What does future Daily Show host Trevor Noah have to say about his predecessor cursing out a colleague in public?
“What happened there with Jon (Stewart) is exactly what the writers room is for,” Noah said at a Television Critic Association panel, which our Bill Keveney attended.
Noah was referencing the story former Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac told on the WTF podcast, about how Stewart made him, a correspondent, cry for expressing concern over a segment’s racial insensitivity.
But Noah understands why the heated exchange happened, and thinks it’s OK.
“You’re supposed to fight about things,” he said. “What you’re trying to do is find the best way to tell the best joke about what’s happening in the world we’re living in. … You hope you get to a point where you’re really passionate about a subject because then when you get the show on screen, we’ve already had this fight. … It’s being handled.”
He went on:
“Any joke can be seen as offensive. That’s the great thing about ‘The Daily Show.’ We have a diverse staff: male-female, black-white, young-old. The whole point of having a great writing team is trying to find the best voice for the show.”
