{"id":43197,"date":"2015-10-12T00:44:28","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T00:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=43197"},"modified":"2015-10-14T00:47:50","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T00:47:50","slug":"%ef%bb%bftrevor-noah-says-hes-not-a-political-progressive-hed-be-funnier-if-he-were","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=43197","title":{"rendered":"\ufeffTrevor Noah Says He\u2019s Not a Political Progressive. He\u2019d Be Funnier If He Were."},"content":{"rendered":"

Trevor Noah Says He\u2019s Not a Political Progressive. He\u2019d Be Funnier If He Were.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Nation<\/a>
\n2015-10-09<\/p>\n

Katie Halper<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n(The Daily Show with Trevor Noah<\/em> \/ Brad Barket)<\/small><\/p>\n

The new <\/em>Daily Show<\/a> host doesn\u2019t have much to say, which leaves him making jokes about tramp stamps and body weight.<\/em><\/p>\n

Unlike Jon Stewart<\/a>, Trevor Noah<\/a> doesn\u2019t ground his comedy in a political ideology. This is of course politically disappointing to people who saw Jon Stewart as someone who not only raised awareness but influenced politics and sometimes even policy. But what\u2019s less obvious is that the lack of political perspective makes the show less funny.<\/p>\n

Like millions of viewers in the United States and across the globe, I depended upon Jon Stewart, night after night, to excoriate people in high places who had messed with ordinary people during the day. When Comedy Central<\/a> announced that Trevor Noah would replace Stewart, I knew that the odds of someone doing as good a job were slim. But I defended<\/a> Noah when he came under attack for a handful of tweets that ranged from offensive to not at all offensive (just critical<\/a> of Israeli policy), and from unfunny to really, really unfunny. It seemed an unfair point of focus. I was hopeful that his background, so different from Stewart\u2019s, would bring a fresh perspective. And I thought it went without saying that Noah would continue the show\u2019s political focus and insight…<\/p>\n

… In contrast, correspondents Roy Wood and Jordan Keppler brought an angle and some character to the show, which made them funnier. It wasn\u2019t earth-shattering (no pun intended), but Roy Wood Jr.\u2019s report on NASA\u2019s discovery of liquid on Mars<\/a> was the first time I laughed during the debut episode. It was also the first time racism (and not just race) was addressed on the show. When Noah asks Wood what he can tell us about the story, Wood responds, \u201cI can tell you I don\u2019t give a shit.\u201d When an optimistic Noah says, \u201cDoesn\u2019t this raise the possibility that one day people can live on Mars?\u201d Wood responds, \u201cPeople like who? Me and you? How am I going to get there? Brother can\u2019t catch a cab, you think we can catch a spaceship?\u2026 Black people ain\u2019t going to Mars! And that includes you, Trevor.\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trevor Noah Says He\u2019s Not a Political Progressive. He\u2019d Be Funnier If He Were. The Nation 2015-10-09 Katie Halper (The Daily Show with Trevor Noah \/ Brad Barket) The new Daily Show host doesn\u2019t have much to say, which leaves him making jokes about tramp stamps and body weight. Unlike Jon Stewart, Trevor Noah doesn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,8,20],"tags":[21388,18874,21387,19769,2831,15219],"class_list":["post-43197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-daily-show","tag-jon-stewart","tag-katie-halper","tag-the-daily-show","tag-the-nation","tag-trevor-noah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43197"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43226,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43197\/revisions\/43226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}