On Election Night, The Daily Show was one of two late-night programs—along with Stephen Colbert over on Showtime—to broadcast live. And host Trevor Noah, appearing alongside (an increasingly inebriated) correspondent Roy Wood Jr., appeared relatively calm about the anxiety-inducing proceedings.
At the midway point of the hour-long special, Noah addressed the various eyebrow-raising Election Day shenanigans that have caused voting tallies to come in late.
“Despite this being one of the highest turnouts in American history, voting has gone surprisingly smoothly. Good news. But there are a few polling places that had a few hiccups,” he explained.
ADVERTISEMENT
The comic threw to a montage of news reports detailing how hand sanitizer was causing ballots’ ink to smear and be unreadable in California; how voting at the State Farm Arena in Georgia was delayed for four hours due to a burst “water pipe;” and voting was delayed at one polling location in Cobb County, Georgia, because a polling manager overslept.
“Really? How’s a poll manager gonna oversleep? You had one job! That’s like bumping into the Easter Bunny at a bar on Easter Sunday and he’s like, ‘Oh shit! Was that today?’” cracked Noah. “Politicians are working so hard to disenfranchise people with voter ID laws, gerrymandering, all they need to do is cook poll workers a rack of ribs on Election Eve. I can’t believe this shit! Overslept?!”
He ended the show with a glimmer of hope: celebrating Joe Biden’s surprise victory in Arizona. “Fox News has called Arizona… for Joe Biden! For Joe Biden! Do you understand? This is crazy!” he exclaimed.
Then, the kicker: “Thank you so much for tuning in… to night one of our seven-week Election Day coverage, because this shit is going to go on for a while people. Brace yourselves!”
