Trevor Noah Finds Himself in a Political Straitjacket

Over the last two weeks, Comedy Central has finally been sending Trevor Noah, the new host of the Daily Show whose reign begins Monday night, out into the wild. In the six months since he was named the surprising successor to Jon Stewart, Noah has been touring and working with the writing staff (most of which is holding over from Stewart’s reign), but publicly, he has been a non-presence. He made a cameo on the final Daily Show episode, he showed in a couple of ads, he did Jerry Seinfeld's show, but until the last two weeks, you've seen almost none of him. This has caused Noah a serious problem.

Remember, when Stewart announced he was leaving the Daily Show, the general consensus was that the show was comedy’s Oval Office, the most desired daily gig available. (Many felt John Oliver, who is currently thriving on HBO, had left the show just a few months too early; he would have been a logical, obvious successor.) This turned out not to be the case exactly (Chris Rock, Amy Poehler, Louis C.K., and Amy Schumer all turned down the job) but nonetheless, Noah, at the tender age of 31, was suddenly thrust from almost total obscurity in the United States to the biggest stage in the comedy game.