Trevor Noah's time as Daily Show Host has officially begun. The South African comedian is the show's first new host since Jon Stewart took the reins in 1999. Filling his shoes was always going to be a tough act to follow, so how did Noah fare in his maiden voyage as Daily Show host?
Reviews for his debut have been a mixed bag so far. Critics praised his acknowledgement of Stewart in the opening monologue. Noah likened his predecessor to a father figure of sorts saying:
"Now it feels like the family has a new stepdad. And he's black."
Elsewhere, critics weren't as kind. The current events segment, a hallmark of the show, was a little rough with a few jokes falling flat. One particular gag about Pope Francis' crotch size was a low point. The Guardian's Brian Moylan writes:
Yes, Noah mined some clever material from the Pope's US visit and Speaker of the House John Boehner's resignation, but there were more than a few clunkers. Especially bad was a joke about the pope "undercompensating" by driving a small car. "I'm saying the pope has a huge cock," Noah had to explain.
It's obviously very early days for Noah and the show and a lot of fine tuning is to be expected in the coming months. The New York Times' James Poniewozik says that Noah has retained much of the show's DNA:
"If Mr. Noah's debut was largely successful, it was also because of the operating system-the show's writing-running under the surface. That algorithm, capable of processing a day's media inputs into a satirically argued package, is what makes 'The Daily Show' 'The Daily Show.' This first outing was about proving that he could run the software without crashing."
