Trevor Noah is Off to a Good Start Hosting The Daily Show

Posted on September 29, 2015

Trevor Noah has officially taken over for Jon Stewart as the host of The Daily Show and his first night got off to a smooth start. Of course, he is no Jon Stewart and he pointed that out several times during the show, to good comic effect.

He opened with a tribute to Jon and talked about how far he's come since he was a small boy in South Africa saying, "Growing up in the dusty streets of South Africa, I never dreamed that I'd one day have -- well, two things really -- an indoor toilet, and a job as host of The Daily Show. And now I have both, and I'm quite comfortable with one of them."

He referred to he fact that Jon Stewart is our Comedic Father. He empathized with the audience about how jarring it is to have a new face hosting the show noting that "Now it feels like the family has a new stepdad. And he’s black."

The format of the show was unchanged, and you could hear the familiar patterns of the excellent writing staff. He talked about the Pope's visit and the creation of new emojis to honor him that he called Popemojis, "for when you want to inject just the right amount of confusion into your late-night sexting." He discussed the resignation of Speaker of the House John Boehner and the discovery of water on Mars, all of which were very funny.

The water on Mars bit featured new correspondent Roy Wood riffing on the news with a racial twist. Trevor skated up to the edge with two jokes that didn't land -- one about AIDS and one about Whitney Houston's death from drug abuse which elicited a "what, too soon?" from Trevor when the audience objected. He didn't play it safe, and that's a good thing. The irrepressible Kevin Hart was the guest and it's clear that Trevor's strength is stand up, not interviews. But he's smart and he'll get better with time. We can't wait to see what he and Chris Christie have to talk about.

Overall he landed on his feet and we'll keep tuning in. His jokes about about the woman who turned down the show before he was offered the gig (that would be Amy Schumer) was clever and on target. Also, he's smooth as silk, and is a great dresser. Hey, in today's media landscape, that doesn't hurt. Take a look:

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