Variety reports that comedian Trevor Noah’s official start date for hosting The Daily Show is September 28. That’s less than two months after Jon Stewart’s last show on August 6, a night when many will get drunk, cry, and swear they’ll never watch scintillating news commentaries paired with fart-joke exegeses ever again.
Indeed, since Stewart announced his intention to leave The Daily Show, many have questioned the fate of the comedic news program that, under his guidance, became a thoughtful antidote to all the sensationalist partisan bullshit spewed by other cable news outlets. Of course, the trepidation that many viewers feel about hosting duties going to Noah—who joined the show as a correspondent in October 2014—has as much to do with questions about his character as his ability to fill Stewart’s Hoover-Dam-sized news shoes.
After Comedy Central in March announced that Noah would replace Stewart, the internet did a little digging and found evidence that Noah might be an asshole (or at least a subpar comedian). Lame jokes about Jews controlling the entertainment industry and fat people having the audacity to possess self-esteem cluttered Noah’s Twitter feed. But Comedy Central stood by its choice, saying that Noah “pushes boundaries; he is provocative and spares no one, himself included. To judge him or his comedy based on a handful of jokes is unfair.” Noah also offered a tweet in his own defense, saying, “To reduce my views to a handful of jokes that didn’t land is not a true reflection of my character, nor my evolution as a comedian.” Noah might be telling the truth about his evolution, and even if he isn’t, Comedy Central surely will give him a stern lecture before he becomes the face of one of the network’s flagship programs.