DIMPLED ASSASSIN
The Daily Show’s TREVOR NOAH continues his assault on racism in his latest standup special
Richard Pryor, all-time great standup comic, went to Africa for the first time in 1979. The trip changed his life. The first ‘shock comic’ to flamboyantly use the n-word in America, Pryor was notoriously reckless, committed to the sex-and-drugs life. Then, his psychiatrist suggested a trip to Africa. It ended up healing Pryor. He stopped using his signature n-word, revealed a new sensibility and depth. But was overwhelmed by heart disease and multiple sclerosis. The comic, who inspired generations of Black comics, including Whoopi Goldberg, Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock, never actually rode a second wind.
It’s come a full circle now, though. Africa has sent a comic to America with prodigious intercontinental talent. South African Trevor Noah came to global attention when he, at the age of 31, took over The Daily Show from Jon Stewart in 2015; since then, he has made the show his own. Like so many Black comics, Noah cites Pryor as an influence. It is a study in contrast.
Pryor had emerged from the cracks of racial tension; Noah came of age in a South Africa emerging from apartheid. He knows eight languages, including Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, Tswana, Tsonga and Afrikaans. His vocal talents ease him into languages he doesn’t even know—and with effort to spare. His mother is Xhosa; his father is a Swiss White man. Pryor, who grew up in a brothel run by his grandmother in Chicago, barely hid his misogyny; Noah’s mother Patricia is a strong-willed, independent-minded woman, who had a child with a White man when it was illegal to have an inter-racial child in South Africa.
Hence, Son of Patricia, Noah’s latest standup special. Last year, his special Afraid of the Dark made fulsome use of colonialism and racism, including a long, impression-based sketch of two ‘first Black presidents’, Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama. This time around, there’s not so much riffing on accents. Within two minutes of the opening, Noah nails it with a sketch on the American hip-hop genre of ‘trap music’. He howls out a generic trap song to show how each trap song sounds like a child complaining.
Then Noah goes travelling, a standard comic device, riffing off the rich lore of cultural differences. Noah goes to Bali and has adventures with a snake. Then some racism jokes, just that Noah can laugh at everyone, not just White people. Noah doesn’t need to shock to generate his jokes and attack the big subjects, the big cracks in society. Even the racism jokes revolve back to South Africa, as he circles back and riffs off trap music to end where he began. Watch this one. You’ll be glad you did.