That’s from the heading of a withering column in Salon.
The whole article is a lament for the fact that The Daily Show is missing in action at a time when it’s needed most. It’s still way down from the viewership under Stewart (it has lost about a third of viewers) and has none of the edge that the show used to have. Comedy Central’s decision to give the show to Noah was always a gamble. Unfortunately for them the gamble didn’t pay off.
Time to cut their losses and cut Noah loose?
I like Trevor Noah. Personally, I think most complaints are not because he’s unqualified or untalented, but that he’s not Jon Stewart. Wasn’t there a similar level of dismay when Johnny Carson left the Tonight Show? And yet it survived…
I like Noah, but he’s not as good as Stewart. That said, if you need Jon Stewart to point out why Trump would be a piss poor President then you’ve got bigger problems than who’s hosting the Daily Show.
This,
Okay, so the interviews still aren’t as good as Jon’s, but the bit’s and the new correspondents, have gotten better IMO. For the past few seasons, the writers have been phoning that part of the show in. So it’s nice to see that part of the show back on track. And maybe with time, Trevor can improve his interviewing skills.
I’m tempted to say that Salon will never, ever be good at its job, but I’m not sure what its job is. If its job is incisive social commentary and media critique, I stand by my judgment. If their job is borderline trolling in order to piss people off and get them to click on Salon’s links, then okay, sure, they rock at their job. For other people, anyway; I’m done with Salon for this lifetime.
Noah is better now than Stewart was at this stage, and improving.
I agree Noah probably won’t ever be as good at the specific things that Stewart did best in his prime, because he doesn’t want to do that, and because he isn’t Stewart. It’s fine if people don’t like Noah as much, but it would be stupid to fire him for that. Nobody else is going to be peak Jon Stewart either.
Also, the show lost more pieces than Stewart, and while that may be regrettable from a certain point of view, it’s not Noah’s fault.
I can.t say that I have watched every night with either host. When I watched Stewart I never caught him being dishonest. I did not always agree with the point of view but I never noticed him manipulating the facts. I barely watch Noah and I’ve seen the show being dishonest several times. Whether it’s him or they are just allowing the correspondents to do it I don’t know.
Are you kidding? The Daily Show has ALWAYS been about manipulation, distortion and creative editing, designed to make people look bad.
And has everyone forgotten what a piss poor interviewer Jon was when he started? Seriously, like for 2 or 3 years his interviews were horrible.
Trevor is doing a different thing than Stewart did. If you want more of what you missed on the old Daily Show, Samantha Bee’s show does that pretty well. But what Noah needs more than anything is time for people to forget what they miss about the old show. It’s not that show anymore. The new show is pretty good too if taken on its own merits.
I like Trevor Noah as a comedian - he’s smart, talented and funny. I’ve been enjoying the “new” Daily Show" for the past months… however, lately I’ve been really longing for the Stewart days. Stewart’s take on serious issues was always on point for me.
There were several recent comedy segments where they poked fun at Bernie and his supporters that seemed a bit cringey, honestly. I’m not saying anyone should be immune to being criticized/made fun of, but the way these segments were done were unfair and dishonest in my view.
I still enjoy the show a lot, and I think Noah is doing quite well for his limited experience. I think he has a lot of room to grow. Not Stewart, but still a very good show, with a bit of a different style.
I agree with all of this.
The author of that article is Sophia A. McClennan. She hates Noah.
Look at this article: Trevor Noah has cratered “The Daily Show”: He has no bite, no message — and has let Fox News off the hook. That was November 13, 2015 - one month after he started.
And she wrote this article: Samantha Bee is Jon Stewart’s real heir: Finally, the 2016 campaign has the satirist we so desperately need
Noah’s “Daily Show” is toothless, Colbert’s playing to the masses on CBS. Samantha Bee is taking down the right after exactly two episodes of her show.
And this article: This is Larry Wilmore’s brilliant moment: It’s not all about Trevor Noah on Comedy Central after Noah had been on one week.
Why can’t we say that Sophia A. McClennan will never, ever be good at her job? Read her article. It’s not very good. Even by Salon “standards” she is awful.
If you mean they don’t show an entire interview and edit it sure. But Stewart was always very careful to put in as much background into a political story as he could sometimes he had to cram 10 minutes of exposition into 30 seconds by talking really fast. But he always tried to give a full story. With Noah I’ve seen a clip I watched on CNN be edited to mean the exact opposite of what was on the news. Putting on only quotes a person said that made them look stupid during an interview? Fair game, don’t say stupid things when the daily show is interviewing you. Editing news clips to fit your agenda? Unacceptable. Stewart was unapologeticly liberal but he took his responsibilities seriously.
First I’ll note I haven’t seen the show for a while. When I did watch it when Noah took over, with decreasing frequency since then, I got the impression his personality wasn’t well suited for the traditional Daily Show. I thought he’d do well making the show a little more serious, concentrating on the live interviews instead of comedy bits. I didn’t see him bring the show back to what Jon had done, but there’s plenty of space for him to find his own niche. I’ll start watching again to get an idea where he’s at now.
ETA: And I think Jon is kicking himself. He probably figured Clinton and Bush had the nominations wrapped up and this would be a dull primary cycle followed by a duller general.
I think Stewart recognized he had become part of the problem. He gave Fox an enemy with a face. They could deflect any criticism of them just by showing a clip of Jon saying Fuck You.
That’s probably what has Noah’s enemies so addle-brained. They want someone to be the anti-Fox. That worked fine for us but I bet it wasn’t so pleasant for Jon.
It’s like what we saying in the Dennis Miller thread. Once you stop satirizing your enemies and begin attacking them you’re done as a comedian. Stewart was at that point.
Noah is good, but will never become great. He doesn’t have the bile that Stewart had that could be turned into a funny semi-rage. (For full rage, see Lewis Black.)
Stewart started good and became great. But there weren’t any more worlds to conquer within the show.
One key thing that will determine whether the show gets better or not is if the stable of correspondents gets better. A few have promise. Some don’t. With a better group, Noah can be pushed to the background and the correspondents can dominate the show.
I don’t know what’s going on with the interviews. A lot of 3rd rate guests. Poor questions. A lot of giggling-for-no-reason filler. How can they screw up the interviews this badly?
Imagine if Salon was more interested in becoming what we need most right now instead of concentrating on being a tiresome left-leaning clickbait rag!
I was just thinking that I would really like Jon Stewart back for the rest of the election cycle. Maybe he could do a special or two? Something on Youtube? OK, I’m desperate.
Reading Salon is like attending a party in NYC where there are a lot of very cool and trendy people, but they’re not your friends… and they’ll turn on you the very minute that they can.
I can binge-read a few issues to catch up, by then I have to walk away for a month or so.
I get that and it started to come through that he really wasn’t having fun there anymore.
Still, with Trump climbing in the polls, a part of me would simply love to see Jon come in and Level The Crowd… like Barnard Hughes at the end of ‘The Lost Boys’.
“One thing about working in Show Business I never could stomach; all the damn FOX News Bone-Heads…”