Just like any comedian, Noah hates most of the jokes he told a few years ago, so all of the backlash surrounding his old Twitter posts was not lost on him.
Nor is the fear and trepidation viewers may have about Noah taking over The Daily Show from Jon Stewart this fall.
“A guy doesn’t leave and another guy comes in and there’s no backlash,” Noah told GQ. “That never, ever happens. When Michael B. Jordan got cast as the new Human Torch in Fantastic Four, there was backlash, because they were like, ‘How can this fictional character be a black man?’ The new storm trooper from Star Wars, when he took his helmet off in the trailer, people lost their minds. ‘This is ridiculous. How can there be black people in space?’ I didn’t know what the backlash was gonna be, but I knew there was going to be backlash. The same thing when Larry Wilmore took over from Colbert: ‘Oh, this is never gonna work. This is horrible.’ ”
But Noah insists the transition will be gradual, more evolutionary than revolutionary.
“I have a very vague picture of the show right now,” Noah says. “It’ll be like a face-lift. Because, don’t get it twisted, I’m a big fan of The Daily Show, and that’s what it’s still gonna be. It’s still gonna be The Daily Show. It’s the same way, when Fallon took over from Leno, it’s still The Tonight Show.”
“Just the mere fact that I’m gonna be there in the chair changes a whole bunch of the show, you know?”