Of all the thoughts I had while watching Trevor Noah's I Wish You Would, the most persistent was: is this even possible in India? The question was not unfounded. I'll tell you why. Noah's new comedy special is deliberately funny, downright hilarious. It's also an hour-long exposé of how far words can travel, aided by humor, when uncensored, and a testament to what that flight can accomplish. The set occupies the sweet spot between trenchant criticism and lucid introspection, leaving no one, not even the speaker, unscathed.
Each comic has its own style. Ricky Gervais knows a joke has arrived when the listener is offended. Hasan Minhaj orchestrates his set as a rousing performance. Lately, Aziz Ansari's stand-ups have become more of a self-reflexive exercise, prompting the audience to both observe and admit. Noah doesn't do any of this, especially in his last special of him. What he does, however, is gauge his performance so expertly that even when he jumps from song to song, his tone remains consistent and always funny.
Director: David Paul Meyer
Star: Trevor Noah
On I Wish You Would, the former host of The Daily Show talks about a wide range of topics. He begins by learning German to impress his Swiss father, the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the Covid crisis, the impressive handling of the virus in Africa and the failure of the United States. He interweaves these observations with his own existential inquiries. “We were supposed to be a team,” Noah wonders. “Will Smith was supposed to be our hero,” he jokes. Looking back on the pandemic, it's clear that none of these things happened. The health crisis segregated us more than ever and Smith (in)famously slapped comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars in 2022, giving the coronavirus the meme it deserved.
In many ways, the set is a lesson in how to be funny without being insensitive. At one point, he refers to Covid as an "idiot genius who gave us everything we asked for." Sure, employees wanted to stay home instead of going to work, new lovers wanted to spend all their time together, parents wanted to spend time with the kids. Look at it however you want, the pandemic granted all these wishes. What happened as a casualty was neither imagined nor desired by us.
Even then, the comic continued, Africa handled the health crisis better than most developed countries. We all witnessed the dismissal of the pandemic by former US and UK presidents Donald Trump and Boris Johnson and the repercussions they suffered (both were admitted to hospitals). Trevor continues to do impeccable impersonations of these two politicians (he does a better Trump than Trump himself), leading to a sadistic inference. It was innately funny to see them come to their senses after suffering because it's human to derive happiness from the pain of others. There's a German word for it: schadenfreude. And there's a reason for that: it makes others look better, smarter.
This is precisely why, during Ebola, the Americans made it seem like the Africans were to blame. This is also why during Covid, we choose to fall apart rather than come together. But this schadenfreude cause and reason comes together in a hilarious conclusion when Noah finds himself on the receiving end of it.
It's a master class in storytelling where the South African comic perfectly balances tone and humor, self-deprecation and criticism to conclude that when you laugh at others, you're a second away from being laughed at. To repeat what he had started with. It's hard to watch I Wish You Would and not think if such a set would be possible in India. During his hour-long performance, the comedian imitates and ridicules one American president after another. His imitations are not only spot on, but are often better than the originals. At one point, he observes that Barack Obama, whom he has favored in the past, speaks as if his voice is muffled. I choked on my coffee.
In addition to being great fun, Noah also illustrates the possibility of what does and can happen when comedy isn't bound by the conventions of power. By all intent and purpose, I Wish You Would is an exhibition of free speech. Given how forced the situation is in India, where comedians risk arrest for a joke they haven't even told, schadenfreude is reserved as the reaction of the powerful. They get more smug when comedians get into trouble. But if there's any lesson here, it's this: schadenfreude might mean taking pleasure in the misfortune of others, but misfortune spares no one. Neither Donald Trump nor Trevor Noah.
Watch Trevor Noah: I Wish You Would 2022 Movie Trailer
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