Arthur Wang: New host Trevor Noah will diversify, globalize ‘The Daily Show’

The internet is abuzz over the Monday announcement that Trevor Noah is succeeding Jon Stewart on Comedy Central’s late night crown jewel and satirical news comedy program, “The Daily Show.” Some are dazed and confused.

Such a reaction is understandable, considering that the two could not be more unalike. Stewart, who is a Jewish, short, New Jersey native known for his acerbic style, is literally a world apart from Noah, the internationally oriented polyglot born to a black Xhosa South African mother and a white European father. Additionally, Noah has only been on the show three times, appearing once a month as the “senior international correspondent.”

But Noah’s background and foreignness do not, as some online commenters have suggested, make him an inappropriate or unqualified candidate for the show. Rather, his appointment to the helm of “The Daily Show” is a bold move that answers forcefully to a need for television diversity and proficiency in global affairs.

Nobody dared criticize the mixed-race background of Noah, but Comedy Central’s creation of a one-hour block of late-night comedy hosted by black talent — one half Noah, the other half Larry Wilmore on “The Nightly Show” — is an unprecedented move, the number of successful black comedians notwithstanding.

Stewart and Noah both practice observational comedy, which requires a sharp eye for social context because the humor is formulated through a combination of participant observation and lived experience. Noah and Wilmore both draw on their race heavily to crack jokes, and there is little doubt that this will be problematic with some viewers who believe that this country is “past” race.

The new nightly lineup means that, soon, millions of white Americans will listen to viewpoints derived from decisively different lived experiences than their own. That will be eye-opening and valuable, whether or not one thinks their jokes are funny — though I hope they will be, because Wilmore of “The Nightly Show” does fall flat at times.

Noah’s South African background has also emerged as a matter of contention. On the comments section of The New York Times story about the matter, a reader said “When American satire news is no longer even done by Americans, well that just doesn’t sit right.”

That the United States was founded as a grand experiment of a “nation of immigrants” should be enough to seriously question his claim. The comment articulates a wrongheaded and antiquated view of American comedy as a domain exclusively for American-born citizens like Stewart or his wildly successful protégé, Stephen Colbert — something wisely noted by The Atlantic’s David Graham.

Yet having a foreigner fills a void, as “The Daily Show” currently centers on domestic politics and Stewart seldom discusses foreign affairs on his show. Noah may be a newcomer to the States, but he is a cosmopolitan globetrotter, having received the job announcement during a comedy tour stop in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Indeed, we already know at least one comedian who has risen to success despite his foreign background — John Oliver, a “Daily Show” alumnus who recently extended his contract to host HBO’s “Last Week Tonight.” Just this past month, he hilariously tackled the problems of crumbling American infrastructure and racist U.S. policy towards its territories, all while receiving nary a comment about his British origins.

And Oliver lags behind Noah in one big way: the Brit speaks only English, while the host-to-be can express himself in eight different tongues, which makes for some very impressive voice impressions. That kind of talent demonstrates that Noah, who is ascending to the desk of “The Daily Show” at around the same age Stewart did, has incredible promise and potential to steer the show to greater heights.