With a lead-in livestream of a zen garden that played on Facebook Live all throughout tonight’s final presidential debate, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah once again went live immediately after the debate ended, for a ten-minute breakdown of events and, unsurprisingly, takedown of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. “All the prostitutes in vegas must have really loved it because for once, they got to watch other people screw Americans,” said Noah, and naturally much hay was made of the debate’s crazier moments. Chief among them, that Trump wouldn’t commit to accepting the will of the voters if he loses, and his immediately-infamous “bad hombres” moment. But the overall tone was, in essence, that Trump lost in large part by consistently coming off worse than Hillary at every turn. See for yourself in the video on Facebook.
“This was like a bachelorette party,” said Noah about the final debate, “except the giant novelty dildo was onstage behind a podium.” It was, he continued, a big difference from last week, “when the candidates could wander around and creep up on each other,” referencing the frequently mocked way Trump appeared to move into Clinton’s personal space during the second debate.
Some highlights from the bit included a riff on how Trump’s invited guest, President Obama’s half-brother Malik, was described by the campaign as “just the appetizer,” Noah pointed out that it was an appetizer “for the wrong table.” Since, you know, Hillary isn’t related to Malik and has no reason to be shaken by his appearance in the audience.
Shortly after the bit, Noah appeared to get a bit tongue-tied reading the very-obviously hastily-prepared gags (this was after all a live broadcast), but then ‘saved’ himself ably when he said “Sorry, I just noticed my half-brother.” Cut to a clip of Noah dressed as his “half-brother” sitting in The Daily Show audience: “No wonder we call you Ebola… because you were terrible in Africa, and you’ll never catch on in America.” Pretty excellent self-burn to be honest.
“What an *sshole,” Trevor responded to the dis. “I’d hate him if he weren’t so handsome.”
Noah also laid into Hillary, criticizing her not for her policies but for her Debate attire or, as he put it, “for wearing all white after Labor Day!” He was kidding though. “She looks fly,” he said. “I’m messing with her.”
Then came the “bad hombres” moment. “There are so many funny things,” Noah said about the clip. “Look at you Donald Trump, connecting with the Hispanic community there.” Sliding into a weak but game Trump impression, Noah added “They’re bad hombres, see what I did there folks, I learned something.” As if, said Noah, “Hispanic people are at home thinking ‘I know Trump said we’re all criminals and rapists, but he said hombres, yeah!’”
As is to be understandably expected from a live broadcast with jokes written just before showtime, it wasn’t consistently hilarious but The daily show pulled few punches as it rammed home again and again the point that Trump didn’t manage to correct his declining public image. In particular, Noah noted the bizarre moment when Hillary and Donald both accused the other of being a Russian puppet. “To be fair,” said Noah, “Trump thinks all women are puppets, that’s why he’s always trying to stick his hand up them.” This line by the way got the biggest laughter and applause from the TDS crowd.
Summing up what, presumably, many viewers were thinking, Noah was blunt. “Donald Trump really doesn’t get why he’s losing this election,” he said before playing a clip of Clinton calmly describing Trump’s responses to the numerous accusations of sexual harassment that have bedeviled the GOP candidate over the last week. “Wow, that was power. That was an answer that Trump would really need to reach deep within his dignity to recover from. And he did not.”
After admitting to being “super freaked out” by Trump’s refusal to say he would accept the election results if he lost, Noah concluded thusly: “That’s it. That’s the final time we’ll see Donald Trump on the debate stage – before we all refer to him as ‘Supreme Leader’.”
