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Lewis Black Is Still Crushing It On 'The Daily Show' After All These Years

By Andrew Sanford | TV | November 29, 2021 |

By Andrew Sanford | TV | November 29, 2021 |


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The Daily Show has been on the air since 1996. In that time, many talented and hilarious correspondents have come and gone. Samantha Bee, Rob Cordry, Jessica Williams, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert. All of these people graced the desk at one point or another. We’ve seen so many people come and go it’s hard to remember that someone has been there since the show’s earliest days. Someone who drops in on occasion delivers a hilarious monologue and isn’t seen again until he feels like it. That someone is Lewis Black.

Black has been doing his recurring Back In Black segment on The Daily Show since the Craig Kilborn days. It’s been so long that I had to consider whether or not I should explain who Craig Kilborn is/was. I assume that people reading this particular site will know of Mr. Kilborn, but it is mind-numbing to think that there is likely an intern roaming the halls of The Daily Show who was born during the Stewart years and knows only of him and Trevor Noah.

Black has been doing stand-up for decades. Whenever he shows up to wax poetic on The Daily Show, he’s able to wow a completely new audience with entirely different sensibilities. In a time where older comedians are inventing imaginary cancel culture problems, seeing someone like Black kill it so effortlessly is pretty amazing. He’s 73 years old. He’s seen all kinds of words become verboten, and yet he moves on. He evolves with the times and comes back funnier each time.

In today’s fraught comedic landscape, Black should be acknowledged as the gold standard that he is. He’s not trying to provoke just for provocation’s sake. Also, and I can’t emphasize this enough, he’s telling jokes. It’s not that his comedy is devoid of point of view. It’s quite the opposite. He just knows how to hone his point of view into a joke form instead of holding everybody hostage while he pontificates questions that no one asked.

Lewis Black is one of the strongest comedic voices out there. His style has remained unchanged, but he still knows what an audience wants. He hasn’t lost touch with them or accused them of losing touch with him. We may not get these bits for 25 more years, but I’ll take them as long as I can.