Recap And Review: Trevor Noah's First "Daily Show"

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In taking over The Daily Show Trevor Noah may be stepping into the hardest job in late night.

Yes, Jimmy Fallon took over for Jay Leno (a ratings legend at least) and Stephen Colbert inherited his seat from David Letterman (an actual legend in every sense of the word) but those two host shows using the now-conventional talk show format.

It's monologue, comedy bit, guest, guest, musical act or comedian and then the credits. With The Daily Show Noah takes on a format which was essentially refined into perfection by his predecessor Jon Stewart.

Stewart was a voice that moved a generation.

He made the show about politics in a way that was entertaining and while Noah will pivot from that a bit, he can't leave it entirely or he becomes just another late-night option.

On his first night Noah had the daunting task of showing that everything is different while it's also still the same.

The opening segment
After the familiar announcement of the date and the name of the show, for the first time, "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah," as well as the Jon Stewart theme song, Noah began by quickly addressing the elephant in the room.

He made jokes about the former host being dad and him being "a stepdad, who's black."

Noah thanked Stewart and then moved into the actual comedy of the show. It was unfunny and an odd way to start -- sort of a bizarre attempt to link the new host with the old. Eventually, after three minutes, the host moved into jokes about the pope.

It was mild humor about pope nicknames and pope emojis. It was mild humor and not very funny.

The comedy was still political, at least a little, but it lacked bite and included forced attempts for Noah to talk "younger" than Stewart did.

Somehow, mentioning Fetty Wap does not really make up for how uncomfortable Noah seemed and how slight the jokes were.

On to the correspondents
Jordan Klepper, a holdover from the previous regime, was a the first correspondent to appear. He did a bit about John Boehner's replacement that somehow also managed to reference Stewart's leaving as well.

It was forced and it derailed what had started as a funny bit. In a broad sense it was too self-referential in a way Stewart rarely allowed.

The second segment

Noah returned from the first break with a story about how NASA announced that there is flowing water on Mars. For that, he introduced new correspondent Roy Wood Jr. The new contributor did a not-at-all-funny bit about how uninterested he was in this.

It was a skit so lame he made a black people can't catch a cab so how will we get to Mars joke (Wood Jr. is African American). Every joke was racial in nature and there was essentially no comedy.

The Interview with Kevin Hart
Hart being booked at all was a transparent attempt to get a big name who also screamed new and young. The comedian was fine, but he was part of the endless referring to the first show which quickly got tiresome.

He gave Noah a gift -- a box of ties -- that was joke-free, though host and guest laughed as if it wasn't.

The rest of the interview was fine, but Noah added little and Hart wasn't very funny or interesting.

The Bottom Line
Noah's start was an attempt to show how he would be like Stewart, but different and younger.

Emojis! Fetty Wap! References to watching on your phone! It was not a great beginning and maybe even a disastrous one.

Wanna read more on this? Check these out: Watch Trevor Noah Talk Trump, Comey on The View (more); Amy Poehler Or Tina Fey Should Replace Jon Stewart As The New 'The Daily Show' Host (more).