Under the Radar: Trevor Noah, the new, controversial host of The Daily Show

Jenny Levine
Arts, Entertainment and Technology Editor
@JALevineCourant

Two months ago will be marked the day the music died, or at least the day satirical fake news shows died.

Jon Stewart announcing on his show that he will be exiting is show, The Daily Show, in the near future photo courtesy of the telegraph
Jon Stewart announcing on his show that he will be exiting is show, The Daily Show, in the near future
photo courtesy of the telegraph

Jon Stewart of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart announced on his show that he will be exiting sometime in the near future.

Almost immeaditly following the show Twitter, Facebook, and reputable new sources all agreed, “What the @#$%*!”

Stewart shouted into the void of angry bloggers that although there is no set date or set plan, he does have a faint idea of what he might do post-Daily Show. “Got a lot of ideas. I got a lot of things in my head. I’m going to have dinner on a school night with my family, who I have heard from multiple sources are lovely people,” Stewart said on air.

South African born comedian, Trevor Noah, was announced to become the new host of the satirical news show The Daily Show photo courtesy of Huff Post
South African born comedian, Trevor Noah, was announced to become the new host of the satirical news show The Daily Show
photo courtesy of Huff Post

The real breaking news, however, is the Comedy Central that virtually unknown South African comic, Trevor Noah, has been tapped to host the nightly fake news program, but not without its controversies.

Some say he does not have enough on camera experience to host, while Stewart had his own talk show on MTV before handling The Daily Show desk. One, however, should keep in mind Noah’s multiple stand up specials offered in clips on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37Y7CLGGMUo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xiqwkx4oujo

As well as a foreshadowing guest appearance on The Daily Show

At first the initial shock of the announcement was the focus of the media, it soon evolved into a free-for-all as bloggers sifted through some 9,000 of Noah’s tweets from the past 6 years to expose “insensitive” remarks made against women, Jews, and overweight people.

This might seem hardly surprising at all in a time when every at first glance meaningless post is saved onto your profile so in the event that a prospective employer or even the public want to dig up old skeletons they are sure to find something.

Trevor Noah's latest appearance on the Daily Show tackled the issue of race in America vs. South Africa photo courtesy of eoline
Trevor Noah’s latest appearance on the Daily Show tackled the issue of race in America vs. South Africa
photo courtesy of eoline

Some say that only a couple of tweets do not represent Noah’s character and people are overreacting to some harmless jokes while the more offended are calling for a boycott of the future host.

What I’ve learned from thankfully not being caught in the crosshairs of nostalgic fans trying to stir up drama like a prepubescent tween, is people are innately opposed to change in the norm; what the real challenge Noah faces is proving that he is capable of making change in the direction of progress and can handle the intensity of the Daily Show spotlight.