One night after he warned Americans that electing Donald Trump would mean empowering the Ku Klux Klan, it started to hit Trevor Noah that the “scariest shit” he’s ever imagined in his life might actually be happening. And it happened on live television.
The mood on The Daily Show’s live election night special was a bit more on edge than they may have anticipated. When Noah went live at 11 p.m. ET, Trump had already won North Carolina, was about to win Florida, and looked poised to barrel through Hillary Clinton’s firewall. No one, including the host, was remotely in the mood for comedy.
“This is it, the end of the presidential race, and feels like the end of the world,” Noah said. “You know, I’m not going to lie, I don’t know if you’ve come to the right place for jokes tonight, because this is the first time throughout this entire race where I’m officially shitting my pants.”
“I genuinely do not understand how America can be this disorganized or this hateful,” he added. “I don’t know which one it is.”
When Noah did attempt to tell some jokes, they were of the depressingly dark variety. “Donald Trump is going much better than expected. He’s doing so much winning that I’m tired of winning,” he said. “I cannot believe I finally get what that means. He warned us about it.” Noting that the Mexican peso is currently “crashing” on news of Trump’s success, Noah joked that means “if Trump does win, Mexico can’t afford to pay for that wall.”
After running through a pre-planned bit about the photos of Trump and his son Eric peeking over at their wives’ ballots, Noah told viewers that he and his team would continue to make jokes tonight, but added, “I can’t front: I am very much afraid.”
