so clearly dislike.

mc323• 4 years ago

People will do lots of things for money --things they hate to do. Thing is people watched his show, so it was a profitable enterprise, even if the premise itself was controversial.

Let's say once the war is over and in the Ukraine people find a fondness for Soviet nostalgia and hire a Russian to make fun of them. It's plausible. Many people would hate it despite being edgy, but some would enjoy it too. As they say in Wales, 'queer as folk'.

throwayyy4790872• 4 years ago

Is there any other country that loves commentators that come and shit on it’s citizens? I can’t imagine India paying Brits big money to crap all over them, but in America we have Trevor, Piers Morgan, John Oliver.

I never got the appeal frankly. Maybe we can listen to Noah and become more like the paradise that is South Africa.

mindover• 4 years ago

If you take legitimate criticism of your country so personally then maybe watching late night comedy shows is not for you.

This shouldn’t have much to do with the presenter’s country of birth unless this somehow clouds your own judgment.

Oliver has excellent writers and the topics he highlights are almost always worthy. Trevor had his own thing which I personally didn’t find funny or interesting, but not because he was born in SA.

mc323• 4 years ago

No one owes anyone anything in terms of expectations. As long as he's happy and isn't harming any other people, it's for him to decide to quit and go do something irrelevant, if he wants to.

s1artibartfast2• 4 years ago

Only occasionally did the series fully deliver on its initial promise of using Noah’s outsider’s gaze to satirize America.

The issue I had with Noah on the daily show was that criticism and satire from an outside comes across completely different than from an insider.

Stewart and Colbert were insiders, so when they satirized the US, there was a level of self-deprecation, and the idea that we are going through through this absurd madness together.

Because Noah didn't have this shared identity with the viewer, the satire generally fell flat and came across as mere ridicule.

mc323• 4 years ago

I dunno. I could take Stewart --I understood him. I could not find appreciation in Colbert --not least of which is the weird way he says his last name (despite how his own family says it). John Oliver comes across as a prigish prick. At least Noah didn't bring that abrasiveness.

s1artibartfast2• 4 years ago

With Colbert, I at least got the impression that he liked the US and Americans. Did you feel otherwise?

Another impression I got from Stewart and Colbert was that they genuinely enjoyed their work.

Noah seemed disdainful of the US, and like he didn't want to be there.

Its like that feeling when someone tells a joke that they don't think is funny, but expect you to laugh.

legitster3• 4 years ago

If you wanted an outsider who could effectively satirize America, you are looking for Craig Ferguson.

I think the difference is that Craig Ferguson freaking loved America, showed his enthusiasm for it all of the time, and was enthusiastic about making it better.

Listing to Trevor Noah (or more probably, his writers) was like talking to someone who could live anywhere they want but they chose to live in the place they hated the most.

nickthegreek• 4 years ago

John Oliver does a decent job at this while also embracing the US/UK shared history of messing up.

kazmerb• 4 years ago

I loved Noah's run on TDS. I would've preferred Stewbeef of course, because I love me some J-Stew, but Noah was alright and grew into his role in one of the most tumultuous times of our nation's history and the world around us.

Anyone who criticizes him for "shitting" on America, it's institutions, and it's people, are just mad that they belong to the groups he was shitting on. It's ok! Be mad. It's funnier that way.

sn0w_crash• 4 years ago

I’m not part of any of those institutions he was “shitting on” and I don’t think he did a good job. Jon Stewart was funny, and when he made fun of republicans it was genuinely funny.

Trevor Noah’s shtick is “conservatards are dumb hurr durr America sucks” and I’m supposed to clap like a sea lion?

Ok lol

legitster3• 4 years ago

I enjoyed Jon Stewart's the Daily Show as much as the next person, but this article makes me really appreciate how much I dislike all of its successors. The whole "Progressives Yell At the Camera About Things They Read on Twitter" genre is thoroughly saturated at this point. And criminally unfun. Even Jon Stewart's new show I have found to be unnecessarily doomful - not only does it host it's own fair share of misleading stories, crackpots, and pitchfork sharpening - it's just not fun.

I think the thing all of these shows are forgetting is the Daily Show was FUN. In spite of "Stewart taking things personally."

The Daily Show was literally a parody of the pearl-clutching, panic-driven serious news shows on cable at the time. They brought levity and lowered the stakes.

Instead these shows have become the "serious" shows.

“The Daily Show” Squandered the Opportunity That Was Trevor Noah

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