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Showing results for tags 'Soweto'.
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My brief, initial impressions of replacing Stuart with Noah: risky, but potentially brilliant. Risky, because the American audience - though it *thinks* it was hungering for intelligent, educated, well-informed, political satire, was possibly hungering merely for intelligent, educated, well-informed, political satire from an *American point-of-view*, and Noah's much-more-global perspective might be a little *too* educated for the American mass viewership. I'm pretty sure it's what *I* want (Hell, take Jon Stewart, and throw several languages and ethnicities into the mix, and blend it all with Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and POW! You have the perfect satire, if, if, if, Trevor Noah can pull this off with the fearless bravado that the great Jon Stewart so masterfully did for 16+ years - oh my goodness Stewart was excellent in this role!) I have two polar-opposite scenarios in my mind: 1) Trevor Noah raising American audiences up to his level. Viewership will sink at first, simply because there is nothing like this on television. If Comedy Central can withstand the pressure of declining ratings (and if Noah sticks to his guns, ratings *will* decline in the short-, perhaps medium-term), this could be looked upon as one of the most brilliant moves in the history of television, and The Educating Of America. 2) Trevor Noah dumbing down his routine to conform with the current level of American viewership, which may result in an *increased* audience at first, mainly due to curiosity, but will ultimately die a slow death because this will be going against Noah's grain, and he won't be able to pull it off. If this show is to be a long-term success with Noah as host, American viewers will need to raise their game - and you know what? It's the same way I feel about this website, because I refuse to dumb it down to pander to boneheads just so I can get a larger audience. *The audience can educate themselves and come up to our level*, or they can go read Eater and The Washington Post. We have the chance to become the world's leader in political satire; not just for American politics, but for World politics. Let's do it, Damn It! Why shouldn't we better ourselves? Stewart was awesome, but I have to think that even *he* would be in favor of this as a long-term strategy. I'm as excited about this visionary selection as I am the Nationals signing Max Scherzer. Yes, it's one hell of a gamble, but what truly great thing isn't?