Trevor Noah wants to make the filibuster and the disruption of legislative proceedings great again. Now that he is set to leave The Daily Show, Noah has signed on to be the executive producer of a series of MSNBC documentaries entitled The Turning Point, the first of which is about former Texas State Senator Wendy Davis called Shouting Down Midnight and on Thursday, Noah was on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote it.
In response to questioning from Fallon, Noah described Shouting Down Midnight as, “a really, really wonderful look at how one lawmaker, one person, in fact, can go on to create, you know, ripples in a pond. You know, you have Wendy Davis, who stood up and filibustered a law that has affected so many millions of women around this country.”
Speaking of the woman who lost her subsequent gubernatorial campaign by 20 points, Noah continued, “And she did it in her state, in her world. And then what we try to show you is how these ripples go on to create change all over the country. And it becomes less about that incident, and more about how people can create more change than they think they can in the moment that they dip themselves into a pond.”
After Fallon declared “Yeah, I love that,” he cued up a preview clip of the documentary that included two lines from Davis, the last of which showed her declaring, “Upset by the crowd's behavior, Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst referred to the folks who were there as an unruly mob. They've since taken that mantra and worn it with pride.”
Not only has Davis gotten Noah to have a different take on the filibuster, she has gotten him to have a different perspective on mobs that obstruct legislative efforts, which is ironic considering January 6 is a future topic for The Turning Point. Adding a second layer of irony is that several of Fallon and Noah's late night colleagues spent their Thursday shows doing extensive recaps of the day's January 6 hearing.
It is worth remembering that the bill Davis filibustered was a 20-week ban. She later claimed that was the least offensive part of the bill and that she supported such restrictions, but even the Washington Post struggled to buy that assertion.
This segment was sponsored by Discover.
Here is a transcript for the October 13 show:
NBC The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
11:59 PM ET
JIMMY FALLON: The first one is called Shouting Down Midnight.
TREVOR NOAH: Yes.
FALLON: What is that?
NOAH: It's a really, really wonderful look at how one lawmaker, one person, in fact, can go on to create, you know, ripples in a pond. You know, you have Wendy Davis, who stood up and filibustered a law that has affected so many millions of women around this country.
And she did it in her state, in her world. And then what we try to show you is how these ripples go on to create change all over the country. And it becomes less about that incident, and more about how people can create more change than they think they can in the moment that they dip themselves into a pond.
FALLON: Yeah, I love that. I want to show everyone a clip. Here’s a look at the first film of the series, Shouting Down Midnight.
FEMALE PROTESTOR: We are coming back. We are coming back
PROTESTORS: We are coming back. We are coming back.
WENDY DAVIS: There were these moments in the day when the building would literally come alive I could feel it under my feet.
PROTESTORS: Let her speak. Let her speak. Let her speak. Let her speak.
DAVIS: Upset by the crowd's behavior, Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst referred to the folks who were there as an unruly mob. They've since taken that mantra and worn it with pride.
FALLON: The documentary series The Turning Point premieres October 23rd at 10:00 PM on MSNBC. Trevor, thank you so much for being here, and we'll support anything you ever do.
