Chicago comedian schools Noah in his ‘Daily Show’ debut
A new “Daily Show” contributor from Chicago made his debut on the series Thursday, enlightening host Trevor Noah about the hopelessness of trying to get young people to vote.
Jaboukie Young-White, a Marion Catholic High grad and DePaul dropout, was smooth and self-assured in his first appearance as “senior youth correspondent.” At 24, he felt brash enough to swear freely and get in some digs at Noah, 10 years his senior.
“You are as funny as my mom said,” he teased.
Young-White’s argument was that voting is designed for the old — starting with the paper ballot. “Paper is over,” he said. “I don’t even wipe my a-- with paper. I use a bidet app.”
He proposed ballots be home-delivered via Postmates, along with a seaweed salad, and that Election Day be a national holiday — “like Presidents Day. Or Toyotathon.”
Despite his youth, Young-White comes to the Comedy Central series with a crowded resume. As a stand-up comic, he performed first at Chicago clubs before relocating to New York and since has appeared twice on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.”
“Chicago is a liberal city but it’s still in the middle of America, so it gave me a good solid understanding of how to adapt to certain rooms and different Midwestern sensibilities,” he told Vulture last year. “But it’s just not as diverse of a scene as New York. It’s changing, but it’s still straight white dude-centric. And that’s dope, too! I love hearing about your girlfriend and how her period is so weird! But my comedy just doesn’t connect to that. Living and performing in New York has allowed me to try my weirder and more experimental things.”
He’s a popular joketeller on Twitter with more than 200,000 followers at @jaboukie and has worked on two Netflix series, as a writer for “American Vandal” and a story editor for “Big Mouth.”
He’s part of a long history of local talents on “The Daily Show,” which gave big breaks to the Chicago-trained Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Nancy Walls, Matt Walsh, Dan Bakkedahl and Jordan Klepper.