Was the article about how there are very few black late night hosts, or very few African-American late night hosts?
I was a regular viewer of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. When Trevor Noah was announced as his successor, I was a little irked that the job didn’t go to one of the correspondents, or at least someone more well-known. I watched Noah’s first few episodes and wasn’t much impressed, so I quit watching. (I was an even bigger fan of The Colbert Report than TDS, so the lack of that pairing also made it easy to drop TDS.)
Then, about a year ago I dropped cable and I started to explore what content I could watch for ‘free’ on my Roku. The Comedy Central app streams the last week or so of Daily Show episodes without requiring sign-in through a cable provider, so I thought I’d give it another chance. I found Noah to be much improved. He appeared to be more comfortable and confident and relaxed. I think he’s at least as good as–probably better than–Stewart at the news/commentary segments. He still has a ways to go to be as good as Stewart at the interview segments, but he’s not bad. Anyway, I’ve become a fan of Trevor Noah and a regular viewer of The Daily Show again.
I like Trevor Noah and watch The Daily Show regularly, but better than Jon Stewart in his prime? My gut says no, that Jon was better, but I’ll admit that may not be entirely objective. I haven’t revisited any Jon episodes since he went off the air, and I may be romanticizing that era or only remembering the good parts.
Black because they commented Noah was too stiff and his jokes were hokey but pointed out his fellow contributor (who happened to be African-American) was funny.
Noah is fine. His background is a horatio algier story. I am okay with his “I’m jus a furnier schtick” but feel that has limited legs.
Let’s put it this way. With Jon Stewart, I watched the show most nights. With Noah, once every week or two I’ll catch an episode and enjoy it. Not the same thing…
Noah is not African American. He is simply South African.
(For now at least).
I find Trevor Noah hilarious and it doesn’t even occur to me to compare him to Stewart. Two different people with two different styles.
I just find that all the other late night shows do a better job. I stopped watching Noah back in 2016, and never felt like there was anything missing that I needed to go back to him. Colbert, Meyers, Oliver, Bee–all cover the same content. Meyers in particular has become the news replacement comedian for me, with Oliver’s big pieces helping out as well.
I have occasionally watched Noah a bit, and, while I thought he made a good interviewer, and thought he had a good point here or there, nothing made me laugh or made me want to check in. And I always felt the other bits were the weakest. Though I now see he has a decent YouTube page, so I’m gonna try and give him another shot.
Everyone here seems to understand that already, but thanks for the clarification.
I like Noah quite a bit, and watch the show regularly. Like some of the correspondents more than others. Like Ronny Cheng, Roy Wood. Liked the curly headed woman. Desi Is somewhat hit/miss. Not a big fan of Dulcie Sloan or the other pierced woman with the English accent.
A huge percentage of his guests pertain to hiphop, which I have no interest in. I generally try to listen to them, but more often than not turn them off. JS was a white guy around my age - many more of his guests were of interest to me.
TN shares JS’s habit of talking too much during the interviews.
I appreciate hearing a viewpoint that is not strictly American.
I posted in this thread in 2016 that I watched Noah every night after watching Stewart every night for years.
I stopped watching TDS at the beginning of this year, and haven’t been back. It’s not because of Noah, it’s really just because of the available content.
I watch Colbert every night and he’s hitting it out of the park. Then I get Bee once a week and Oliver once a week and seriously that’s all the “THE END IS NIGH” news I can handle.
So why did I drop Noah’s show and keep the other 3? I think Noah and Colbert are pretty much covering the same things every day, and I have more loyalty to Colbert. If it was Stewart vs. Colbert, I’d probably stick with Stewart.
If Colbert’s show had ended up being more celebs-and-sketches-based than it is now, like a more traditional late night talk show, I would have definitely stuck with Noah. But Colbert does more than half of his show as a monologue right now. It’s a TDS-size monologue.
I will probably go back to watching TDS when the next election comes around. Right now I just need a break.
Oh, I did go see Roy Wood Jr.'s standup in Cleveland last month. Hilarious!
Plus one for Meyers. The monologue and “closer look” segments at the beginning of his show are a great combination of political commentary and comedy.
ETA: but I’m completely bewildered by why he wastes so much time with the Fred Armisen bits.
Since I only watch on YouTube anymore, I skip those bits.
Also Noah really got me laughing with the anti-civility rant, so maybe I’ll start giving him more of a chance. He brought up that civility is not proper when protesting a government, which is a direction I’d not actually thought of.
I stopped recording TDS about 6 months ago. John Oliver is great, Noah was good at times but no Jon Stewart.
I stopped watching TDS for a while, but that wasn’t because of Noah. It was because I can’t stand Jordan Klepper. Now that he has his own show I’ve gone back to recording TDS and watching it every morning while I get ready for work.
The more I watch Trevor Noah, the more I realize how cranky Jon Stewart was. He had his funny moments (and no Moment of Zen will ever be better than the puppy he pulled out post 9/11) but he was just too grouchy and political. Noah is more relaxed about it. Plus he has a wider variety of guests. I don’t know all the Netflix and hip hop folks he has on, but it’s nice to hear what else is there outside of my own little entertainment bubble.
I didn’t like him at first, but I gave him a chance because I figured it was probably just because I wouldn’t have liked anyone other than Jon. I was right. I still don’t love him - he never makes eye contact during interviews and it weirds me out - but he’s very funny. His impressions give him a dimension that Jon lacked, though otherwise I still like Jon better. I didn’t watch many of the interviews when Stewart was hosting anyway, so the interview thing doesn’t bother me that much.
My wife and I went to see his stand-up tour in January and he was fantastic. As someone who moved to the US at 13, I could totally relate to a lot of his culture shock anecdotes.