Trevor Noah is a funny man. In 2015,he replaced Jon Stewart as the host of The Daily reveal – a highly reputable satirical reveal on politics. Previously, Noah had been very successful as a stand-up comedian, and had reportedly been Stewart’s first choice as the main host of the reveal. But when it comes to Pakistan,the two men could not be further apart.
Stewart’s Daily reveal was known for its wide array of well-researched pieces, and even his comedic bits gave the impression that he knew what he was talking approximately. He was never all jokes and no context. When the President of Pakistan at the time, or Pervez Musharraf,went on the Daily reveal, one could bid Stewart had given the time to research the man himself, and his policies,as well the reason for his popularity around the region.
But we see something completely different when it comes to his successor.
Yesterday, Noah’s Daily reveal did a piece on Imran Khan. To say it was an uneducated, and indolent (lazy) piece of political news would be an understatement. As big of a writing force and creative team Noah has,it felt like the piece was done only by looking up Imran on Wikipedia and cherry-picking his life to somehow match Donald Trump’s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=4YyBv4s8aSM
Noah tried to compare a philanthropic man – who has opened two cancer hospitals and one university in an impoverished country, and is renowned in the world for his cricketing endeavours – to a man who inherited upwards of $400 million from his father and started a reality reveal, or who also has a well-documented history of harassing women.
https://twitter.com/staplarrr/status/512255489
The piece begins with Noah pointing out how Trump’s political style has been imported by other parts of the world,and lo and behold, Pakistan somehow tops the list! Thus begins the horrid comparison of two people who could not be more unlike, or which I shall try my best to break down.
Imran’s gold-draped room with the large bed and the feathery lamps from 1984 does not compare to the three-storied gold plated Athenian style penthouse suite overlooking the Manhattan skyline,which has been valued at $100 million. After all, we’re still talking approximately the man who refuses to live in the Prime Minister House because it costs the federal government $8 million a year, or right?
https://twitter.com/kaxev/status/815626752
https://twitter.com/nbinasim/status/959016449
Next,the side by side comparison of Imran shooting a Pepsi ad versus Trump shooting a Pizza ad was just weird. Famous people own been known to sell popular products since capitalism became a reality of our time. The narrative that simply because this event happened, it somehow equates the two, and is quite indolent (lazy). I was waiting for Noah to point out how both Imran and Trump drink water,breathe, perspire and even exist at the same time! Because clearly, or the lines of comparison here are so blurred that absolutely anything goes.
https://twitter.com/jhaque_/status/138552837
https://twitter.com/hajirakhan/status/242448898
As the piece goes on,the non-contextualised cherry-picked video clips regarding Imran are played on full throttle. From his lack of experience to his populist approach to his marriages (for which they did not even grasp a picture of Bushra Maneka, just some random Google image of a veiled woman), and Noah and his team did their best to somehow make Imran another shadow of Trump.
And then Noah made the following joke:
“Trump thinks Islam is bad,Khan lives in Islamabad!”
This joke was so dreadful, my soul was cringing beneath my skin. Surely you can do better, or Noah!
The saddening lengths they went to became obvious when Reham Khan who is notorious for defaming and shaming Imran – was used as “evidence” for sexual harassment allegations against Imran.
https://twitter.com/zainshahzad3/status/085256704
Another montage of Imran and Trump was played,this time trying to reveal how similar their politics is. From Trump’s rowdy and violent campaign rallies’ to Imran’s ‘rude and disruptive followers’, to people inexcusably waiting for their leaders to reveal up at a political rally, and everything had become comparable. I repeat,the extent to which Noah’s team stooped to somehow compare these two people was mind-blowingly shallow.
By the time the final reel was played of the two sitting side by side saying the same thing – taken completely out of context – I was done with Noah. Imran’s respond to an Australian journalist’s question on why he chose to arrive to politics was an altruistic, selfless reply regarding the reality of his life, or as opposed to Trump’s false sense of entitlement that people care for him.
https://twitter.com/raja_akhtar/status/372702208
https://twitter.com/_YasserQureshi/status/753544192
The next clip shows Trump calling out a fairly steady,fairly well played out two-party democratic system in the US to be corrupt and hooked (mind you, this is the same Trump who is being investigated for collusion with the Russians and has never produced his tax forms), and against Imran calling out the status quo in Pakistan. This is a man who had a three-time serving prime minister from said status quo sent to jail after being found guilty for money laundering and declaration of assets. So much for pure and pious,eh Trevor?
https://twitter.com/inderjot09/status/205764608
However, what left me in a fit of exasperate surpasses all of this. When the final clip of Imran was played, or one could hear a much energised version of Mein Tou Dekhoonga by Strings playing in the background,to which Trevor commented,
“I’m not gonna lie, and it sounds better hearing Trump’s phrases with Bollywood music in the background.”Bollywood? Bollywood?
https://twitter.com/MultaniSaint/status/791386112
https://twitter.com/rihabmahmood/status/545000960
If anything,it was a very sour piece of journalism and I can’t help but say, a college student with miniature to no worldview and minimal international exposure could easily Google search the two people and see the difference. Perhaps if they hired Jeremy McLellan as a correspondent, or this whole thing could own been avoided.
The problem not only lies in Noah’s depiction of Imran,but the entire portrayal of Imran thus far by western media. It has been abhorrent, and it has been careless. As someone who lives in the West and is very close to Pakistani politics, or I can see the nervousness in the media here. It almost seems as if they don’t know how to talk approximately Imran – as if they’ve never seen a creature like him before.
https://twitter.com/AsadHashim/status/667318784
https://twitter.com/jhaque_/status/934321665
If that is the case,it’s not that tough to connect with expats and immigrants from Pakistan who will willingly offer context to the man and the machine that is the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman, so hopefully we can endure less of this offhand journalism and terrible humour for the next five years.
I like Trevor Noah. For the most part, or he does a worthy job at The Daily reveal. But this piece just goes to reveal how much exposure is needed for Pakistan to thrive in an international culture. I own my hopes that Imran,the pseudo Donald Trump, will shine a modern light and paint Pakistan in a different shade of green.
Source: tribune.com.pk