- Trevor Noah, a South African comedian who joined The Daily Show in December, will replace Jon Stewart as host of the show, reports the New York Times.
- Noah’s background is fascinating: his birth, as he puts it in his comedy special, was “a crime.” He was born in 1984 to a black South African mother and a white Swiss father, making his family illegal under the laws of apartheid.
- Comedy Central hasn’t announced a public date for Noah’s first show. In February, Stewart announced he was leaving the show, which he has hosted since 1999, later this year.
2 videos that explain why Trevor Noah is a great replacement for Jon Stewart
Noah talks about race in a smart and complicated way
Noah is a South African comedian who grew up during apartheid with parents who legally weren’t allowed to be together because of their race. In this sketch, Noah explains how his mother was thrown in jail for being with his father, and how his mother would have to drop his hand whenever a police officer walked by.
When he moved to America, he said, his race became an identity that was no longer questioned. He was black. No longer “mixed.”
In this second sketch, we see him interacting with Stewart on The Daily Show on the same topic. The story he gave in his standup routine is significantly cut down to make way for the meat of his narrative: police brutality and racist policing.
“The first purpose of comedy is to make people laugh. Anything deeper is a bonus,” he told Interview magazine in 2013.
Stewart calls him a “new talented voice.” And if these two videos are any indication, there’s no reason to believe that Noah won’t be a smart, thoughtful, and fully hilarious member of the late-night crowd, with a perspective that is desperately needed.
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