Watch A Bunch Of Clips From Trevor Noah’s Polished And Classy ‘Daily Show’ Debut

It’s finally happened. After more than six months since Jon Stewart’s replacement was announced back in March, South African comic Trevor Noah has parked his butt in the Daily Show chair and taken it for a spin. Noah’s first episode as Daily Show host just aired on Comedy Central, and the consensus online so far is that he came out looking pretty good.

#DailyShow has me rolling right now. Trevor is doing so well on his first day.

— Race Jones (@Shugnice) September 29, 2015

The #DailyShow is in good hands. @Trevornoah killed. I’m a fan.

— íղ ʍվ ԹհíӀՀ (@RyanPhillippe) September 29, 2015

Jon Stewart is probably sitting at home with a happy smile on his face after watching @Trevornoah‘s amazing performance on the #DailyShow

— T.Taiwo (@SingingTobes) September 29, 2015

Noah started the show with a funny and heartfelt monologue, thanking his predecessor and acknowledging the enormity of the shoes he has to fill; a theme that would become a running gag later in the episode.

With the formalities out of the way, Noah then launched into the first prepared bit of the night about Pope Francis’ tour of America. It was a solid start with a few laugh-out-loud moments, and played well to Noah’s comedic style, which is at its best delivering barbs from behind a cheeky grin.

It’ll be interesting to see of the Daily Show‘s correspondents step a little more into the limelight, making the show a more collaborative enterprise, or whether Noah comes to exercise the same dominance Stewart did. For the meantime, the show’s going to make hay out of the correspondents ‘adjusting’ to the new guy in charge, like in this bit with Jordan Klepper:

All in all, it seemed like a pretty solid debut, given the immense task Noah has before him. Undoubtedly there’ll be naysayers and people constantly comparing him to what Stewart would say or do, but if his first outing’s any indication he’s at least going to make a go of it.