Sitting down for a fawning interview with NBC’s Sunday Today host Willie Geist, left-wing Daily Show host Trevor Noah expressed his relief that Joe Biden’s administration was supposedly so boring that late night comedians like himself could focus on pushing the Democratic Party’s agenda rather than bother to criticize the President. Geist also took a moment to praise a 2020 social media rant in which Noah justified looting and rioting after the murder of George Floyd.
“Joe Biden is so lucky. All he has to do is have a vaccine plan and not lie for ten minutes and he’s basically, what? The next George Washington?,” Noah proclaimed in a Daily Show soundbite featured during the sit-down. Geist then touted how the leftist host now had more time for political advocacy: “In a new administration Noah dedicates less of the show to the president’s daily tweets and more to topics like climate change, gender discrimination, and recent violence against Asian-Americans.”
Noah happily declared:
Biden delivered on one thing that he promised on, and that was he’s going to be the president that nobody wants to talk about. That’s been great because now we get to delve into issues that affect everybody. There are still people who are struggling. That will always happen from administration to administration, so I think it goes beyond politics.
Earlier in the exchange, Geist highlighted a video Noah posted to YouTube shortly after the 2020 murder of George Floyd. In the tirade, Noah claimed that “police in America are looting black bodies” as he excused violent rioters who were looting businesses at the time.
However, Geist failed to remind viewers of any of Noah’s radical statements: “But Noah knows comedy is not a cure-all. Last spring, with the country rising up in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and with The Daily Show on hiatus....Noah took to social media to express his thoughts on racism in America.”
In response to Geist’s praise, Noah argued that his unhinged rhetoric was actually quite thoughtful:
When George Floyd was murdered, I was actually grateful for the fact that I wasn’t on air because I now didn’t have to react to what was happening, but I could observe. I could listen to people. I could see what was happening and I didn’t have to immediately say something about it or even feel like I had to say something about it.
In his conversation with Geist, Noah was trotting out the rule that liberal comedians live by – Republicans must be mercilessly mocked but there’s nothing funny about satirizing Democrats.
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Here is a transcript of the June 21 exchange:
8:34 AM ET
(...)
WILLIE GEIST: When you and I talked, I think it was about three years ago, we were in that studio and you said –
TREVOR NOAH: Because at the end of the day, if The Daily Show is not funny and entertaining, then I don’t think I’m doing my job.
GEIST: So how do you navigate those heavy issues and those heavy moments in our society and still be funny about it in the way you’ve been for the last year and change?
NOAH: I ask myself what the purpose of that funny is, and I think that’s something that during the pandemic I’ve really crystallized in myself as a human being. I use humor as a coping mechanism as a pressure release valve. And so, what I’m really trying to do now is say to an audience, “Tune into my show if you would like to be kept abreast of what’s happening in the world and if you don’t want to feel it’s all doom and gloom, because I don’t think it is.
GEIST: But Noah knows comedy is not a cure-all. Last spring, with the country rising up in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and with The Daily Show on hiatus.
NOAH [2020]: Hey, what’s going on, everybody?
GEIST: Noah took to social media to express his thoughts on racism in America.
NOAH [2020]: What’s really interesting about what’s happening in America right now is that a lot of people don’t seem to realize how dominos connect.
NOAH: When George Floyd was murdered, I was actually grateful for the fact that I wasn’t on air because I now didn’t have to react to what was happening, but I could observe. I could listen to people. I could see what was happening and I didn’t have to immediately say something about it or even feel like I had to say something about it.
NOAH [2020]: One ray of sunshine for me in that moment was seeing how many people instantly condemned what they saw.
NOAH: I’m not trying to even find the funny. I’m trying to find the honesty. I think in many ways we’ve become a society that’s good at shouting and I don’t think people shouldn’t have opinions, but man, we should get better about having conversations about those opinions.
Joe Biden is so lucky. All he has to do is have a vaccine plan and not lie for ten minutes and he’s basically, what? The next George Washington?
GEIST: In a new administration Noah dedicates less of the show to the president’s daily tweets and more to topics like climate change, gender discrimination, and recent violence against Asian-Americans.
NOAH: Biden delivered on one thing that he promised on, and that was he’s going to be the president that nobody wants to talk about. That’s been great because now we get to delve into issues that affect everybody. There are still people who are struggling. That will always happen from administration to administration, so I think it goes beyond politics.
(...)
