Trevor Noah decided to pay special tribute to his “Daily Show” live audience with a farewell song on Thursday’s show, the last he will tape with an in-studio crowd (for the foreseeable future) due to growing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.
Here are the lyrics to the mournful pop ballad-style track, which the New York City-based late-night host belted out while playing the piano for his audience, the “last ones to get coronavirus from us,” before he locks them out starting Monday:
“Is it still a joke, if no one laughs at it?/Am I still a host, if I’m just standing in an empty room?/Audience, this is for you/Time for social distancing/Pack your things and go/Just know that I’ll be waiting for you to come back to the show/To the ones who stood and the ones who clapped/I’ll even give a shoutout to the haters who just sat there and never laugh/It’s the ones who cheered and the people who loved to wave/I’ll even miss those ones who seemed to get all the jokes too late.”
“You know, I’m even gonna miss those people who forgot to turn off their phones during the show,” he continued. It would mess me up and spoil jokes, but, you know, I liked hearing the ringtones, it was so retro.”
He kept going with: “I’m gonna miss those guys who love to explain the show/The people with the weird-ass laughs are the ones I’ll miss the most/The guy who came to kill me, but then I won him over with my jokes/The fans who came from Africa and just wanted to hear about home.”
Noah ended his tribute with these touching bars: “It’s time for quarantine, y’all. I can’t wait ’till this is over and the virus is beat and all your asses are back in those seats. I love you guys.”
Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” is not the only late-night show losing its live audiences due to fears over spreading COVID-19. On Wednesday, all NYC-based late-night programs announced they would be taping without live studio audiences, with different start dates set for those haltings. On Thursday, Los Angeles-based shows made the same move.
Then, later that day, NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night With Seth Meyers” and CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” said they’d be canceling a week’s worth of episodes entirely. All three of those shows tape in NYC.