The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: Chris Christie

October 1, 2015 9:41 AM - Season 1, Episode 3

On Trevor's 3rd day as the new host of the Daily Show, Jordan Klepper and new correspondent Roy Wood Jr. investigate police bias, Al Madrigal looks into espionage rumors at the Waldorf Astoria, and Chris Christie discusses his presidential bid.

Trevor seems comfortable so far, like a natural, but it feels like he's still getting in the groove and honing his delivery. I do find it slightly distracting that he's furrow his brows (is that what it's called, where he's squeezing the space between his eyebrows?) a lot, but that's just me.

I'm glad it's mostly the same writers though, and you can tell because the quality of jokes hasn't really changed. I'm enjoying this so far! How do you guys feel?

posted by numaner (10 comments total)

I just watched this episode, and he's got more confidence and poise than I would after two or three years in that seat. I was skeptical at first (I still think they should have offered the seat to Bassem Youssef, and maybe they did), but I think he's doing remarkably well.

The police bias bit was as good as anything that's ever been on this show.
posted by jbickers at 11:19 AM on October 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

In his interview on Colbert's new show last week, Stephen did ask him about who they offered the job to, specifically if Trevor feels like it should've been a woman, and he answered that they did offer it to women and other men and he was the first to accept. I have a feeling that despite the prestige associated with Jon Stewart, Viacom/Comedy Central probably either can't or doesn't want to spend that much on the next host, and a guy like Trevor Noah would jump at the opportunity. I'm still team Jessica, but she probably doesn't wanna follow Jon.
posted by numaner at 12:05 PM on October 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

Well, plus, think of the enormous, crushing responsibility of taking the seat of The Most Trusted Man In News (Who Is Actually A Comedian). To a much greater extent than many other TV and comedy roles, becoming the host of the Daily Show is something that's gonna define the rest of your career. Plus, the schedule is so unforgiving. I'm totally unsurprised that several people turned it down.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:01 PM on October 1, 2015

Being the Daily Show host is also inviting a lot of unwanted grief. Stewart could call all bullshit because after dismantling CNNs Crossfire in their faces, he proved to be a force to be respected, not just some funny man on tv. Without that, I'm not sure he would have become such a figure, and the new host would have to find a way to balance their own credibility as a trusted fake newsman an honoring Stewarts' tenure.
posted by lmfsilva at 3:13 PM on October 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

Wow I have horrible memories, Trevor stated that at the beginning of the first show, not on Colbert's Late Show. Whoops.
posted by numaner at 3:25 PM on October 1, 2015

I think Trevor's doing pretty well. The transition was smoother than I thought it would be, and I'm happy to keep watching. I was pleasantly surprised by his interview with Christie last night, though Christie was a probably good choice for first politician to interview.

The new correspondent Roy Wood Jr has also been great.
posted by lullaby at 3:45 PM on October 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

"I saw you in shorts". Chill with the fat jokes. It's way past time to cut that shit out.
posted by cashman at 9:01 PM on October 1, 2015

"I still think they should have offered the seat to Bassem Youssef, and maybe they did"

I didn't know who he was so I just looked him up on Wikipedia. He lives in Cairo with his family plus he's also a surgeon. He'd have to drop everything and move to NYC to do the Daily Show so I'm not surprised if it wasn't offered to him.


...having written that I just noticed that he was a resident fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics for the spring semester however that's only one semester so I think my theory may still be right.

Oh, also, this is interesting:

"In February 2015, it was announced that Youssef is collaborating with The Daily Show Producer Sara Taksler[39] to launch a crowd-funding campaign for her documentary about his experience, Tickling Giants.[40] As of April 2015, Tickling Giants had not raised enough money to cover its $400,000 budget."

That sounds interesting. Looks like the Indiegogo campaign failed but I'm not surprised since getting the word out about a fundraising campaign is hard.
posted by I-baLL at 7:44 AM on October 2, 2015

Yeah, I didn't even know that was going on. I'm surprised Jon didn't mention it on the show, that's something I'd have definitely support.

Four episodes in and I think it's gonna take a while for me to get used to the same announcer saying "with Trevor Noah" instead of "with Jon Stewart" at the end of "The Daily Show..."
posted by numaner at 8:39 AM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

I finally went through and watched the week's Daily Shows last night, and I am both totally impressed and kind of in love with Trevor. I think he's doing a great job. He still needs a little while to find his own voice (and for the writers to learn how to sell it) because right now it does seem a bit like charming, funny, good looking guy reads Jon Stewart's script for 22 minutes, but it's working. He's talking over folks a bit too much in the interviews but I think that'll calm down once he finds his groove.

And I'm also really happy to see Desi Lydic as a correspondent!

Also is it just me or is Jordan Klepper's hair getting bigger and bigger each episode?
posted by phunniemee at 8:15 AM on October 4, 2015