It’s been a while since we’ve featured Trevor Noah on the site, but every now and again we check in and all seems to be going OK over there in the US of A.

But perhaps we’re out of the loop, at least according to Willa Paskin writing on Slate. The general gist seems to be that Trevor has failed to capitalise on the interest around the political campaigns and taken too soft an approach, preferring cheaper laughs whereas Jon Stewart aimed for harder ‘gut-punching’ revelations.

Let’s hand over to Paskin then for some excerpts:

Trevor Noah has been in the hosting chair for four months now, and his show has settled into a groove. If you tune into any episode, you will find something familiar enough, good for a chuckle but never a belly laugh, let alone a revelation. Noah could hardly be more charming; he is at ease in front of the camera, generous with his dimples…

Noah’s Daily Show has been attracting fewer than 1 million viewers in the all-important 18–49 demo, down more than 30 percent compared with Stewart’s last quarter…But if you watch The Daily Show night after night, you get the sense that the writers have adjusted their tactics for a very different kind of host—a Potemkin Jon Stewart, someone smooth and ingratiating who is reaching for unconverted viewers, instead of an inveterate political satirist preaching to the deeply informed…

…American politics have never been more in need of puncturing by The Daily Show’s exasperated logic. But Noah backs away from thorny issues like they are bombs that can be defused with a charming quip. He’s out to neutralize, not to awaken. How did the program devoted to scaling bullshit mountain in all its incarnations, the program that once had a gospel choir sing “Go fuck yourself” to a Fox News correspondent, come to feel so beside the point?

…we’re left with a dulled Daily Show shedding relevancy in the midst of a wild and urgent election…Not so long ago, we would have learned of these bizarre happenings and thought, “I can’t wait to see what The Daily Show has to say about this.” Now, it’s only likely to have the eighth-best joke on the subject. You still may laugh, but an inessential Daily Show is a real loss.

I think there were a couple of gut punches landed there, ‘ol Willa not holding back. Perhaps she does have a point, although when Comedy Central appointed someone from outside their borders they must have known his lack of familiarity with American politics (and policies) would affect the tone of the show.

Still haven’t been sacked T-No, keep raking in that pay day.

[source:slate]