I don’t feel any burden. As you said, I’m one of two Black correspondents, but we also have a team behind the scenes that is one of the most diverse in late night. We know who we are talking about and to whom we are talking when we talk about stories. I never feel like, “Oh, I need to talk about this.” In fact, I feel like this is a real opportunity.
News commentary and political satire define much of the current media landscape. Is The Daily Show still relevant?
Much of the political commentary that exists is derived from The Daily Show. Because The Daily Show was an innovative satire about how we interact with politics. I think this shows that The Daily Show is still relevant, even though it will eventually be digested across all media outlets. I also think it’s an opportunity to take YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc. seriously.
In what way?
For me, when I’m pitching something, I’m not only informed by what’s written in the news, but also by the general sentiment from society. As long as there is politics, there will be political satire, and as long as there is political satire, I think the people who are doing it at the highest level will have a certain position with the people who consume it.
But I’m not sure political humor is moving the needle the way it once did. There is a lot of noise now.
Yeah, there’s a lot of noise, but I think you’re also interested in what the definition of moving the needle is.
I started watching The Daily Show religiously around 2004 when I entered college. Then, when Trevor Noah took over the desk, the show no longer felt like a reservation viewing experience. Part of it was Trevor’s style. He wasn’t as agile as John. I think the other part, the bigger part, had to do with technology that is changing the way we consume media and connect with each other.
That makes sense. I think sometimes it’s easy to confuse relevance with influence, but if something isn’t impacting you the way it used to, it means individuals themselves are making changes in the way they consume media. It is possible that you are.
And comedy itself has changed due to social media and streaming. Are there new rules for comedy?
There’s a great book by Kliph Nesteroff called Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars that talks about cancel culture before it had a name. People point out that Carlin was arrested for things like 7 foul words, but the further back in history you go, the more restrictions there were on comedians. We’re talking about Carlin decades ago. Some people were arrested for insinuating sex, but that’s what people had.
yes. People were having sex even back then.
Rather, Carlin and Lenny Bruce and some of them were the last people to really feel the consequences of doing comedy for an audience that wanted comedy.
