The answer is actually fairly simple, contra Slate. In 2012 The Daily Show skewed 10% Republican, 41% Independent, 45% Democratic; or, if you prefer… 14% conservative, 42% moderate, 43% liberal. I’m going to hence go out on a limb here and suggest that say that the Daily Show caters to a distinctly left-leading audience. And from there it’s obvious: liberals don’t groove as much on the show because its new host Trevor Noah is a black dude.
I mean, shoot, it’s not exactly a secret that white progressives have real difficulty taking minorities seriously. Or letting them mainstream. God knows getting one to vote for a black candidate can be an exercise in frustration…
That Slate link is broken. I would take a look at it.
Fixed, thanks.
Sure, the Left can’t have one of the Underclass break out and succeed on his merits. They are in no danger of that from Mr. Noah. From the few clips I’ve seen, he’s just Not Funny on a good day, and a standard pedantic demagogue all the rest.
I was also thinking along the “He’s just not all that funny” lines.
Count me in for thirds on the “They’re just not that into him” argument. I mean, I never liked Jon Stewart. I still don’t. I never will. But on the rare occasion when he said something with which I could agree, there was a certain satisfaction about watching his cannons trained on the other side. (You’ve commented on that yourself, Moe, if I remember correctly.) That’s because, like it or not, the man sometimes DID have cannons. Noah has pea shooters.
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So why is Noah failing? Simple math. Conservatives don’t trust The Daily Show, because they strongly (and rightly) suspect that no matter who the host is, they’re not the target audience so much as the target. And Noah’s not funny enough to hold Stewart’s fans. Had the Comedy Central brass gone with a more tested name, like Larry Wilmore, maybe The Daily Show’s ratings would be better.
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Then again, it’s not like Larry Wilmore is holding Colbert’s audience in the night slot either. So maybe he’s not that funny, either. Or maybe it really is that the left-leaning audience would prefer a bit more ivory and a bit less ebony behind the desks.
My first response was “Who?”
Fortunately, you clarified that in the text of the post.
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The answer would be “there is no difficulty finding the preaching of Leftist orthodoxies, indeed, it is avoiding this that is difficult”.