(smooth music)
- Hollywood is being rebuilt
by artists not afraid to disrupt the status quo,
telling fresh stories,
and bringing to life characters
who, until now, have been confined to the margins.
This is Emerging Hollywood.
(claps) Peace to the planet.
I go by the name of Charlamagne Tha God,
and the man I'm with today needs no introduction.
He's a New York Times best-selling author,
host of The Daily Show.
My man, Trevor Noah.
(hands slap) - Trev.
- What up, my dude? - What's happening, brother?
- How are you? - Now, as an immigrant,
do you feel responsible to advocate for other immigrants
through your comedy? - Oh, that's an
interesting question.
Americans use the term immigrant so broadly.
It's interchangeable.
When people say immigrant in America,
a lot of the time, what they're talking about
is a person who comes here from Mexico.
(laughs)
You know? - Yeah.
- People don't think of Chris Hemsworth as an immigrant.
So when people say immigrant in America,
I've noticed that the terminology
specifically refers to a certain type of person
who many people perceive having a certain backstory
and journey and purpose in America.
But I look at everyone.
Justin Bieber's an immigrant.
You know what I mean?
- [Charlamagne] Drake.
- [Trevor] Drake is an immigrant, exactly.
So I don't think I've ever thought of it in that way.
What I do think about when I'm creating my comedy
is trying to connect to the most honest
and human experience.
I think, as people, we have a tendency
to feel when it applies to us or people close to us
and as soon as we're out of the danger
or we're in the shade, then we start going like,
oh, I don't know about those people.
I don't know about those people.
And so, for me, what I'm constantly trying to do
is go, are we having an honest conversation
about these people, with regards to
how America treats them?
And I think that's what I'm always trying to do,
and it's changed in my life, because I learn things.
I haven't always held the views that I've held.
I haven't always been informed,
and I think that's what being informed is about
is like learning and unlearning,
which is even harder to do.
- Yeah, I feel like I'm doing more unlearning
as I get older, you know what I'm saying?
- Which is a good thing,
'cause most people do it the other way around.
- Yeah, they hold onto just their beliefs
that they've had their whole life.
- Most people are like, I'm tired.
(Charlamagne Tha God laughs)
I'm tired of learning new shit.
I'm done.
- But what was the influence of media
in your childhood like?
How did that shape your perspective?
- I think it depends on what media.
American media played a big role
in defining how I saw the world.
You know, I watched American sitcoms growing up,
and what was weird in South Africa
was we had all of the shows coalesced,
so I didn't know that they were from different networks
or they appealed to different groups,
so for me,
Sister Sister was the same as
Murder, She Wrote.
They were all in-- - (Charlamagne) Really?
- [Trevor] the same vein.
Yeah, like it was in the same space.
Do you get what I'm saying?
I wasn't like, oh, this is for a certain type of viewer
and that's for a certain type of viewer.
- Oh, it was all American to you.
- It was just like, yeah, it was just American TV.
When I used to watch American TV,
I genuinely thought the population in America
was 50% black, 50% white
because of how we had the shows.
I was just like, yeah, this is how this world is.
The black people have houses where they go upstairs.
I was like, man, they're balling in America.
Good times.
- No, you never saw Good Times.
(Trevor laughs)
That's what that was.
- (laughs) I never saw Good Times.
- Now, how did growing up in South Africa
shape the way you view American politics?
- What's interesting about South African politics
is that, in many ways, it has echoes of American politics.
Specifically with regards to our histories.
We both share histories where
black people have been oppressed
just because of the color of their skin.
We both have histories where black people have had to fight
just to be considered equal.
We also both have histories and presents
where black people are now going,
hey, freedom was the beginning of the journey.
Now we need to find a way to overcome
all of the implicit obstacles
that have been placed in our way.
So in many ways, those things are very similar
across countries.
What has been different for me
is South Africa was a minority
that was oppressing a majority
where in America, it was the opposite.
And so in South Africa, once power shifted,
you had a world where the black government
forced people to acknowledge what had happened.
It feels like Americans just ended and moved on.
It was very much like, (blathers) black people can vote.
Now it's done.
(blathers) all right, black people, you can,
yeah, yeah, black president.
It's over now, right?
Let's move on, let's move on.
Whereas we had to have painful and specific conversations
about what was done to black people in our country
and I think that stuck with a lot of people
and that created an honest base
for the country to grow from.
It's not easy, and it didn't fix everything,
but I do think it fertilized the soil
so that the roots of honesty could dig into the ground.
And I've noticed a lack of that in America,
and it's because of just the way people have been educated.
A lot of people are like, what are you talking about?
What do you mean, redlining?
What do you mean?
What are you talking about?
And you're like, you don't know this?
You don't know how black people
weren't able to live in certain areas?
You don't know that black people
weren't given access to home loans?
You don't know that black people
weren't given access to credit,
which is how you grow your wealth in America?
You don't know these things?
And people genuinely don't know,
and so then you understand if they don't know that,
it can affect how they perceive a problem
as opposed to them going,
yeah, I see why you're in this position.
It's them going, clearly you're lazy, and I'm not.
And so those are the biggest things,
and that's what shaped, I think, how I see the politics.
You know, South Africa has a similar history,
but it's helped me understand why
there's some of the gridlocking conversations in America.
(smooth music)