After his stellar debut on Monday, Trevor Noah was back Tuesday night with his first “Daily Show” election segment and it didn’t disappoint.
The new Comedy Central host proved that he is more than up to the task of taking over Jon Stewart‘s biting wit when it comes to political satire.
His first targets were presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Ben Carson for fawning over Hollywood celebrities such as the Kardashians, Kanye West and Lena Dunham.
“We’ve reached that stage in the campaign where it becomes impossibly to avoid candidates desperately trying to appear hip,” he said, describing it as a “‘panderdemic … not to be confused with a ‘pandademic,’ which is a very cute way to die.
“Just as we have candidates who want to be associated with celebrities, we have celebrities who want to be associated with candidates,” Noah continued, mocking Carson for wanting to give West musical advice. “I understand the need to pander — but I don’t think you two [Carson and West] even know who you are pandering to.
“Kanye, do your research. You are picking a president, not who is going to be on your basketball team,” he advised.
“The trick is to find the perfect match between politician and celebrity,” Noah explained, such as with Clinton’s online interview with Dunham, although the host noted that the “Girls” star seemed more exited about Clinton than Clinton was about herself.
“‘If you can’t get excited, be pragmatic and do it anyway,’” he quoted the Democratic candidate as saying. “That is the worst hype speech I have ever heard in my life.”
Noah was pleased that Clinton had at least taken a lurid interest in seeing the video footage of Lenny Kravitz splitting his pants on YouTube. “I’ll look for that,” she said with a dirty smile.
“That was a dick joke … Hillary Clinton just made a joke about Lenny Kravitz‘s penis,” he emphasized.” And just like Lenny Kravitz‘s penis, it was pretty impressive.”
“The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” airs Monday-Thursday at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.