Crossfire
February 5, 2016 8:17 AM   Subscribe

Missing Jon Stewart. Trevor Noah is smooth and charming, but he hasn’t found his edge.
posted by four panels (72 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
"Slowly, though, it began to sink in: the dimension of our loss."
posted by four panels at 8:20 AM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


Stewart had delicious rage in candy-coated funny.

Trevor seems to be all candy.
posted by bobloblaw at 8:36 AM on February 5, 2016 [4 favorites]


That's what you get when you rely on one person to do all the fixing. Jon Stewart said all along that the media had dropped the ball. That was his mission: to get the press to do its job. If they picked up the ball (or if he hadn't failed - there, I said it), we wouldn't miss Jon Stewart.
posted by headnsouth at 8:39 AM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]


The Daily Show was way better when David Tennant was the host.
posted by mokolabs at 8:39 AM on February 5, 2016 [16 favorites]


Stewart had delicious rage in candy-coated funny.

Trevor seems to be all candy.


Stewart acquired delicious rage in candy-coated funny. Even he admits that the show didn't find its voice until the 2000 recount, which was nearly two years after he took over. Noah has had not quite five months -- at this point in Stewart's tenure, they were still doing Austin Powers theme weeks.
posted by Etrigan at 8:45 AM on February 5, 2016 [43 favorites]


I mean, I generally agree with the underlying thought, I guess.

But there was one episode just a little while back--I wish I could remember which one it was--during the interview portion the guest said something and Noah shot back with something very sharp, and effortlessly. Skewered the guy, reminiscent of Stewart. And I was like 'ah, there it is'. He's capable. Like the article repeatedly says, he (and the writing staff, and the other correspondents) are new.

As an essay about the significance of Jon Stewart's contribution I think this is great. As a thing about Trevor Noah I guess I'm kind of 'meh'. Mainly because...

Trevor Noah, currently a very able lightweight, needs time too. But he won’t get any. As a culture, we’re not about to nurture this talent, to give it room to grow. Our patience was exhausted long ago, by some other guy. We’re going to pass judgment and move on.

Well, ok. You have fun with that I guess. The Daily Show wasn't hugely popular for years, even after Stewart took over. I don't mind watching and being amused enough to still enjoy it for now. In my mind, Noah's a sleeper cell, and all he needs to manage is to stay on the air for long enough (I don't remotely think this is a problem) until he can start landing some truly rough punches. I honestly think even just a few well-timed and well-handled interviews could really put him in the spotlight, at which point I think people will start paying attention again.

In the meantime, yeah, we lack other people to do the work Stewart was doing. By all means I'd be happy to see other and more people taking up that mantle, but for the meantime I'm not about to write Noah off.
posted by suddenly, and without warning, at 8:46 AM on February 5, 2016 [18 favorites]


I'm enjoying Trevor. I love having a non-US perspective brought sharply to US matters.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 8:47 AM on February 5, 2016 [22 favorites]


Trevor Noah is doing just fine. I miss John Stewart too.
posted by Cookiebastard at 8:47 AM on February 5, 2016 [8 favorites]


We all miss our Jon Stewarts and Norm Macdonalds. They were great, and no-one will ever be like them. But sometimes we have to go through our interregnums of Colin Quinns and Kevin Nealons before we find our new brilliant thing in Tina and Amy.

No offence, Trevor. You seem nice.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:48 AM on February 5, 2016 [8 favorites]


I really hope Parker is wrong that Comedy Central won't be patient. Switching too soon would really kill the Daily Show brand I think. Noah is great, but being an outsider he doesn't have some of the natural insight Stewart did, he's not as good at sniffing out all the American style bullshit.

The writing staff has to pick up some of the slack there. For instance, they brought up the coin flip thing and played it for cheap laughs. Fine, the entire caucus thing is a somewhat silly process. But what I really want from TDS is to point out that the media got the story about the coin flips completely wrong. It didn't change the presidential race results. Anybody can make fun of our dumb politics, the best TDS specialty is highlighting our dumb media and occasionally speaking truth to power. Don't get too lazy or it will become just another show.
posted by Drinky Die at 8:49 AM on February 5, 2016 [8 favorites]


Shit, Nealon was before Norm? What the hell, brain?
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:50 AM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]


I like Trevor Noah. He's different from Jon Stewart, but I like his style. He's also very handsome and just lovely.
posted by discopolo at 8:52 AM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]


This piece acts like Jon Stewart's senioritis only became obvious after he announced he was quitting. Nope, he had been obviously burned out for awhile. The show got saggy and predictable, always hitting the exact same notes at the exact same points. Here's a lame shoe-horned dirty joke because we got too serious talking about a serious subject for half a second. I think they did Trevor Noah a disservice by just plopping him into the same old show. There's no way he can make it into his own new fresh thing at this point in the show's life.
posted by bleep at 8:54 AM on February 5, 2016 [10 favorites]


The kid's doing just fine. Getting relatively sick of all the #ThinkPieces and #HotTakes of "Jon Stewart was SO much better blah blah blah." Sure, he's not the same. So?

Sort of reminds me of that Louis CK episode with Jay Leno. People were like "Jay Leno has gone soft and isn't funny," and Jay's basically "Look, you try being funny every single night. Some nights are going to suck." People have quickly forgotten how many nights the Daily Show just wasn't that great, or was just pure fluff. Nostalgia's a hell of a drug, man.

(Don't care for the remixed theme song, but whatevs.)

Also: The Nightly Show is hot fire right now, if you're looking for some more edge and outrage to your satirical news.


* I also think Kevin Nealon > Norm MacDonald. Come at me.
posted by General Malaise at 8:56 AM on February 5, 2016 [8 favorites]


I will be able to handle the fact that Trevor Noah is still finding the right spot better once we start getting new episodes of John Oliver. Bobloblaw is right that TDS with Trevor Noah is more candy now than before, but Last Week Tonight went the other route, where the candy coating is thin and often forced over the serious, in-depth rage they address. That show gets me not only caring, but seriously upset and interested in horrible messes in topics and areas I hadn't even thought about before.
posted by evilangela at 8:58 AM on February 5, 2016 [11 favorites]


I refuse to believe that Jay Leno was ever funny until there is a some proof.
posted by srboisvert at 8:58 AM on February 5, 2016 [11 favorites]


Also: The Nightly Show is hot fire right now, if you're looking for some more edge and outrage to your satirical news.

Yeah, I need to amend part of my earlier comment. It's not that there aren't people doing the work Jon Stewart was doing at a similar level and reliability, it's just that I think probably not as many people are paying attention (Aside from last Week Tonight. What are the ratings on The Nightly Show?).
posted by suddenly, and without warning, at 8:59 AM on February 5, 2016


Conspiracy. They want a stop gap until election to see what the tone of the next government would be. Stewart, Colbert et al were at their best when railing against Bush etc, the Obama years have been kind of meh, so they're figuring out what to do with the format.
posted by Damienmce at 9:03 AM on February 5, 2016


I think Trevor Noah is aware of how you feel about him relative to Jon Stewart.
posted by a car full of lions at 9:07 AM on February 5, 2016


Count me in with the Trevor-is-doing-just-fine crowd. Loved the show under Stewart and love it now under Trevor.

Not sure what it is that people think is supposedly missing.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 9:09 AM on February 5, 2016 [13 favorites]


I personally love the energy of Noah and the new correspondents. They haven't found their groove quite yet, but the show feels young and fresh and fun. I think they'll find it, as they're obviously a talented bunch. I especially think Hasan Minhaj has a bright future. He's sharp as a tack.
posted by billyfleetwood at 9:14 AM on February 5, 2016 [6 favorites]


Noah has had not quite five months -- at this point in Stewart's tenure, they were still doing Austin Powers theme weeks.

A particularly unhappy side effect of this link was reminding me that The Man Show was a thing that existed.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:17 AM on February 5, 2016 [5 favorites]


I personally love the energy of Noah and the new correspondents.

I know, right? It's like nobody saw Roy Wood Jr. the other night looking into the pr0n industry.
posted by General Malaise at 9:18 AM on February 5, 2016 [4 favorites]


I want to like Trevor Noah. I really do. But.... I don't. I think part of it is the annoying way he giggles at his own jokes.
posted by spilon at 9:22 AM on February 5, 2016 [5 favorites]


but Last Week Tonight went the other route, where the candy coating is thin and often forced over the serious, in-depth rage they address.

I'd honestly love the show more if they ditched the jokes entirely.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:23 AM on February 5, 2016 [5 favorites]


I love the recurring theme of Ronny Chieng seeking approval from his father.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:24 AM on February 5, 2016 [5 favorites]


Stewart acquired delicious rage in candy-coated funny. Even he admits that the show didn't find its voice until the 2000 recount, which was nearly two years after he took over. Noah has had not quite five months

He was on the show for over a year before he got promoted to host. And Noah had the advantage of starting there when it was already the show we know and love. Stewart had to start after a forgettable host had briefly hosted it; Stewart had to build the show up almost from scratch. So it's not a fair comparison to look at Stewart's first year as a host and Noah's first year.
posted by John Cohen at 9:26 AM on February 5, 2016 [2 favorites]


I never got over those tweet jokes, so I honestly have never watched more than a minute or two of him.

A Slate article, not too long ago, argued that Noah's weakness is that he isn't doing enough to present the outsider view of issues. Incidentally, the link has the title as, "Why America isn't Paying Attention to the Daily Show with Trevor Noah," but the title on the article is "Why Are Americans Ignoring Trevor Noah?" Interesting editorial shift.
posted by Atreides at 9:26 AM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


I want to like Trevor Noah. I really do. But.... I don't. I think part of it is the annoying way he giggles at his own jokes.

You realise that corpsing was, like, Stewart's entire brand, right?
posted by tobascodagama at 9:27 AM on February 5, 2016 [10 favorites]


Having seen Trevor Noah in contexts outside The Daily Show, he's superb. He has an eagle eye for privilege, and is fearless about calling people on it. (Watch the Comedians in Cars episode with him to see him do it, repeatedly, the Seinfeld.) That creeps out on the Daily Show now and then, but I suspect the show's producers loved John Stewart haranguing Fox and sitting squarely in the middle of every fight, and aren't ready for a voice that makes a convincing case that we're all culpable thanks to an endemic system of competing privileges that we're born with, are mostly invisible to us, and we reflexively defend even while pretending they don't exist.

If he ever gets to have a Daily Show where that becomes a recurring theme, it won't just be better than Stewart's show, it will be revolutionary.
posted by maxsparber at 9:32 AM on February 5, 2016 [23 favorites]


Trevor Noah, currently a very able lightweight, needs time too. But he won’t get any. As a culture, we’re not about to nurture this talent, to give it room to grow. Our patience was exhausted long ago, by some other guy. We’re going to pass judgment and move on.

Oh my god, it has been less than a year, and speak for yourself, dude. It's not the same Daily Show, and that is fine, that's necessary. I think Noah is building a sharp show with its own sensibility, one that seems very nicely founded on a diversity of perspectives that I don't recall being so present in the old Daily Show. His interviewing is steadily improving, his rapport with the correspondents is good, and he's made some small but important changes to distinguish himself. It's a perfectly serviceable foundation, and he should have at least as long as Stewart had to turn the Daily Show into the force it became.

For comparison, The Nightly Show is a little older than Trevor's Daily Show, and it had a somewhat shaky first half-year too as they tinkered with the format and fine-tuned its tone. And now, aside from the occasional eh correspondent segment, it's settled into its groove and is doing its own great thing that is nothing at all like the Colbert Report.
posted by yasaman at 9:39 AM on February 5, 2016 [6 favorites]


I think the problem is actually that Trevor Noah /is/ an outsider. We fell in love with Jon Stewart during the 2000 recount, in part because he wasn't just some guy cracking laughs - he was /angry/, angry like we were angry. It's not the writing, it's the sincerity and empathy of the delivery. When Jon Stewart bitterly cracked at our failed political system, he was in the trenches with us - not pointing and laughing from afar. It has no heart anymore.
posted by corb at 9:40 AM on February 5, 2016 [9 favorites]


I liked The Daily Show, but then it changed chefs and no one goes there anymore.
posted by jscalzi at 9:44 AM on February 5, 2016 [4 favorites]


Can our nation survive, or is this how we are sinking slowly from our place as the greatest nation on earth?
posted by Postroad at 9:49 AM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


Stewart acquired delicious rage in candy-coated funny. Even he admits that the show didn't find its voice until the 2000 recount, which was nearly two years after he took over. Noah has had not quite five months

He was on the show for over a year before he got promoted to host.


Wait, Stewart was? I have no recollection of that.

I suspect the show's producers loved John Stewart haranguing Fox and sitting squarely in the middle of every fight, and aren't ready for a voice that makes a convincing case that we're all culpable thanks to an endemic system of competing privileges that we're born with, are mostly invisible to us, and we reflexively defend even while pretending they don't exist.

See, I think they specifically hired him because they see that as the wave of the future for political, social, and media criticism. I think that can also be seen in the commitment to making sure they have a diverse cast of correspondents to work beside him. But they misjudged the audience if they thought that was what they currently want. They want the Fox bashing like you said. It will take time to cultivate an audience for that part of what Noah is doing.
posted by Drinky Die at 9:50 AM on February 5, 2016 [2 favorites]


(Oh you meant Noah. Was it really a year? Felt like a few months to me.)
posted by Drinky Die at 9:52 AM on February 5, 2016


"He was on the show for over a year before he got promoted to host."

This means that Trevor Noah was on the Daily Show as a contributor, while John Stewart was host, for over a year until he got promoted to being the new Daily Show host.
posted by I-baLL at 10:02 AM on February 5, 2016 [2 favorites]


Checking that, yeah, I see what Drinky Die means, it looks like Trevor Noah was a correspondent for about 8 months.
posted by I-baLL at 10:03 AM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


If the Daily Show weren't so stingy about putting recent clips on youtube, I think more people would be talking about them. My perhaps incorrect memory is that clips from the old Daily Show and Colbert Report would appear on youtube in a day, and then I might pass links along to friends, or see links from others.

But presently, if I want to share a Trevor Noah Daily Show bit, I might have to wait a couple of weeks for it to show up, and by then it is often not as relevant.

I think Noah's got relevance and an edge, but his network is doing him a disservice by tamping down on his clips going viral.
posted by zippy at 10:03 AM on February 5, 2016 [5 favorites]


Yeah, the viral thing has been a big part of making people aware of Last Week Tonight. And of course it's a source of strength for Jimmy Fallon as well. Can't ignore that side of promotion in this day and age.
posted by Drinky Die at 10:07 AM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


Jon Stewart didn't become "Jon Stewart" until he was two years in.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:08 AM on February 5, 2016


Actually, while I loved Jon and his Jewy, liberal, New York anger (which is something I relate to strongly), I am actually kind of loving when Trevor Noah delves into comedy based on his experience in the rest of the world. Comparing Trump to an African dictator has been pretty damn spot-on.
posted by Sophie1 at 10:09 AM on February 5, 2016 [8 favorites]


"Having seen Trevor Noah in contexts outside The Daily Show, he's superb. He has an eagle eye for privilege, and is fearless about calling people on it. (Watch the Comedians in Cars episode with him to see him do it, repeatedly, the Seinfeld.) "

Agreed. That episode was eye opening. Most guests are very sycophant-ish towards Jerry, but Trevor was like a very funny laser.
posted by jetsetsc at 10:09 AM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]


The Daily Show was a lifeline for me during the Bush years. I've only sporadically checked in after Obama's election. There just wasn't the same level of craziness or the outrage.
posted by monospace at 10:12 AM on February 5, 2016


I refuse to believe that Jay Leno was ever funny until there is a some proof.

I saw him live in the late 80's - long before The Tonight Show gig - and he absolutely killed. One of the funniest stand-up sets I've ever seen in my life. Smart, edgy and honest. I was gobsmacked when he turned out to be such a milquetoast host. The only explanation I've come up with is that Leno toured incessantly honing his live material for years but he only had like 12 his to hone his Tonight Show shtick. Truly a tremendous drop in quality.
posted by Joey Michaels at 10:15 AM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]


Noah would be in a more comfortable position if John Oliver never got a show. LWT had upstaged TDS in terms of "shit that matters you should be outraged about" even during Stewart's final months, and while Noah isn't doing poorly by any qualitative measures, LWT stole their thunder.


My perhaps incorrect memory is that clips from the old Daily Show and Colbert Report would appear on youtube in a day
They're still posted the day after on their homepage. It is much harder to browse than the previous version and not as easy to share, for all that's worth.
posted by lmfsilva at 10:48 AM on February 5, 2016 [2 favorites]


Stewart acquired delicious rage in candy-coated funny. Even he admits that the show didn't find its voice until the 2000 recount, which was nearly two years after he took over. Noah has had not quite five months

He was on the show for over a year before he got promoted to host.


His first appearance was in December 2014, he had three appearances, and he was anointed in March 2015. Four months.

And Noah had the advantage of starting there when it was already the show we know and love. Stewart had to start after a forgettable host had briefly hosted it; Stewart had to build the show up almost from scratch. So it's not a fair comparison to look at Stewart's first year as a host and Noah's first year.

But he's trying to make it his own. He couldn't just drop in and say "Okay, write the same stuff that Jon would say, and I'll do it the same way except for pronouncing 'controversy' differently, and we'll coast this thing into the ground." That's the whole point of this article, that he hasn't found his edge, not that there isn't one to be found.
posted by Etrigan at 10:50 AM on February 5, 2016 [4 favorites]


Jon Stewart wore his heart on his sleeve, or at least he appeared to — sincerity was his shtick. Trevor Noah is very sly and a little reserved/aloof. I think that's the key difference between them.

I don't think I've yet seen a Daily Show segment where Noah seemed genuinely appalled or outraged or even deeply invested in the subject under discussion, and deep investment was Stewart's stock in trade. I don't know if Noah will ever be able to pull off something like Stewart's post-9/11 view-from-my-apartment monologue, which was kind of Stewart's turning point, the moment he found his voice and then, emboldened by the response, his confidence.

Will he find a cause, like Stewart's health care for 9/11 emergency responders, that will show us something about what makes him tick, and the values he holds dear? That's not to say Noah can't turn The Daily Show into a fine, funny program in his image. But I don't know if it will ever seem as intense or personal, and if it doesn't, it's unlikely to feel genuinely relevant and cathartic in the way that Stewart's Daily Show did.
posted by Mothlight at 11:10 AM on February 5, 2016 [9 favorites]


If the Daily Show weren't so stingy about putting recent clips on youtube, I think more people would be talking about them.

Spotify's new-ish "Shows" feature includes Daily Show clips the day after they air. It was rolled out to some users last year (my husband got it on his account, but I didn't), and I think they're working on pushing it out to all users this month. No commercials (IIRC) and you can queue them up to play one after another so it's like watching the whole show.

I am really liking Trevor Noah. I felt like the Daily Show was getting a bit boring with Stewart near the end and I like the direction Noah's taking it. I also am loving Ronny Chieng and Jordan Klepper.
posted by melissasaurus at 11:28 AM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


have you guys seen his dimples tho? like have you. have you really.
posted by suddenly, and without warning, at 11:31 AM on February 5, 2016 [8 favorites]


Yeah, who could be annoyed with Trevor Noah giggling at his own jokes when said giggling makes his dimples appear? His delightful, adorable dimples and the twinkly eyes and...I'll see myself out.
posted by yasaman at 11:44 AM on February 5, 2016 [4 favorites]


Stewart's rightful successor was Samantha Bee who has always embodied the right combination of acerbic wit and on point interrogation skills that made TDS an institution, that's been missing since she left. I have no idea why Comedy Central allowed Stewart any input into picking his successor as he seemed to go with the person least likely to show him up. Samantha Bee's show debuts this Monday right before Conan.
posted by any major dude at 12:00 PM on February 5, 2016 [15 favorites]


I don't think I've yet seen a Daily Show segment where Noah seemed genuinely appalled or outraged or even deeply invested in the subject under discussion, and deep investment was Stewart's stock in trade.

Stewart didn't quite pretend to be naïve enough to expect better from the media and our politicians, but he gave the unmistakable impression that we deserved better.

Stewart was at his best when he was demonstrating to the news media, "Look, a clown could do a better job of reporting that story than you did. Look how easy it would be for you to hold politicians accountable for what they say."
posted by straight at 12:07 PM on February 5, 2016 [4 favorites]


I was never a regular watcher of the Daily Show, though I enjoyed it whenever I saw it. I particularly enjoyed being emailed the best clips, or seeing them linked elsewhere on the web, especially during election seasons.

I have not seen a single second of Noah's Daily Show. And a big part of that is that I haven't sought it out, but it seems noteworthy that no one has tried to share it with me and I haven't come across even a single link in my web travels.
posted by 256 at 12:07 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


This article took a weird turn towards the end. Not everything is "rules" or "sucks" upon first glance, we're adults talking about a news program (of sorts), not 14 year olds arguing about the new Ministry album.

Trevor Noah is doing fine.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 12:16 PM on February 5, 2016 [8 favorites]


Not everything is "rules" or "sucks"

This made me laugh and now I'm quietly weeping
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 12:31 PM on February 5, 2016


I agree that The Daily Show with Trevor Noah right now isn't as good on a nightly basis as the best-of highlight reel of Jon Stewart that people often compare him to. However, I do think the beginning months of his run are as good or better than Jon Stewart was at a similar point in his career.

Noah has a different take on things than Jon did, and he doesn't strike the same emotional tone of patriotism and love of country that Stewart did when he was at his best. The moments when Stewart was speaking with heartfelt outrage about the way the Bush administration was running the country IN OUR NAME was some of the best television of our time. The "Breaking Bad" of joke news TV, if you will.
posted by Oso Mocoso at 1:20 PM on February 5, 2016


There was an episode recently when the guest was one of the interminable list of Republican candidates. The candidate said something at the tail end of the interview that was so patently false and pandering, and Trevor began to respond, but then decided to let the moment just hang in the air, like a fart.

My husband and I immediately said, simultaneously, "Trevor is so much better at interviewing than Jon." Jon would have talked through that farty moment. Team Trevor, for sure.
posted by Liesl at 1:29 PM on February 5, 2016 [6 favorites]


@tobascodagama "Corpsing" isn't just laughing. It's laughing in a way that breaks character. So neither Jon nor Trevor corpse much at all.
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:49 PM on February 5, 2016


Trevor is great. People forget that even in the best of years, Jon didn't knock every ball out of the park, either. not remotely.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 2:03 PM on February 5, 2016


The Black History Month segments that TDS has done all week, and I assume will continue throughout February, have been truly inspired.
posted by hippybear at 3:10 PM on February 5, 2016 [2 favorites]


The moments when Stewart was speaking with heartfelt outrage about the way the Bush administration was running the country IN OUR NAME was some of the best television of our time.

I wouldn't call it the best television of our time just because he was one of only a handful of journalists in the entire nation speaking truth to power when every single fucking one of them should have been doing the same fucking thing! In my opinion Stewart did the absolute maximum he could have done AND still keep his job. I guess I should wonder if he looks back now and wishes he took a stronger stand but I'm pretty sure I know that answer.
posted by any major dude at 3:15 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]


You realise that corpsing was, like, Stewart's entire brand, right?

Just because something works for one person does not necessarily mean it will work for everyone.
posted by spilon at 3:25 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


I like Noah for the most part. He's not Stewart, but no one is. That kind of talent just doesn't exist on demand whenever a slot happens to ask. It's not common enough. Noah is good though, and I see a lot of potential.

My issue is with timing and my personal conspiracy theory - I think that Stewart and Colbert were both hitting a little too close to home, making the truth too palatable and easy to understand. Things that corporate overlords and their friends might have preferred to go unnoticed by the masses (First responder bill expirations, how super-pacs work and why you should be angry about it, etc.) were dragged out of the dirt and shown to everyone.

(Sidenote: This is why I am LOVING John Oliver's show, it seems to exist almost solely to do that. I just wish there was more of it.)

The way that Noah's Daily Show treats the candidates now as compared to how Stewart does only backs me up. Watch Stewart talking about Sanders early on, highlighting the media's treatment of him has a crazy old coot and then countering that by showing that he's well-informed and reasonable... and then Noah, now, painting him as that same old loony - lovable, but loony nevertheless. Stewart took him seriously in a way that Noah hasn't as of my most recent viewing.

I worry that Stewart and Colbert were kindly invited to go, because they were doing too much right. That Noah could be no less talented, and he would still be declawed.
posted by gloriouslyincandescent at 5:32 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]


Noah also has the disadvantage that *everyone* is doing the Daily Show now. John Oliver does it best, but Colbert and Seth Meyers do plenty as well on their current shows, plus we have two former correspondents -- Larry Wilmore and Samantha Bee -- taking on current events as well.

Wilmore, Oliver, and to a lesser extent Meyers all seem to be pointing at particular truths. Most of the time, Noah and Colbert seem to be doing shtick more than making specific satirical points. And the promos for Bee's show put her in the "telling the bitter truth with a laugh so we don't cry" mode.

My take on TDS with Trevor Noah is that the team -- not just the writers, but the staff -- is simply not doing as much as they did under Stewart to *research* clips and put together material in ways that makes a point., Stewart's best moments were often the juxtapositions his editors, researchers, and writers assembled.

I don't see anywhere nearly as much of that on TDS now, whether because of people migrating to other jobs, less support from the network, or a deliberate in-house decision to stick to the day's footage over the decades'. (It's worth noting that the best bit people bring up -- Trump as African president -- *does* have a solid clip roll behind it.) We're losing the "comedy as the last bastion of investigative journalism" element on TDS. Luckily Oliver's show on HBO is doing plenty in that vein.
posted by kewb at 6:22 PM on February 5, 2016 [9 favorites]


We're losing the "comedy as the last bastion of investigative journalism" element on TDS.

TDS ended up doing some actual journalism, but I still think the impetus driving that was to mock and shame the real journalists into doing their damn job. One of Stewart's most famous and impassioned pleas to "stop hurting America" was directed at news shows like Crossfire.

I'm not sure the current version of TDS has that same focus, and I doubt they're going to do that same level of research if they're more interested in mocking whatever stupid and evil thing a politician did yesterday than they are in mocking the news media's feckless coverage of those politicians.
posted by straight at 1:42 AM on February 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


I think he's doing alright. He's a different kind of comedian to Stewart, so we can't really expect him to do so the same thing. Maybe had Stewart not taken time off to do Rosewater and John Oliver hadn't stepped in SO WELL that he was offered his own show by HBO, then maybe Oliver would've been the successor. And that, I think, would've been a lot more similar to Stewart's brand of satire. But then of course CC would have been criticised for hiring "another white guy", so maybe that was never going to happen.

I think Noah's growing into it. The interviews are better than they were originally, and the new 'standup' start to the show that debuted in January I think plays to his strengths. The more he finds his own voice, the better he'll be. But he'll never be the same as Stewart and I think people just have to accept that.

I think the new correspondents are pretty good (though I do miss the Stewart-era stalwarts), with the exception of Ronny Chieng, who I think is uniformly disastrous.
posted by modernnomad at 3:26 AM on February 6, 2016


Oddly, I was having a discussion about TDS at work last week.
I watched Trevor's first show, was not a fan (it was Jon's show, with him) and thought I'd give him time to settle in.

The lady at work who has Pay TV says Trevor has made the show his own.
Metafilter seems to disagree, overall.

I mean, if you can't bring the lulz with Trump, Cruz and that other guy... what are you doing?

(I will accept weeping.)
posted by Mezentian at 7:39 AM on February 6, 2016


I still really miss Molly Ivins.

We need to recruit more smart, funny people to help tell us the truth and entertain us. It's a very special form of genius, and by special, I mean magic.
posted by theora55 at 11:58 AM on February 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


People who miss the funny-moral-outrage bits of the Stewart incarnation at its best should check out Larry Wilmore on The Nightly Show if they haven't already. The show on the whole can be kind of uneven, and the panel discussions are rarely all that good -- but their coverage of Flint has been outstanding, and their Black History Month features are shorter, funnier, and a hell of a lot sharper than what the Daily Show has been doing.
posted by bokane at 9:22 AM on February 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Time has passed, and I still think the panel format on Nightly was a mistake - usually has a couple of decent jokes, but is mostly "say one sentence about this hot issue" and barely any follow-up. Maher can do a panel because he does a stand-up bit, interview a guest, then still have a panel segment (with yet another guest and couple of comedy bits in the middle), because his panel is still longer than the whole Nightly.
posted by lmfsilva at 10:50 AM on February 7, 2016 [6 favorites]


I took The Daily Show off my favorites on Hulu a couple of weeks ago when they had a musical guest who played two songs. I randomly watched Tuesday's episode because I was looking for chatter to work to and saw the same thing. While I'm a sucker for a ten-piece band and I'm kind of glad to have been introduced to The Suffers, new music is not what I'm looking for from The Daily Show.
posted by ob1quixote at 4:40 AM on February 10, 2016


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