Trevor Noah says goodbye throughout his last taping of The Daily Show on December 8, 2022.
Comedy Central
How do you say goodbye to a late-night show redefined by your presence? Well, in the event you’re listening to the recommendation of Comedy Central executives, Paramount Global boardrooms, and the entire Daily Show workers— you don’t. But for Trevor Noah, who stepped behind the Daily Show desk for the final time as host on Thursday evening, you say goodbye with a celebration — and a thanks.
“One final time,” Noah mentioned, opening the present. “Let’s have fun.”
Bid farewell by a full solid of correspondents and crew and semi-successfully serenaded with the Liverpool favourite “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” Noah spent his last present urging viewers to worth human lives and context over the partisan divide — all whereas wanting again at a present that modified eternally underneath his management.
When Noah introduced his departure from the present earlier this month, the bombshell reveal despatched followers scurrying for causes behind the sudden egress. Industry insiders mentioned the announcement got here as a shock not simply to Paramount and Viacom executives, however to the present’s solid and crew, who heard the information reside alongside the present’s studio viewers. “Part of the purpose I did it that means is as a result of I didn’t need anyone to be the one who then tells anyone else, who then tells anyone else, who then tells anyone else,” Noah instructed The Hollywood Reporter. “And that is the place we create the factor. [The show] is the place we’re collectively, our house, and so for me, it felt like the most pure technique to inform all people at the identical time.”
Starting in 2023, whereas The Daily Show is hosted by a rotating listing of visitors, Noah will embark on a 28-city North American stand-up tour. But in keeping with Noah, there’s no struggle or blowup or nice huge job alternative that brought on him to go away, nothing apart from a want to do one thing, something, new. This lack of plans was sufficient for correspondents Michael Kosta, Desi Lydic, Dulce Sloan, Roy Wood Jr., and Jordan Klepper all to poke light enjoyable at throughout their turns in the highlight.
“You’re leaving a job to do nothing?” Sloan remarked. “Wow, you actually are half-white.”
While the huge query on everybody’s thoughts is what Noah is doing subsequent, the present took a shocking surface-level look again on Noah’s path from unknown newcomer to beloved (and considerably divisive) public determine. Rather than characteristic some of the host’s most influential movies, there was a delicate mashup of his favourite tagline, “Get the fuck out of right here, man.” It additionally included a cheeky celeb sendoff from Oprah, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross, Nick Offerman, Bill Gates, and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton—a veritable train in why we should always educate well-known individuals the best way to shoot horizontal iPhone movies. But Noah took the reward and the thanks with aplomb, regularly redirecting the consideration towards the viewers and the executives in the viewers who first selected him.
“Savor each second,” he mentioned in a reflective second, recommendation he directed towards a youthful model of himself. “There are moments in life that imply one thing. [But] it’s onerous to understand in life how all of the progress comes from the shitty moments… And don’t spend money on crypto.”
When Noah was tapped by execs and given the blessing of former host Jon Stewart
Is Noah’s departure indicative of a serious change in late-night tv? It’s onerous to say. In our present understanding of the format, hosts have to be contemporary sufficient to stop the sequence from stagnating however established sufficient to attract and preserve viewers watching. And for each success story like Fallon, Colbert, and Stewart, a category Noah now joins, the failures have the potential to push comedy’s development again years. That wasn’t the case with Noah, as Thursday’s visitor, comic Neal Brennan famous. “[You] introduced range to late evening,” he mentioned, presenting Noah together with his *literal* flowers. “You turned The Daily Show into The Breakfast Club.”
It’s simple to think about a last Daily Show with Noah that was a lot greater than the one filmed Thursday. There had been no main visitors, no sweeping memorials, and a shocking lack of tears. But what was current at each break, each digicam reset, each second backstage as correspondents hugged and kissed and cooed over rising youngsters, was celebration. There had been extra thank-you’s than punchlines, and even a second the place Noah pushed all the pieces apart to thank Black girls for his or her assist and data.
“Who do you assume teaches me?” he mentioned, mentioning his mom and grandmother. “Unlike all people else, Black girls can’t afford to fuck round and discover out.”
Trevor Noah mentioned goodbye to his present of seven years with the air of a person assured in his alternative — and targeted on making a last bow that centered the family and friends that meant the most to him.
“It was the craziest journey that I didn’t predict and didn’t count on,” Noah mentioned to a full viewers. “It’s been an honor, thanks.”
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