Series / The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Continuing the war on bullshit.

"I can only assume that this is as strange for you as it is for me. Jon Stewart was more than just a late-night host, he was often our voice, our refuge, and in many ways, our political dad. And it's weird, because Dad has left. And now it feels like the family has a new step-dad — and he's black, which is not ideal."

— Trevor Noah

The 2015 revamp of The Daily Show following Jon Stewart's departure, featuring South African-born comedian Trevor Noah. In February 2015, Jon Stewart announced that he would retire, although the Daily Show will go on. In March 2015, Comedy Central announced that Trevor Noah would succeed him as host. Jon's last episode as host aired August 6, 2015, and Trevor's first show as host aired September 28, 2015.

At the age of 31, Noah became the youngest late-night talk show host currently on American television.

On September 29, 2022, Noah announced that he will be leaving the show. His final show as host aired on December 8, 2022. Afterwards, the show started using different Guest Hosts on a weekly basis.

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The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Contains Examples of:

• Abstract Scale: The recurring segment What the Actual Fact?, where Desi Lydic takes the Republicans' and Democrats' statements and speeches and grades them on how verifiably true they are. Grades have included "Chinese character tattoo at a strip mall", "Zoomed In Dick Pic" (courtesy of Jessica Williams), and "a Teletubby".
  Desi: Trump's claim is supposed to be comforting, but instead it comes off as really disturbing, so I give this a Teletubby. [looks at the screen behind her] Why does it have a penis on its head?
  Jessica: [about one of Donald Trump's claims] This claim is grossly overexaggerated, so I'm going to give it a zoomed-in dick pic. I feel like it's a pretty solid rating.
• Action Survivor: Deconstructed during the December 10, 2015 segment about concealed carry. Jordan Klepper gets an open carry permit in order to test the NRA's assertion that "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." He finds that he has to spend only 8 hours training to qualify for the permit, and in a training scenario, Jordan accidentally "shoots" a teenaged bystander, before being "shot" by both the active shooters and the policemen arriving at the scene. He decides that it's just simpler to stop the "bad guy" from getting guns in the first place, instead of hoping that a "good guy" intervenes.
• Against My Religion: During a segment about women finally getting the right to drive in Saudi Arabia, Trevor speculates that Saudi women will start claiming to be "old school Sharia" in order to avoid giving people rides to the airport.
• Americans Are Cowboys: One sketch featuring an United Nations meeting in which the representatives of various countries were basically stereotypes of said countries (like France being represented by a beret-wearing man or Nigeria being represented by a Nigerian prince scammer), the United States was represented by a man in a Southern accent and wearing Southern garb (complete with cowboy hat).
• "Angry Black Man" Stereotype: Discussed and examined by Roy Wood, Jr. in a segment about how black journalists need to maintain their composure and cool in light of the increasingly ludicrous statements made by white pundits and the Trump campaign.
  Roy: Black journalists constantly have to bite their tongue. They come close to the line, but God bless 'em, they never cross it. Because if they do, then they'll be labeled an "Angry Black Man". You can't be emotional about anything, especially if you're a black anchor. Look at Lester Holt. This brother had to sit right across from Trump and not react. He had a front row seat to the bullshit!
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • Ronny Chieng declared in the fall of 2015 that if Donald Trump secures the Republican nomination, he'd chop off his right hand. Flash forward to a few months later in May 2016, Trevor brought Ronny on stage and showed him that clip again... and pulls out a machete.
  • Shortly afterward, Trevor remembers how Desi Lydic made a similar declaration, and plays the clip again. Except, he remembered it wrong, and Desi actually promised "to chop off Ronny's other hand if Trump wins." Since Trevor already has his machete out and Ronny's right there...
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Ronny encounters a "Bernie or Bust" supporter on why he won't vote for Hillary, despite Bernie pleading that they do.
    Ronny: What if I told you that not voting for Hillary Clinton will result in a Donald Trump victory?
    Bernie Sanders Supporter: I would not believe what you were saying to me and reject it as not even the point for the question that should be being asked.
    Ronny: Then what question should be asked?
    Supporter: Um...[long silence]
  • Trevor Noah asks a series of them to Tomi Lahren in regards to her double standard regarding protests. She doesn't really answer the questions.
• Artistic License – Biology: Trevor points out one blatant example in an episode recorded during the COVID-19 Pandemic - Kellyanne Conway argues that doctors should know more about the virus since it's named "COVID-19", not "COVID-1". Trevor points out that while yes, there have been similar virus strains before, the number comes from it being detected in late 2019, and not for being the 19th strain of an earlier virus. He then points out it's a bit worrying how Kellyanne lacks this knowledge since A) it's fairly common knowledge even in the general population and B) she's talking on the behalf of a president who acts like he's an expert on the matter.
• Atomic F-Bomb:
  • Trevor's reaction upon hearing that the FBI found a way of hacking into an iPhone without Apple's help, rendering the two entities' legal battle pointless.
    Trevor: ARE YOU FUCKING SHITTING ME? The whole country was wrestling with this ethical dilemma!
  • When he saw Fox News declaring that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are neck-in-neck in a preliminary poll:
    Trevor: HOW THE FUCK DID WE GET HERE?
• Audience Participation: After Senator Ted Cruz uploaded roughly 13 hours of unedited campaign footage to Youtube for some reason, the show has a bit of fun remixing all the footage. So then Trevor invites the viewers and the rest of the internet to put their own spins on the footage and submit it to the show's official Tumblr page, encouraging them to tag them as "#CruzYourOwnAdventure".
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • Trevor discusses the "birther movement", by bringing up an ambitious senator born to a foreign father and American mother and that said senator was born in another country...you know, Senator Ted Cruz.
  • After North Korea released them, Trevor discussed the horrible conditions the remaining prisoners of the Korean war went through, with them being forced to eat disgusting food in cramped spaces. And that was just their flight back on Spirit Airlines.
    Trevor: Spirit Airlines. A North Korean labour camp in the sky!
  • Trevor starts sobbing after finding out Jennifer Lopez is engaged to Alex Rodriguez. He wanted A-Rod for himself.
  • Likewise, Desi Lydic and Trevor discuss the then-upcoming Bezos divorce, and Desi mentions that remarrying as soon as possible is important and starts to not-so-subtly advertising herself. Trevor sees through this and tells her that she's just trying to marry Jeff Bezos because he is rich. Desi denies this; she isn't trying to get rich by marrying Jeff Bezos, she's trying go get rich by marrying MacKenzie Scott, Bezos's then-wife.
  • After showing a clip of various news anchors giving wildly different pronunciations of the name of presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, Trevor reveals it's pronounced… "Peet".
  • In a similar example to the above, the episode in which Trevor had Kamala Harris as a guest has him ask her how her name is pronounced; this episode took place around the same time there was a debate on whether her first name was pronounced "Kuh-MAH-lah" or "KAH-mah-lah" (she prefers the latter) … except that Trevor was asking on whether it was "HAH-riss" or "Hah-REESE".
• Bar Brawl: One sketch has them doing a this trope when they compare it to what it's like having a physical version of Facebook.
• Basement-Dweller: A 2019 sketch called "Meet the Debts" was a satirical take of the modern middle-class family in the US being burdened by student debt. An unemployed college graduate named Sonny moves back in with his parents Phil and Mary. Sonny finds that his parents rented out his room to a stranger, he and his father are both being hounded by a debt collector for delinquent student loans ("Stupid ass Master's degree!"), and with very little options remaining Phil contemplates suicide but instead sells his kidney to get rid of their student debt. Mary herself took out her liver to be eaten as food because they're too broke to buy groceries.
• Big "WHAT?!": Jessica Williams gives this when she learns that not only do so-called hoverboards not hover, but also that one of the inventors is facing a Segway lawsuit.
• Blatant Lies: After Desi fact checked all the speeches at the Republican Convention as full of lies, Donald Trump declared in his speech that there were no lies. The screen behind her immediately glitches and blows up.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Trevor and Roy Howard talk about Franklin as a Peanuts character. Trevor says he's excited to have Franklin onscreen period, a character who is a black kid that didn't exist before, and that is enough for him. Roy points out that in the cartoons, unlike in the Peanuts comics, Franklin is stereotyped as the token black kid and isn't allowed to be regular kid. Having that representation is good, but cartoons could do better.
• Brain Bleach: After watching an early 90s newsclip of Donald Trump making sexually suggestive comments about his then-infant daughter, Trevor sits in awkward silence before finally asking to see footage of adorable animals to help snap out of his disgust/shock.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Noah is fond of pulling these, from Obama to Putin to Donald Trump and generic ones like "Mexican cartel member" or "African tribesman." When Roy Wood Jr. poses as a fortune teller, he has to tell Noah to not do the fortune teller accent.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Trevor's reaction to Jackie Chan being named in the Panama Papers leak.
    Trevor: NOOO, Jackie Chan! We trusted you, Jackie! What kind of kung-fu is this?! You know, Jackie Chan - Jackie - my heart is broken.
  • A much more serious one is when he describes Aung San Suu Kyi's response to the Myanmar Rohingya Muslim ethnic cleansing, equivocating in a manner no different from Trump.
• The Bully: Noah often indulges in insulting, even if he's just being playful.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Ronny frequently plays this role, like when Desi chops his hands off, getting slammed from all sides to test out a body camera, when he's made to swallow 35 pieces of cinnamon gum as an experiment, or get his head smacked in the podium by Robert Mueller in a skit.
  • Eric Trump is the butt of many, many jokes, with him being portrayed as an inept buffoon who constantly tries to win the approval of his father, who refuses to even acknowledge his existence.
• Call-Back:
  • In his first show, Trevor used the same "stepfather" metaphor that Jon Stewart used when he took over the show from Craig Kilborn.
  • And when Jon Stewart made his first appearance on the show as a guest, Trevor calls him "Papa".
• The Cameo:
  • During the Halloween episode, John Oliver is arrested on his own show and deported under President Trump.
  • Larry King of all people appears in the same episode as an anchor on Trump News Network.
• Can't Take Criticism: The show mocks Bernie Sanders supporters by having Trevor cite some very valid criticism of him. Unfortunately, as he tries, Desi Lydic interrupts him by banging cymbals and says Trevor's better off making fun of Mohammed, Ronny Chieng straight up decides to insult him, the camera man pulls away from him, and Susan Sarandon unplugs the show from the air when Trevor starts to ponder the similarities between Sanders and Donald Trump.
• Catchphrase:
  • "Get the fuck out of here, man!" seems to be becoming a frequent. He says it whenever he hears a blatantly stupid remark from a politician.
  • [Beat]..."Who is this guy?", usually said while laughing in disbelief, when a politician says something just plain baffling.
• Clip Show:
  • Just before the first days of the Democratic and Republican conventions, the show aired a clip show showing how Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump became the nominees.
  • The October 24, 2016 episode was a clip summarizing the election since the presidential debates, as well as allowing Trevor an extra day to recover from a bad respiratory and ear infection.
  • Because the show took the week of February 20th off, the week's episodes are dedicated to analyzing Donald Trump's scandals and ties to Russia as well as analyzing President Obama's last year in office.
  • The show had the week of April 10, 2017 off, so the week's episodes were dedicated to each of the correspondents' most popular segments.
• Cold Open: Several, like "The Legend of Sarah Palin" and the Inside Out parody of Trevor watching the primaries.
• Comically Missing the Point: While talking about Skittles being used as an analogy for Syrian refugees, Trevor brings on Jordan to debate a point they talked about off-camera. Jordan keeps talking about the actual Skittles rather than the analogy.
• Compensating for Something: Inverted. In a segment on the Pope's visit to America, when commentators mention his car is a small Fiat, Trevor refers to him as "undercompensating for something."
  Trevor: I'm saying the Pope has a huge cock... and what a waste.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Overlapping with Atomic F-Bomb, Trevor is furious when he learns that the FBI found a way to hack into the San Bernadino shooters' phones without needing Apple's help.
• Could Say It, But...: After the Daily Show's correspondents were banned from visiting the GOP Caucus in Iowa on the grounds that "they would make fun of Iowans," they clarified that they only intended to make fun of Republicans and helpfully offered several jokes at the expense of Iowans that they would never say. Included "never-stated" jokes covered topics like how The Music Man, a musical, had already made fun of them, and that how hardworking Iowans dream of building a better future for their kids to move away from Iowa.
• Cutting the Knot: Jordan and Hasan's solution to the DNC's email leaks...go around smashing everyone's cellphones and laptops.
• Deadpan Snarker: Trevor seems to embody this, veering to Meta Guy when he knows he's taking up such a big mantle in comparison to Jon Stewart.
• Drinking Game: Attempted by Trevor when Paul Ryan was giving a speech about Donald Trump, with Trevor taking a drink each time Ryan said Trump's name. Unfortunately, Ryan only mentioned Trump twice, much to Trevor's disappointment.
  Trevor: [long pause] Well, uh, I guess I'm driving.
• Drowning My Sorrows: After seeing President Obama mention visiting Germany for Oktoberfest as a former president:
  Trevor: [as Obama] What I'm trying to say is I'm gonna get shitfaced. I spend at least four years wasted, and I think you all know why.
• Dude, Not Funny!:
  • Invoked in a segment on Iowa's bill to let children carry pistols:
    Trevor: Just to get this straight, some guy picked up the phone and called a lawmaker and said, "Hey, my kids need guns," and they were like, "Done!"
    Audience: [laughter]
    Trevor: And everyday in America there's parents calling lawmakers saying "Hey, my kids died because of guns," and lawmakers are like, "Uhh, can you hold?"
    Audience: [some uncomfortable laughs, mostly awkward silence]
    Trevor: Yeah. Not as funny, is it?
  • Jessica Williams earns this reaction from the audience after she says the US will have another mass shooting during her segment on October 1, 2015, following the Oregon shooting. Trevor quickly cuts to commercials, but we hear a Stunned Silence instead of laughter. She was right.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: A variant; on Jon Stewart's farewell show, Kristen Schaal was hoping to see Trevor Noah hit on him. During her first appearance, however, she mainly claims that she has veteran rights over Trevor and it's "her" show.
• Fascinating Eyebrow: Trevor does this several times when talking about the Republican demands for their debates, including no "lightning round" and keeping the temperature reasonably cool.
• First-World Problems: In their segment on Pumpkin Spice, Jordan defends covering the titular product in news broadcasts, wrapping up with this gem to South African native, Trevor.
  Jordan: We Americans cling to these fleeting moments, not knowing if that Pumpkin Spice donut could be our last. I guess where you come from, you just don't know what scarcity is.
  Trevor: ...Really?
• Fox News Liberal: Michael Kosta, and occasionally, Desi Lydic, seem to be in an inverted comedy news satire show variation of this role - "Comedy Central Conservative" if you will - as they often play advocate to Donald Trump, Republicans and Fox News while Trevor and the rest make jokes about them.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you pause the opening just right, "Thanks for pausing your DVR" is printed right under the globe◊.
• Freudian Slip: A frequent gag. Trevor and the news team occasionally slip into tangents about their personal lives, like when Desi brings up her home life while talking about the GOP debate and purple unicorns.
• G-Rated Drug: On October 1, 2015, pumpkin spice foods and drinks as such by the correspondents, culminating with Jordan Klepper snorting some pumpkin spice powder.
• Gallows Humor: On November 4, 2015, Trevor underwent an emergency appendectomy. The next day, when he went back to work, he took the experience in great stride, mocking the American healthcare system.
• Good News, Bad News: Trevor is unsure of how to take the news that Ted Cruz dropped out of the 2016 presidential race after losing the Indiana primaries. On one hand, Trevor is happy that Cruz didn't win, but on the other hand, he's horrified that Donald Trump won, thereby becoming the presumed Republican presidential nominee.
• Gretzky Has the Ball: Parodied in-universe when talking about Fantasy Football and the allegations of websites running the game like stock trading. Trevor says that according to the rules of football, he needs to hear three similarities to stock trading. Whether or not he's talking about American football or "soccer," three strikes are involved with baseball.
• Guest Host: Trevor is forced to sit out the October 20th, 2016 episode due to illness. Jordan Klepper filled in for him...but not before apparently beating up Roy Wood, Jr. with a chair, drugging and tying up Ronny Chieng in the boiler room, and stranding Desi Lydic in Las Vegas. Of course, Roy threatens payback while Desi simply decides she's going to jack up Jordan's tab and make him pay for the extra expenses.
• Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook: When Californian prison inmates were set to fight the wildfires of 2020, Trevor Noah approved of the plan to set them on paths to potentially become professional firefighters after serving their sentences — as opposed to still not being able to get work after the fact. This reasoning follows:
  And honestly, I think this is a great step in the right direction, because, America keeps telling people to take what they've learned in prison, and use it to get back in society. If you learned to fight fires while you were in prison, you should be allowed to become a firefighter when you come out! Alright? If you learned to cook, you should be able to work in a restaurant when you come out! Even if you spent all your time in prison just learning how to do more crime, you should be allowed to get a job in the Trump campaign!
• Halloween Episode: October 31, 2016: the episode is set in a Crapsack World resulting from Donald Trump's first term as president.
• Hidden Depths: Who knew that Hilary Clinton could sing?
• Hidden in Plain Sight: As Trevor introduces the Moment of Zen at the end of the October 6th, 2016 episode, the camera pans slightly to his left to reveal a clown standing eerily still in the wings.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Trevor makes a lot of jokes about Africans being Abusive Parents, such as accepting corporal punishment.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf:
  • Hasan Minhaj and Roy Wood Jr. sang a rendition of "One *censored*ing Moment" (a parody of "One Shining Moment") to congratulate Trump supporters for winning the "Third Month Mania" contest about who makes the audience the maddest. The results were... less than stellar.
  • Desi Lydic later does the same thing when singing "What A Year for Women" with Dulce.
• I Am Not Spock: In-universe, Christopher Lloyd gets irritated when Jessica Williams calls him "Doc" and borrows his catchphrase "Great Scott!"
• Impossible Task: Jessica claims that among Paul Ryan's Long List of demands before becoming Speaker that Ryan wants a theme song performed by all The Beatles. Trevor points out that half the band is dead, but she says if Republicans want Ryan for Speaker, then they need to "dig the dead Beatles up".
• In My Language, That Sounds Like...: In one episode, Trevor and Ronny discuss the uproar that resulted when a (White) college professor was recorded giving an online class on Conversational Chinese. The clip in question shows the professor giving a lesson on filler words, and compares the English words of "like, or, um, uh" to the Manadarin equivalent of nèi ge (那个), the video then went viral, accusing the professor of wantonly using the "N-word," and people calling for his removal. When Ronny explains that it's just a filler that people use everyday in conversation, Trevor is satisfied with that explanation, and suggests that in order for people to not get offended by that word anymore, the Chinese should just scrub that word from their vocabulary and find another less offensive sounding word. Ronny then has to explain to Trevor why suggesting that is not okay.
• In the Style of: Trevor Noah does a musical number ("No more excuses") in Disney Animated style after Trump's inauguration, specifically based on "Be My Guest" from Beauty and the Beast.
• I Read It for the Articles: When Trevor discovered that Playboy is going to stop showing naked photos of women, he cheered that there will be more room for the articles.
• Insane Troll Logic:
  • Used to prove that Ben Carson is actually a zombie.
  • Adam Lowitt uses this to prove that Donald Trump is actually Jewish.
• Insult to Rocks: Trevor compares the $20 million spent on Benghazi hearings to Michael Bay's expensive films, noting that both spend large sums of money on things with no plot. Then he backtracks, because Bay at least has hits.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: The more Trevor has been covering the news, the more cynicism appears in his stories.
• Jerkass: This is Jordan Klepper's role on the show. An example is when Trevor issued his proposal to defeat any potential registry of Muslims.
  Trevor: We need to stand in solidarity with Muslim people who are being targeted by Donald Trump.
  Jordan: Solidarity. Yes. [applause]
  Trevor: Actually, you know what we should do? We should stand as one. If they start registering Muslims, we all start registering as Muslims. [cheers from studio audience. Jordan smiles and nods and applauds]
  Jordan: That is one idea! Let's keep spitballin'.
  Trevor: No, no, I think that's it. If you think about it, if all the citizens said, with the immigrants, "I am a Muslim", it would take the power away that any registry would have.
  Jordan: I was thinking... a button. [smiles hopefully] Like, a really nice button. Looks good on a peacoat, you could put it on, you could take it off if you're in mixed company and you don't want to push your agenda.
  Trevor: Jordan, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. I'm sorry, it's not enough. This is an opportunity for meaningful action. Declare it here, loud and proud, Jordan, say it! "I am a Muslim!"
  Jordan: I am... thinking about posting it on Facebook! Who knows?
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Trevor is beyond thrilled when Seth Rogen appears on the show to promote his new film, Steve Jobs.
• Last-Name Basis: Zig-Zagged with correspondent Michael Kosta, who Trevor alternately addresses as "Michael" or "Kosta".
• Layman's Terms: After the 2017 Oscar awards, when Roy explained what he called "Peak Blackness":
  Roy: Peak Blackness is a rare metaphysical anomaly that can only occur when an amalgam of black excellence comes together at the same societal intersection... It's when a lot of dope black shit happen at the same time.
• Lighter and Softer: Trevor is much more soft-spoken than Jon and isn't as loud and angry, but that doesn't mean he can't be just as annoyed with the state of current affairs.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Desi Lydic is sometimes portrayed this way; her segments often derail when she starts fantasizing after someone mentions something that's either blatantly sexual, vaguely sexual, or something innocent she interprets as being sexual.
• Metaphorgotten:
  • Jessica Williams starts out discussing how Ben Carson's campaign started trashing one of its former advisers, and ends up going on a angry diatribe about her crappy ex who dumped her and started messaging one of her friends not long after the split.
  • Ronny Chieng taking about the Atlantic and Pacific "blobs," which rapidly devolves into him talking about a blob fetish some random Asian guy might have.
  • Trevor compares the COP21 climate summit to enrolling the planet in a gym membership...and ends up ranting about the lousiness of Planet Fitness gyms. Later in the segment, he compares Ted Cruz's focus on one detail of global warming to focusing on the Surprise Incest of Star Wars, rants about it, and concludes with his excitement for The Force Awakens.
  • While fact-checking Carly Fiorina's statements about socialism, Desi Lydic starts reminiscing about her college days and getting high on cloves, concluding that's how socialism worked.
  • While discussing the change in the $20 bill from Andrew Jackson to Harriet Tubman on the front (and Jackson moved to the back of the bill), Trevor starts comparing Jackson to Batman, until he remembers that Jackson is nothing like Batman and he's not sure why he brought up Batman in the first place.
• Misapplied Phlebotinum: Claims that the QAnon-associated belief of Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey eating children to extend their life is horrifying... because it's a waste of "magic blood" that should be focused on Ruth Bader Ginsberg. "Priorities, people!"
• Mook Chivalry: After Jackie Chan was named in the Panama Papers leak, Trevor reminded people to approach him as a group but then fight him one at a time.
• Multinational Team: Downplayed, however Trevor's run of the show is noted to be more diverse than Craig's and Jon's tenures. Trevor himself comes from South Africa, and Ronny Chieng, one of the correspondents, is born in Malaysia.
• Naïve Newcomer:
  • Trevor occasionally makes optimistic assumptions about current affairs, only for a following news clip to tell him that's not how politics work. This has faded as of 2017, where he has seem to expect the worst more often.
  • He's since claimed that Donald Trump is serving the traditional role of the writing trope, that the American public are learning about the Presidency at the same time as the President.
• Never My Fault: Invoked; Trevor concludes that any attempt of Paul Ryan to blame potential health care problems on Donald Trump will fail, because Trump always has someone on hand to blame his mistakes on.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Lewis Black's first segment for the show had him angrily denouncing the "millennial" generation...only to realize that they share his desire for drinking, avoiding human interaction, and gambling.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: On Trevor's first episode, there is a segment on Speaker John Boehner resigning. Trevor has a conversation with senior correspondent Jordan Klepper about how people will be sad seeing Jo(h)n go, but maybe the new guy will knock it out of the park, and hopefully the new guy will realize that a lot of people are depending on him, and how the desks and fonts are different but no one asked him but hopefully the new guy will bring a "global" aspect. Trevor completely fails to see the subtext.
• Parental Incest: Don't Forget: Donald Trump Wants to Fuck His Daughter!
• Perpetual Smiler: While he can be quite serious and stoic when he has to, such as the increasing numbers of shootings in the news, Trevor is generally always smiling or trying to maintain a positive disposition.
• Poe's Law:
  • Jessica Williams's segment on pre-taping reactions to events before they happen was a pastiche on how mainstream journalists prepare their stories. A few people were worried that The Daily Show does this for real.
  • Likewise, the segment following the National Democratic Debate had all of the Daily Show's correspondents claiming that Hillary was most likely to win, a satire on how most of the media claimed that Hillary "won" the debate despite the polls showing Bernie surpassing her in popularity. The YouTube comments that ensued blasted Trevor for following suit with that media, instead of making fun of it.
• Product Placement: In the March 3, 2021 episode, Trevor takes a moment to plug Paramount+, his parent company's streaming service set to release the following day.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  • Trevor's bewildered reaction to an anti-transgender law in Kansas that would pay $2500 to students to report transgender students.
    Trevor: Are. You. Shitting. Me?
  • He's also baffled at the fact that former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who's being plagued by a child abuse scandal, was second in line behind Vice President Cheney for the presidency.
    Trevor: What. The. Fuck. A man, who for six years, was just one pretzel and one faulty pacemaker removed from an Oval Office position, is an alleged child molester? I don't understand why this isn't everywhere. This is shocking.
  • In regards to the latest twist in Hillary Clinton's email controversy and the FBI drawing the same conclusion about her (while she did not break any laws, the private server was a misguided attempt to streamline her workload):
    Trevor: Are. You. Shitting. Me? Eleven days before the election?!
• Relax-o-Vision: In response to a clip of Donald Trump objectifying his then-infant daughter, Trevor plays a series of clips of cute animals just to remind him of the good things in the world.
• Running Gag:
  • Trevor likes reminding us that Donald Trump wants to bang his daughter.
  • One that started emerging in September of 2016 - "Africa Jokes. I only say them because some of you believe them."
  • Whenever Trevor mentions all the Democrats running in the 2020 primaries, his speech is accompanied by a picture that shows the faces of everyone running. The last person on the picture is usually a character from a film, such as remake Simba, Rami Malek's Freddie Mercury or Will Smith's genie.
  • Whenever he mentions Trump or Biden's full names, he usually replaces their middle initial with something funny, like Donald Jablinksi Trump or Joseph Robin Hood Biden (their real middles are John and Robinette).
  • Trevor likes to make jokes about Eric Trump, his constant desire to win his father's approval, and his overall characterization as the Trump family's Butt-Monkey.
• Sex Miseducation Class: The 2021 "Remotely Educational" special had a segment where Michael Kosta took the role of the gym teacher that, for some reason, also taught sex education. His main lesson was that sex isn't really that fun, because getting lucky when you're single actually means getting a clean blood test a few weeks later, and when you're married, your wife isn't interested in you and you're too desensitized by porn to feel anything. The only good news he has is that if you have a foot fetish, you can just go to the beach to get aroused.
• Shoo the Dog: Trevor literally does this to Blue from Blue's Clues after she unexpectedly turns up on his desk. He feels bad about it, though. He then calls her "a high-quality person".
• Shout-Out: Trevor and Roy's discussion about Peanuts eventually has Roy call animated version of Franklin a baby Shaft.
  Roy: He's a bad motherfu...
  Trevor: Shut your mouth!
  • In a segment where Michael Kosta does a story focused on the legal battle between the (White) residents of the wealthy enclave of the Hamptons, New York and an impoverished neighboring Native American reservation, the residents of the Hamptons were suing the tribe to take down an electronic billboard as it ruined the "purity" the nearby landscape surrounding the road going into the town, while the tribe countered that it is planted on their land, and provides some much needed income to the tribe. Kosta then decides that in order to help resolve the problem, he will be like Kevin Costner's character in Dances with Wolves and do something that will benefit both peoples: he posts a picture of himself on the billboard, dressed in stereotypical preppy attire, with a caption underneath that reads: "Welcome to the Hamptons, enjoy your stolen lands!"
• The Show Must Go On:
  • On November 4, 2015, Trevor had to undergo an emergency appendectomy, so there was no show that day. But the very next day, November 5, Trevor was back on air, even though he'd been guaranteed as much time as he wanted to recover. Now, that's dedication to your work.
  • Trevor lost his voice in December 2018, and wasn't allowed to talk during his recovery. Instead of taking a break, he used a text-to-speech program and the corresponders to talk for him.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • Happens several times thanks to Worst News Judgment Ever, and parodied.
  • Regarding the racist backlash from the trailer for The Force Awakens, Jordan Klepper says that we should focus more on the technical errors in the weapons than on the fact that a black man is a Stormtrooper and the protagonist.
• The Smurfette Principle: After Jessica Williams departed the show, Desi Lydic became the sole regular female correspondent until Dulce Sloan was made a regular, although Michelle Wolf and Eliza Cossio were recurring contributors in the meantime.
• Stop Being Stereotypical: While discussing Franklin from Peanuts, both Trevor and Roy agree that the kid was/is a major turning point in the representation of black characters, but Roy believes that whenever Franklin appeared in animated Peanuts media he was turned into a stereotype. He then shows clips of Franklin listening to hip-hop, breakdancing, and having his own gestures.
• Stunned Silence:
  • After running a montage of incredibly offensive things that Senator Ted Cruz has said, Trevor is completely agape for several seconds.
    Trevor: [looks around with a WTF look] This guy is real.
  • He's also horrified for a few seconds after he realizes that Donald Trump's increasingly racist behavior isn't that different from ISIL.
  • Trevor is visibly horrified and is silent for several seconds after watching a clip of Donald Trump making a objectifying remark about his then-infant daughter.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Once Jordan Klepper got his own show, the show needed another obnoxious white guy; this is where Michael Kosta comes in.
• Take a Third Option: During Trevor's interview with noted anti-Trump conservative Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ), the question of why Flake was retiring after the end of his term in 2019 came up, with Trevor asking Flake why he wouldn't want to stay and oppose Trump. Flake responded that he knew he'd never win another Republican primary in Arizona if he opposed Trump, and so the main two options were to either keep his mouth shut and be re-elected or speak out and lose. He decided instead to simply not run again.
• Take That!:
  • Trevor Noah on Back to the Future day says that they were right about Biff gaining a lot of power, comparing him to Donald Trump.
  • Trevor clearly has something against Spirit Airlines, as he uses them whenever he jokes about bad services on airplanes. He once used them in a Bait-and-Switch Comment with North Korean labor camps!
• Tempting Fate:
  • Right after Ronny Chieng loses both of his hands due to presumptuous promises to do such should Trump win the Republican nomination, he next declares that Bernie Sanders will secure the Democratic nomination or he'll remove his penis with a blowtorch. Keep in mind, Trump was already leading when Chieng made his first prediction, and so was Hilary when he was facing the consequences of the first one.
  • During the show's third night in Cleveland covering the Republican Convention, Trevor joked to the audience that everything was going so well, he hoped something might go wrong. As soon as the show cut to a taped parody film about Donald Trump, technical problems caused the tape to glitch while playing.
• Token White:
  • Jordan Klepper and Desi Lydic, with Klepper in the "obnoxiously clueless white guy" role. They even team up together for a segment about white voters. After Klepper left the show, Michael Kosta took his place.
  • After the Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting, Klepper asked viewers not to generalize white men as violent. "Because if the situation were reversed, we'd do the same for you."
  • Naturally, when Trump supporters won The Third Month Mania bracket challenge, Jordan is rolled out in a Trump shirt to accept the trophy, even though he refuses to read the cue cards.
• Tranquil Fury: Whenever Trevor covers a serious topic, like the Capitol riot or an anti-Asian shooting in Atlanta, he does it in a calm, clear, and solemn tone, despite the very clear anger he's facing at the situation.
• Verbal Tic: Trevor often punctuates his sentences with a "yeah."
• Voice Clip Song:
  • "They Love Me", Roy Wood, Jr.'s rap song, is composed entirely of Donald Trump's tweets, with the dates of each tweet.
    Roy: You could make an entire rap song with just Donald Trump quotes. All you need is a dope beat.
  • While fact-checking Donald Trump's speech in Detroit, Desi comes across his Malaproper of saying "titties" instead of "cities". She attempts to analyze the recording, but makes it into this instead, dancing along to it.
    Desi: It's hard to tell if these titties are real, but I can tell you that "Titties Like Detroit" is a hot fucking track, so go stream it on Tidal.
• Wait, What?: Jordan's reaction to hearing that two lottery winners in Illinois didn't receive the $250,000 that they had earned for their ticket. Once it sinks in, he gets righteously furious.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Ronny Chieng's new virtual reality creation is a sim version of his dad saying he's So Proud of You.
  Trevor: Oh man, Ronny, it sounds like nothing's good enough for you, man.
  Ronny: Yeah, I know. Now I know how my dad feels, am I right? [forced laughter]
• What Could Have Been: Invoked. Trevor wonders why the Republican and Democratic debates can't be combined together because the idea of the candidates insulting each other to their faces, Hillary Clinton demolishing the Republicans, and having Bernie Sanders rolling his eyes in reaction to everything would have been awesome.
• What, Exactly, Is His Job?: Trevor spends about 15-20 seconds wondering what exactly the Vice President's job is.
  Trevor: You lied to the Vice President! The man in charge of...[long pause]...snacks? No, what is the Vice President in charge of, for real, though?
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Trevor trashes the heart Planeteer for this reason.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Apparently, some audience members thought Ronny Chieng's accent was fake and had trouble understanding him. However, that is his real accent, a mix of Malaysian, Singaporean, and Australian.
• Worst News Judgment Ever:
  • On the October 1st, 2015, episode, Trevor wanted to cover Russian bombings in Syria (that were allegedly targeting CIA operatives in the area). The rest of the staff were too distracted by Pumpkin Spice coming back for 3 months.
    Jordan: The pumpkin spice is blowing up now. Syria's gonna be blowing up all year 'round.
• You Are Fat: Trevor Noah made a sketch about fat-shaming Mike Huckabee for comparing politics and even people to food and restaurants for some reason.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: During his interview with Tomi Lahren, Trevor at one point stops to close his eyes, take a deep breath and process her contradictory statement that she hates labels because she's a millennial. He and the audience (with a shocked response) have a similar reaction to her stating to Trevor, a black man, that black men are more likely to kill police than vice-versa.
• You Know I'm Black, Right?: Averted when Tomi Lahren tells Trevor Noah that black men are more likely to kill police than the other way around. He doesn't even bring up that by her logic, she's accusing him of being more likely to shoot a police officer rather than talk them to death with logic.
• Younger and Hipper:
  • Younger, half-black Trevor Noah replaces middle-aged, Jewish Jon Stewart. At the time of Noah's first show, he was five years younger than Stewart was at his premiere.
  • Amusingly, his Worthy Opponent falls into this as well; grumpy old Bill O'Reilly replaced with Blond Republican Sex Kitten Tomi Lahren.
• Zombie Advocate: Jessica Williams takes on this role very literally during a segment about a Cincinnati-area zombie nativity scene. Jordan Klepper plays opposite her taking the pollitically correct view. And Roy Wood Jr. keeps on trying to bring their attention to the very real news about police shootings and coverups in Chicago.

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