From Johnny Carson to Trevor Noah: the decline of American comedy

Trevor Noah? Who he? Breitbart News' John Nolte writes that 329,632,000 people across America asked that question when they heard, yesterday, that Trevor Noah was leaving The Daily Show. 

Mr Noah was the diversity hire (formerly known as "token") who replaced Jon Stewart as the show's host in 2015. Mr Stewart, whom Family Guy called "America's most important Jew", was a ratings failure, gathering only a little over a million viewers every night. Writes Mr Nolte: "Mr Noah...seemed determined to prove there is a number less than zero and proceeded to lose about 75 percent of Stewart’s already minuscule audience."

My guess is that Mr Noah was hired not just because he's black, but because he's not an American black, of which the country already has a surfeit. Mr Noah is from South Africa, and seems to be one of those mid-Atlantic guys, like Piers Moron, whom liberals think is funny and clever because he denigrates the USA and its people.

The good news (Mr Nolte writes) is that the tens of Daily Show fans will still be able to enjoy their cherished program... The Daily Show legacy will continue. It's a legacy of failure, but whatever…

Commenting on the sad news via Disqus, "Jason Morton" writes, "I'm old enough to remember when I could turn on an American late night TV program and feel like an American in America." to which "Avatar Jababa" adds, "I'm old enough to remember when everyone tuned into the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and he didn't try to change your opinion on any subject. Nor did he try to persuade you that he was a paragon of virtue."

Now that comment hit home! I'm even older than Jababa, and have fond memories of Johnny Carson, and Jack Paar before him, and even Steve Allen before him. It was Mr Allen who originated the running gag known as "the Question Man", in which the eponymous character asked a question to which the answer had been given. Mr Carson's version of the same skit was "Carnac the Magnificent". Here is the funniest ever tag line ever uttered by the Great Carnac.

  

Ah, but that was long ago, in an America far away. I doubt we will ever see that kind of comedy again. Nothing's funny in America, any more.