When the pandemic shut down his studio, the « Daily Show » host posted a video online to help audiences understand a societal tipping point, without relying on humor
Like a lot of us, it’s been a while since Trevor Noah’s had a day at the office. And he has « literally no clue » when he’ll be back in.
Just about four months ago, the 36-year-old host of Comedy Central’s « Daily Show » (a ViacomCBS property) said goodbye to his studio audience, and started life in the work-from-home world, with « The Daily Social Distancing Show. »
Correspondent Jim Axelrod asked, « How much can you replicate the energy of a writers’ room when it’s a Zoom room? »
« You know, the first few weeks, you’re stumbling over who’s speaking, who’s not speaking, somebody forgot to unmute themselves, they said a whole soliloquy and you couldn’t hear it, » Noah replied. « But then, once we were beyond that, it’s become the new normal, and we settled in.
« And so, what I said to the team was, « Let’s use this opportunity to create something different.' »
« Something different » is exactly what Noah posted at the end of May:
« You know, what’s really interesting about what’s happening in America right now, is that a lot of people don’t seem to realize how dominoes connect, how one piece knocks another piece that knocks another piece, and in the end creates a giant wave. Each story seems completely unrelated, and yet at the same time, I feel like everything that happens in the world connects to something else in some way, shape or form. »
« I’m watching what’s happening, I see the Christian Cooper video in Central Park where Amy Cooper threatens 911 on him, and on that same day, start seeing the videos, you know, about George Floyd. And then, that week, later on, you start seeing the rioting, you start seeing the protesting in Minneapolis. And I’m sitting there, genuinely saying to myself, ‘How do we, as people, not see that everything affects something else?' »
In a stripped-down model of lockdown content, Noah looked directly into his phone and spoke from deep in his soul for 18 minutes – not chasing laughs, but chasing light:
« When you are a ‘have’ and when you are a ‘have-not,’ you see the world in a very different way.
