Trevor Noah’s time as host of The Daily Show has felt distinctly different from Jon Stewart’s for many reasons. One of which is the fact that Noah, as someone born and raised in South Africa, approaches the problems in America from an outsider’s perspective, calling us on our bullshit with his signature incredulity. Last night, while appearing on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Noah shared a bit of that perspective as he railed against the two-party system, calling it, “one of the most destructive forces in America.”
“It’s weird to me that America is a country where you have, like, sixteen cereals but two political parties,” said Noah, after recalling the prevalence of people saying they didn’t like Donald Trump during the 2016 election but felt they didn’t have a choice because they couldn’t justify voting against their party. As someone who has to cover national news stories four nights a week, Noah is intimately familiar with the divisive, us-versus-them nature of the current political discourse, and is undoubtedly frustrated by how often serious issues devolve into tribalism: “You should have more choices. I don’t think it’s as simple as blue and red.”
Colbert also tries to get Noah’s take on the current immigration crisis, specifically asking how it compares to his experiences growing up under apartheid. While Noah admits that the idea of kids being put into cages is a new and horrifying reality for him, he does say that his mother regularly reminds him how lucky he is that their family wasn’t separated when he was a child. “I’m technically mixed. My mother is a black woman, my father is white. So, if we were caught together, I would have been taken away,” he says. The fact that current-day America is being compared to one of the most oppressive regimes of the past 50 years is unflattering, to say the least. But, somehow, that’s where we are.
[via The Hollywood Reporter]
Send Great Job, Internet tips to gji@theonion.com