Trevor Noah admits he doesn’t think his exchange with Kanye West on social media earlier this year would blow up the way it went.
After Noah, on The Daily Show, discussed West’s behavior towards ex-wife Kim Kardashian, West responded by slandering him on Instagram, which resulted in West being banned from the platform for a day. At the time, Noah responded on Instagram by noting that “the biggest racial hoax ever played by racists against blacks was teaching us to strip each other of our blackness when we disagree”, as well as “I don’t care if you support Trump and I don’t care if you roast a house. But I do.” When I see you on a path dangerously close to danger and pain.”
The Grammys, hosted by Noah, canceled West’s appearance on the show, in a move that Noah criticized. Speaking on Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast, Noah explained why he responded the way he did.
“I’ve become more comfortable speaking my mind in situations where I feel like mobs forget we’re dealing with humans,” he says. “It’s easy to stand on the sidelines, see a train crash coming and not say anything about it. Then after the train crashes off the rails, we say, ‘Oh, I saw it coming!’ Well then why didn’t you say anything? Especially if you have some kind of system Basically, you have some kind of obligation to tell the truth.You know, you see something and you say something.
“And I also understand that humans are a paradox. We can love the people we hate, and we can hate the people we love. Humans as a whole are a complex paradox. And so, I don’t like living in a world where we constantly get rid of humans like pieces of trash. Kanye West is someone who has An indelible impression on my life.His music has literally transported me through different periods of my journey, but there are also moments where I go, like, “Man, Kanye, you’re going off track here.” But I could still say, “I care about you as a human being, That is why I speak out. I won’t care about you, I won’t hate you all of a sudden. This is how I try to see the world, this is how I wish people could see me.
“If I involved you as a human being, and if you loved me, or if you loved anyone in your life, I hope you had the power to say to that person, ‘Hey, I think what you’re doing here is wrong. I think you may be going in the dangerous direction. And I tell you this because I like you. I don’t ignore you as a person. And I think we felt very comfortable shunning humans, throwing them away at once and making them irreparable personalities. While in truth, I think we should all be given the opportunity to redeem ourselves. We should all have a chance at salvation.”
In this edition of Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast, we talk to the host of “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” on a wide range of topics, including giving a late-night show when the news is constantly grim. Also, the success of his reporters, the fact that he might be the only talk show host who didn’t get COVID, and how he managed to win back his audience, as well as multiple Emmy nominations for the show — seven across “The Daily Show” and its accompanying series, are the most for the franchise since it took over. Noah as host in 2015. Hear below!
Noah has many interesting insights into how society, in this age of social media, is very quick to make judgments about people’s behavior – both famous and non-famous. When he hosted the Grammys, it was just days after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on the stage of the Academy Awards. And it was still one of the biggest news stories of the moment, something Noah addressed briefly at his award show. But he says he was also upset by the idea that it was “another example where people were quick to throw a human away.
“I find it cool,” he says. “If we look at it through the scales of justice, or even if you think of it from the perspective of humanity… how many rights are worth a mistake and what wrong is it that erases all rights? When is a person now so despicable? I was shocked at the number of people who were immediately gone,” Will Smith is a trash man and he’s the worst human being, he should be in prison.” I was like, ‘Wow, wow. All right.’ That was really fun for me. Contrary to saying, this person we’ve loved for so long, who didn’t go wrong anywhere. Something went wrong here. Something really went wrong, what went wrong? Should we get into that? Should we go deeper? In his humanity? Do we ask do we ask? Should we care? No, no, this is not the world we live in anymore.
“People are instantly introduced,” he adds. And you can’t exist in a gray space. You can’t be a good person who does a bad thing. And you can’t be a bad person who does a good job. You are either a good person or a bad person. And that is it. And then society flops with you, depending on your last action. Yours. I try not to allow myself to indulge in it too much.”
Of course, social media bears much of the blame for this fast, noisy and bossy interaction now in the world on just about anything.
“I think one of the worst things that social media has done for us is that it rewards us for hot sharing,” Noah says. “It rewarded the most extreme version of any opinion out there. If you give an accurate opinion, in a tweet, unfortunately, the algorithm won’t push that any further because it doesn’t engage many people and engagement is what social media is trying to achieve. The problem is that the best A way to get the most engagement is to stoke tensions.While that’s great for the bottom line for a social media company, it’s terrible for us humans.
“If I want to get everyone’s attention on the highway, the best way to do it, is to cause a huge accident. Everyone will stop and everyone will look, but that’s awful for the highway. I like to think of us as a community, we’re on the highway, we’re all trying to get there. Somewhere. On social media, that algorithm knows, if I can turn this into a giant catastrophe, a huge backlog, I’m going to make everyone stop and tune in. And I don’t think that’s the best thing for us as people.”
As for The Daily Show, it returned to its old studios this spring, with Comedy Central’s late-night series finally bringing an in-studio audience back two years later.
“I have to admit, I think I took it for granted,” Noah says. “When the pandemic started, because it was new, I don’t think I really thought about the difference it would make to have people I was talking to as viewer agents in the house. At first, it was fun, it was new, it was different. It was interesting. And I really enjoyed the elements Presenting without an audience.But what happens over time, you forget that you don’t smile a lot, you forget that you don’t make eye contact with another human.You forget how our moods are like people are affected by other people’s moods.This is probably one of the biggest things I really appreciate coming back to the studio with The audience, how much the audience lifts me up. I enjoy with them. We share conversations and discuss what’s going on in the news. And it becomes less about what’s going on in my head and more about the conversation I’m having with the people we all go through.”
This year, multiple Emmy nominations for The Daily Show include Outstanding Variety Talk Show and Writing for Variety Series. In the expanding world of “The Daily Show”, “The Daily Show Presents: Jordan Klepper Fingers the Globe – Hungary for Democracy” received a nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Special Variety.
“The thing about Jordan is that he often seems magical, and often he seems to be kind of a minded specialist,” Noah says. “But the person that I’ve had the pleasure of being in an office with Jordan Kleiber and having all sorts of conversations with, what makes Jordan Kleiber so good at what he does, is that he listens. He really does listen to people when they talk. I think you probably are His improvisational background. It’s an extraordinary and wonderful improvement. So he listens. It’s interesting how many inconsistencies you’ll pick up from people in American politics.”
The film “Between the Spectator” received its fourth nomination for a series of short or realistic films. Desi Lydic earned a nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy or Drama Miniseries (for “Desi Lydic Foxsplains”), which is also her first solo nomination for an Emmy Award.
“I don’t take any of this for granted,” Noah says. “I know it could all be gone tomorrow. And so, every day, I do my best. I always tell my team, ‘Don’t forget, we’re lucky to be on TV. We’re lucky people still watch what we’re making. As for nominations, I mean, that’s crazy’ It’s a testament to the team. My Executive Producer Jane Flanz mustering the forces and increasing our staff from I think it was like 90 people when I took over, to now 140, 150. It’s a testament to how hard everyone has worked.”
Also on this episode of the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, with the Emmy voting coming to a close on Monday, the Awards Circle Roundtable discusses the wide open races of the year.
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, produced by Michael Schneider, is a one-stop-shop for lively conversations about the best of film and television. Each week, the Awards Arena presents interviews with the best film and television talents and creators. debates and discussions about award races and industry titles; And many, many more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you download podcasts. New episodes are published weekly.
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