On a Wednesday night that offered what's become the now-standard assortment of political recaps _ Seth Meyers' closer look at the Senate's mysterious health care bill, Samantha Bee with a vaguely Germanic look at keywords in fake news on "Full Frontal" _ Trevor Noah on "The Daily Show" stood out with a segment that left comedy behind entirely.
In recent days, Noah has offered pointed commentary on the police officer who was exonerated for the shooting of Philando Castile in Minnesota during a traffic stop. On Monday, Noah called out the NRA for its curious silence on Castile, who was a licensed gun owner, and on Tuesday, he further examined what it means to be black in America while sharing his own experience with law enforcement.
After dash-cam footage of the Castile shooting was released on Wednesday, Noah went one step further.
"I thought I felt all I could feel about this story," he began, and, after warning that the video was graphic and that no one has to watch it but probably should, Noah played the new footage.
"I won't lie to you, when I watched this video, it broke me," Noah said and focused on the haunting image of Castile's daughter being led away from the car where her father had just been killed. "It broke my heart into little pieces."
With an air of resignation, Noah went on to describe the futility of the movement for more body cameras in pursuit of justice in these incidents.
"You watch that and, forget race, are we all watching the same video? The video where a law-abiding man followed the officer's instructions to the letter of the law and was killed regardless?" Noah asked.
That led to another video from the day where you hear Castile's devastated girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, saying, "You shot four bullets into him, sir."
Noah looked stunned.
"In that moment the cop has panicked," he said, "but clearly, black people never forget their training."
As Noah's voice quickened, there were no punch lines, no wacky graphic or applause break to lighten the moment. There was only his searching tone and those two clips, which for all their pervasiveness were easy to avoid, if you chose.
In this segment, Noah _ the host of a show designed for escapist laughs _ took away that choice and asked for his audience's attention toward the shooting, the jury's decision and what it said about the nation.
It was a bold decision, one that could never lead to laughs, but those were never the goal. Instead Noah found something else in a way that no other current late night host could.
