After seven years, Trevor Noah is making like Jon Stewart and Craig Kilborn before him and leaving The Daily Show. It’s been one helluva run. Like his predecessor, Noah had to deal with a maniac president (albeit one that was exceedingly nuttier than W.); unlike Stewart, he also had to work through a pandemic. (Then again, Noah never took down Tucker Carlson to his face.) It’s not known yet when his last day will be, nor what will happen afterwards. Some have speculated that they could get one of the show’s longtime correspondents to take over — like, say, Roy Wood Jr., who’s been there since Noah started. But for now, Wood got in some joke licks.
On Tuesday’s episode, Wood was supposed to do a traffic report, but instead used his time to faux-lay into the show’s departing host and his abrupt decision to leave. “I’m scared to talk to you right now because last time you and I had a conversation, you decided to leave the show,” he cracked. “Shouldn’t even be talking to you. You’re liable to leave during the next commercial break. We’re probably talking too much right now.”
He also addressed the rumors that he could be taking over. “And why’d you bring my name into it when you quit?” Wood asked him. “You [plan to] leave the show, leave the show. But you started the shit last week, ‘I was talking to Roy.’ You could’ve just said, ‘Bitch, I’m gone.’ That’s all you had to say. You didn’t have to drag my name into it. Now everybody on my Twitter’s yelling at me, thinking that it’s my fault that you decided to leave the show.”
Wood even slipped in a reference to Noah being seen cavorting with singer Dua Lipa. “It’s not my fault when the truth of the matter [is] you was out the night before with Dua Lupita,” he joked. “You was out there in them streets with that singing girl.” Noah addressed the rumor, too, saying people believe “anything you read in the tabloids.”
Though, again, Noah’s timeline of departure is as-yet-unknown, he took the time to get mushy already. “One of the overriding feelings I found myself experiencing throughout the nights and even today waking up was a feeling of gratitude. Ronnie, the journey we’ve been on together has been wild; Roy — all the correspondents, everyone. There’s so many people who make this thing come together and I want to say thank you to the audience for an amazing seven years. It’s been wild.”
You can watch the full segment in the video above. Wood’s bit starts around the 12-minute mark. In the meantime, you can catch Wood doing some excellent straight-man work in the also excellent (and mysterious under-advertised) Confess, Fletch.