Updated with video: “Growing up in the dusty streets of South Africa, I never dreamed that I would one day have two things: an indoor toilet and a job as the host of The Daily Show,” Trevor Noah said, opening his debut as Jon Stewart’s replacement on Comedy Central’s late-night stalwart.”Now I have both, and I’m quite comfortable with one of them.”
For all the talk of how different would be The Daily Show with Trevor Noah as host, owing to his having grown up in South Africa at a time when his very birth was “a crime,” his age, his worldliness, his well-traveled-ness, his social media-ness, etc., the show stuck very much to the formula Stewart honed over 16 years into the place where, to the chagrin of news outlets everywhere, many young viewers got their news.
On a new and very blue but not so different set, though minus Stewart’s trademark opening script scribbling, Noah went with golly-goshness: “Truth is now I’m in the chair and only assume this as strange for you as it is for me.” He paid tribute to Stewart, calling him “our voice” and “our political dad,” adding: “It’s weird because Dad has left. And now it feels like the family has a new stepdad – and he’s black. Which not ideal.”
Continuing in his going-to-work-for-Dad’s-successful-business vein, Noah promised to work hard every day, so as not to have Stewart’s legacy be that of “crazy old dude who left his inheritance to some random kid from Africa.” Also to continue to “war on bullshit.”
That a reference to Stewart having famously ended his 16-year run as host of The Daily Show with a much-quoted “Bullshit Is Everywhere” speech, in which he wound up his run on the show telling his fans, “The best defense against bullshit is vigilance. So if you smell something, say something.”
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