On Monday, Trevor Noah spent considerable time on the first new episode of “The Daily Show” talking about the two things anyone has been able to think about for a week: Joe Exotic and the other weirdness featured on Netflix’s “Tiger King,” and the Coronavirus pandemic.
Specifically, Noah thinks Joe Exotic and Donald Trump have an awful lot in common, and maybe Joe might even be a better president.
In the bit, which came as part of “The Daily Social Distancing Show,” the version of TDS running while the show’s staff are self-quarantining, Noah noted that “one thing you notice about Joe Exotic is that he makes everything about him… Which apparently is very presidential.”
That’s when he rolled some news clips of Trump bragging about the high TV ratings for his coronavirus press conferences, reports that Trump wants his signature to appear on relief checks and the report Trump told Vice President Mike Pence that if state governments aren’t “appreciative” of him, “don’t even bother reaching out.”
But, Noah continued, “if you watched ‘Tiger King,’ you would know that Joe Exotic is the most disorganized person you will ever meet. And when it comes to coronavirus, Trump is exactly the same.”
Noah then rolled clips demonstrating Trump’s haphazard and frequently contradictory responses to the coronavirus, particularly his tendency to downplay the problem only to overcorrect constantly.
“You know who this really sucks for? Donald Trump supporters. I feel so sad for them. Imagine how hard it is for them to keep up, Trump is changing his mind all the time, they have to support him no matter what he says. They’re just out there like ‘If you force companies to make things, you’re turning America into Venezuela. What? Trump did it? It’s a good thing to become Venezuela ’cause they’ve got great weather. I think?’”
The third reason Trump and Joe Exotic are alike? Joe Exotic “sees conspiracies everywhere.” Noah then rolled clips in which Trump literally accused hospitals of hoarding ventilators, complaining that he finds their sudden need for thousands of them — they need them because of the pandemic, incidentally — suspicious.
“But maybe the most presidential thing about Joe Exotic,” noah continued, “is he loves portraying himself as an expert in his field, when the truth is, he has no idea what he’s talking about. He’s just winging it, which again should feel very familiar.”
Cue the viral (and unsettling) clip of Trump saying “this disease, this whatever you want to call it. You call it germ, you can call it a flu. You can call it a virus. You can call it many different names. I’m not sure anybody knows what it is.”
“One thing that’s not up for debate is what it is,” Noah said. “It’s a virus, OK? I don’t know why Trump is creating a mystery where there is none.
“So look, I know Joe Exotic is in prison right now,” Noah concluded. “But if he somehow manages to get out, I’m hoping that he becomes the President of the United States. Because yes, yes, he might be just as crazy as Trump, but at least if he’s in the White House, we’re gonna see tigers.”
Watch the clip above.