- 2 days ago
Noah’s 'The Daily Show' received its first nomination for outstanding short form variety series since taking over for Jon Stewart in 2015.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Welcome to Meet Your Emmy nominee.
00:02I'm Evan Riel from The Hollywood Reporter, and today I am joined by a man who needs
00:05no introduction, Trevor Noah.
00:07How are you?
00:08I'm doing great, but introduce me, please.
00:09There might be someone watching who doesn't know me.
00:11This is Trevor Noah.
00:12In case you don't know who he is, he's the host of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
00:16How are you?
00:17I'm fantastic.
00:18Thank you very much for being here with me.
00:19I appreciate it.
00:20I'm excited to be here, and I'm excited for you because The Daily Show has a whopping
00:23three Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Variety Talk Series.
00:28You're first in this category since taking over in 2015.
00:31How does it feel to be nominated?
00:33It's an amazing achievement and a journey that we've been on as a show.
00:38It's really exciting that the show as a whole was nominated because it really does feel like
00:42every single person in this building has been instrumental and been a part of the success
00:46of the show.
00:47Taking over from Jon Stewart is one of the most difficult things I would imagine anybody
00:52could do in showbiz.
00:54I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
00:55Don't do it.
00:56It's really crazy.
00:57It's been a continuing journey.
00:59How do you start a new show that in essence is an old show?
01:04How do you create something new from something old?
01:06How do you move into a world where people are watching less TV but you're trying to be
01:08on TV?
01:09These are all the challenges we faced, and to get to the point where it's not just
01:13the audience and our fans that appreciate us but also the Emmy voters is something that's
01:17really humbling and exciting at the same time.
01:20Absolutely.
01:21Tell me about the moment you found out that must have been so exciting.
01:23Oh, that was crazy.
01:24I actually found out when I was coming back from Russia.
01:27So, I went to Russia for the World Cup.
01:29Okay.
01:30And so, my phone was off for the entire flight.
01:32So, when I landed, I had hundreds of voicemails and text messages and I was like, oh, there's
01:38a scandal.
01:39Something has gone horribly wrong in my life.
01:40I was like, this is it.
01:41Because you never know what it is.
01:42Right.
01:43You get off a plane and it's like, this could be the worst thing and it turned out to be
01:46the best thing.
01:47So, it was congratulations, congratulations, but I didn't know what it was for.
01:51And then finally one message said congratulations on the Emmys and then I realized that we were
01:55nominated, our first nomination for best show, which was a really fantastic moment.
02:02But I was in the airport and then I was getting to like customs and immigration, I couldn't
02:06have my phone out.
02:07So, now you're trying to celebrate and the guy's telling you to put your phone away.
02:10So, it was an interesting moment to have a really exciting, I guess, announcement and
02:16revelation.
02:17Who was the first person you called?
02:18Who was the first person I called?
02:20That's interesting.
02:21I don't know that I called.
02:22I feel like people called me as soon as my phone turned on.
02:25Right.
02:26You had a lot of calls to get back to.
02:27Yeah.
02:28Yeah.
02:29Yeah.
02:30So, it was just everyone.
02:31I'm more of a texter.
02:32So, it was just like, hello in order and thank you in order of like appearance in my phone.
02:35Now, I saw in an interview that Jon Stewart said that you wouldn't be nominated
02:39in this category.
02:40The first year.
02:41The second year, obviously, the third time is a charm.
02:43What was his reaction to your nomination?
02:45He must be so proud.
02:46He was amazing.
02:47He was amazing.
02:48Jon sent like a long text.
02:49He was just so happy.
02:50It's like he was nominated to be honest.
02:51Yeah.
02:52Which I've always appreciated.
02:54You know, Jon's always been a supporter of mine from the beginning.
02:57You know, he's one of the reasons I sit in this chair and I'm at this desk.
03:02He's always been like a little cheerleader in the background.
03:04Yeah.
03:05Egging me on and just being like, you know, do better.
03:07Be better.
03:08Enjoy yourself.
03:09Have a good time.
03:10And so, when we won, Jon was one of the first people to text and go like, this is it.
03:13He was like, I knew it from the beginning.
03:14I love that.
03:15You have some amazing talent in your category.
03:17Nominated alongside you, Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel.
03:21What other nominee are you most excited for and why?
03:23Wow.
03:24That's a difficult one.
03:25Because, I mean, it's a really interesting category for a variety of reasons.
03:30Excuse the pun.
03:31But, you know, Colbert has had a bump a year.
03:34I mean, you know, I was in a very similar situation to Colbert where we both took over a show.
03:39We both experienced the initial slump and then we had to dig ourselves out.
03:43So, I share something with Stephen where we both know what it's like to be really the underdog and not know what tomorrow will bring.
03:50John Oliver, I connect with because, you know, as an outsider, he came to America and worked on The Daily Show and then went on to create his own show that has become a huge success worldwide.
04:01And I'm a big fan of the show.
04:02I'm a fan of his.
04:03Samantha Bee stepped in and created a show that was needed and is extremely funny and, you know, and she's just hitting the ball out of the park doing her own thing.
04:11You know, James Corden with Carpool Karaoke.
04:13I've done Carpool Karaoke.
04:14I love his show.
04:15Kimmel, you know, has just found a new stride.
04:18So, I think like everyone is in the space where it really is an honor to be amongst peers who I think all deserve to be in the category for different reasons.
04:28And so, you know, the only sad thing is only one person can win.
04:32So, you know, I'm happy that I'm friends with all of them and I'm excited for all of them.
04:36So, at the end of the day, it's like I'm glad that we're all in the club.
04:39Absolutely.
04:40Now, as an Emmy-nominated host, what do you think the biggest challenges will be for Colin Jost and Michael Che hosting this year's show?
04:47Do you have any advice for them?
04:48Oh, that's an interesting one.
04:49Advice for Colin Jost and Michael Che.
04:51I think the one thing I'll say to them is their hosting is going to be a failure.
04:57It's going to be the worst hosting that we've ever seen at the Emmys.
05:00Um, and once they accept that, then they're just going to go out there and have fun because you can never please everyone.
05:06Right.
05:07I've learned every single time a person hosts, people go, that was horrible.
05:10That was this, that was that.
05:11Just go out there and have fun.
05:12Do your thing.
05:13Like, Jost is super funny.
05:14So is Che.
05:15You know, Che is one of my best friends.
05:16So, I'm just like, go out there and have a good time.
05:18Just operate from the place of failure.
05:20Be like, yeah, everyone hated it.
05:22Now what would we do if we, if we knew that?
05:24And I, I think, I think that's exactly what they're going to do.
05:26They're going to go out there and they're going to crush it.
05:28What is the key to making politics funny?
05:30I mean, you do such a great job at it, but I'm sure it's a lot harder than you make it look.
05:35What is the key to making politics funny?
05:38Well, first of all, you have to find what you believe is funny.
05:41You have to use your funny to, I think, try and illustrate what you see as a quirk or a strange
05:49idea, you know, or a moment of BS that you want to expose.
05:53Um, right now, one thing that makes politics extremely funny is Donald Trump.
05:58You know, I've always said to people, he's an emotional paradox.
06:01On the one hand, he's terrifying.
06:02On the other hand, he's hilarious.
06:03And that's a very difficult idea for many people to wrap their heads around.
06:07But that's genuinely how I feel about him.
06:09So, you know, in one speech, he can say something that threatens the way we see life in the world.
06:14And then in the very next sentence, say something that is completely hilarious that knocks us off our feet.
06:21And so we're living in an interesting time where the dichotomy of the laugh versus the fear
06:27is something that we're constantly balancing every day.
06:29Yeah, definitely.
06:30Um, who would you say is the first comic that spoke to you?
06:33And how do you think they've influenced your career?
06:35Huh, who would I say is the first comic that spoke to me?
06:38It's probably Eddie Murphy.
06:39Yeah?
06:40Yeah, he was like the first real stand-up comedian that I watched.
06:43You know, where I saw someone impersonating voices, playing with characters, telling stories.
06:49I watched Eddie Murphy and I saw a lot of what I naturally did with my friends.
06:53And I really enjoyed that.
06:55Um, and then I've been lucky enough to meet amazing comedians, you know, in my journey in life.
07:01So Eddie Izzard very early on shaped how I performed my comedy.
07:06He made me more comfortable with sharing some of my more intimate stories on stage.
07:12Um, he's a friend and a mentor.
07:15And, you know, Dave Chappelle, you know, in the U.S. has been one of the rocks that I've leaned on,
07:21who's just helped guide me and give me ideas and helped me understand the U.S. market and comedy as a whole.
07:28Um, you know, Neil Brennan, Chris Rock, um, you know, Michelle Wolf.
07:33Like, there's so many comedians who have in some way infused a little bit of themselves into, into who I am and what I do.
07:40And I'm always appreciated for that.
07:41Now, you entered The Daily Show during a particularly interesting time in politics, to say the least.
07:47Are you somewhat grateful for the current political climate because it provides so much material?
07:52I was grateful.
07:54And now I feel like it's gluttony.
07:56Yeah.
07:57You know, I feel like it's an embarrassment of riches.
07:59And I think it's gotten to a point as well where people are so overwhelmed that it's almost too much for people to absorb.
08:09You know, people want to break.
08:10Right.
08:11And I understand that.
08:12And that's why what we try and do on the show is create context and also try and provide a prism through which we see not just America's politics but the world.
08:22Mm.
08:23It's nice to show people that Trump is not everything.
08:25Although he is the wildfire that consumes the news.
08:27Right.
08:28It's sometimes nice to show that there are other things happening.
08:32There are other issues that do not involve him.
08:34And he is not the be all and end all.
08:36He is in many ways infused in everything happening in American culture and the news today.
08:40But he is not the everything.
08:42So, you know, it's a good time to be in the business.
08:46But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's a good time for everyone, which I'm always cognizant of.
08:50You've become a master at analyzing his tweets and you've called him the most prolific Twitter user in our lifetime.
08:56Can you elaborate on that?
08:58Well, I think few people have mastered Twitter the way Donald Trump has.
09:02You know, for me, it's always a battle between Chrissy Teigen and Donald Trump.
09:07Those are the two Twitter champions for me.
09:09They handle trolls deftly.
09:11They engage with their fans in a way that very few can authentically online.
09:17They know how to, I think, process the platform with a strange nuance that from the outside doesn't seem like nuance.
09:25That's what Trump does.
09:26You know, he knows how to get a message across.
09:30He knows how to use the platform to amplify what he wants to say.
09:33He knows how to be outlandish and he knows how to connect.
09:36He knows how to be funny and he knows how to be an instigator.
09:40He knows how to stir up divisiveness and hatred.
09:43He's really deft at using Twitter as a platform.
09:46And I think Twitter is in no small part one of the reasons that he is president today.
09:53Definitely.
09:54Do you have a favorite joke or segment from the show over the past year that was inspired by a Trump tweet?
09:58Do I have a favorite joke or segment?
10:00Probably Covfefe.
10:01Yeah.
10:02Yeah, because that was the most benign.
10:03It was just like a funny little moment where I knew what he was writing.
10:06We knew what he was doing, but it was just like a fun little moment where we got to play with, you know, an idea in a tweet and just be like, what is Covfefe?
10:14Right.
10:15Now, where do you find the line when it comes to targeting political figures, with Trump in particular, when you know that there is potential backlash?
10:22Well, when you're dealing with politics, I think the one thing you have to acknowledge as a person is that there's always somebody who's going to disagree with you.
10:30Fundamentally, that's what politics comes with.
10:34Right.
10:35So if you get into the space of discussing politics in any way, shape or form and expect people to all agree with you, then you're in the wrong game.
10:42I've come to learn that backlash is oftentimes an inaccurate representation of what most people are thinking.
10:52Backlash in today's society can be very loud, but that doesn't mean that it is very many people.
10:58You know, social media can amplify an idea that the general population is not feeling.
11:04And so I've come to learn if I can back up my claims, if I can substantiate why I believe what I believe, and if I genuinely think it's funny for the right reasons, then backlash is part of the job.
11:16That's what being a comedian is at the end of the day.
11:18Right.
11:19If everyone liked everything that you're saying, then, you know, are you really a comedian for me?
11:23And that's not what I'm trying to do.
11:25Right, right.
11:26Now, back to Trump's tweets.
11:27The Daily Show recently released a book compiled of Trump's tweets.
11:31You have a library dedicated to his tweets.
11:34How did that idea come about?
11:36Well, what we realized was presidents have libraries dedicated to them when they leave office.
11:41You have speeches.
11:43You have addresses.
11:45You have written words.
11:47But Donald Trump is not a man of books.
11:50Donald Trump is not a man of essays.
11:53Man of tweets.
11:54He communicates in tweets.
11:55140 characters or 280 at a time.
11:58And so we often laughed and joked and said he will be the first president to have his presidential library be only tweets.
12:06Right.
12:07And so we thought, well, why not build that?
12:10Why not create that to, I think, not only explore and celebrate his mind, but also give people a glimpse into how he created the persona that he is online.
12:22And what's great about the book is it's a manifestation of the library.
12:25So we didn't just take Trump's tweets and put them in a book.
12:28We took the tweets.
12:29We analyzed them.
12:30We compiled them in groups.
12:32And we put them together.
12:33We give you context.
12:34So how does Trump frame a Russia investigation?
12:37How does Trump engage in feuds online?
12:40How does Donald Trump feel about Diet Coke?
12:42How does Donald Trump engage with his fans?
12:45How does Donald Trump, just everything about his mind.
12:47And it's interesting how Twitter actually gives you a good idea of what he's done, what he's doing, and probably what he will do, because he does have a pattern.
12:56And that's really what the book is about, is exploring the mind of the man behind the tweets.
13:00With so much exploration of his Twitter feed, what have you learned about Donald Trump?
13:04Wow, what have I learned?
13:05I've learned way too many things.
13:07You're like an expert at this point.
13:09Yeah, I mean, I've learned that he loves to hit back.
13:12You know, he...
13:14If he feels attacked, he will attack two to three times as hard.
13:19Um, I've learned from his tweets that he, uh, is somebody who loves engaging in, um, culture wars.
13:31That's one of the biggest things.
13:32Donald Trump is not a policy buff.
13:34But in culture wars, there is no expert, because it's all really just based on your opinion and your ideas.
13:40And that's one of the biggest things that Trump has been really good at cultivating online.
13:43Right.
13:44Now, it seems like now more than ever, comedians have a way to engage in the political conversations in ways they haven't before.
13:52We see it on our social media feeds.
13:54Do you feel a responsibility to be part of the political conversation, or are you really just trying to make people laugh at the end of the day?
14:02Well, I think that goes down to...
14:04It boils down to who you are as a person.
14:06So, as Trevor, I have, over time, become more and more engaged in politics.
14:11I've become more and more engaged in social issues.
14:13And that's what interests me in life, you know?
14:16Over time, I've refined the way I tackle these issues.
14:19I continue to refine how I see the world and how I engage with people in a conversation.
14:24But I don't think people should be assigning responsibilities to comedians because then, in essence, what it does for me is it removes responsibility from the people that it should be on.
14:35Right.
14:36And those people are the people in power and people in society.
14:39You know, as humans, we like to assign blame and credit to other people when, in fact, a lot of what we do we contribute to ourselves and the world we live in.
14:47Right.
14:48And so, for me, a comedian's job is to make you laugh.
14:51That's what I believe, fundamentally.
14:53How they make you laugh is up to them.
14:55Some comedians do it through observational humor.
14:58Some comedians will use politics.
14:59Others will refer to their life, and they'll tell you anecdotes.
15:03Everyone has a different way of doing it.
15:05And so, what I do is partly informed by politics and the world I live in, and that's because I'm a product of the world I came from.
15:12I grew up in a very political country.
15:13I grew up in a country where my very existence was defined by the politics of the world that I was in.
15:18And so, I cannot escape that idea, nor that concept, nor do I wish to, because that's what I experience in the world.
15:24That's what you do.
15:25That's why we love you.
15:26That's why you're nominated for three Emmys.
15:27Thank you very much.
15:29Well, thank you so much, Trevor.
15:30Good luck in September.
15:31I'm rooting for you.
15:32Thank you very much.
15:33I feel like you say that to everyone you interview, and I appreciate that.
15:34No, I'm really rooting for you, I promise.
15:37Thank you again for having me.
Comments