When Trevor Noah said goodbye to The Daily Show last December, it marked the second time in eight years when a popular host of the influential late night show had moved on to other things. Before Noah, Jon Stewart steered the ship for an impressive sixteen years, turning this small thing that made fun of the day’s news into something important that held those in power accountable. Stewart seemed irreplaceable, and even though Noah stumbled at first, he soon found his own success, carrying the torch handed to him by Stewart, while also making The Daily Show his own creation.

The producers of The Daily Show aren’t in a hurry to name Noah’s replacement, even though they knew months before December that he was leaving. Instead, they’ve decided on a series of weekly guest hosts for now. Wanda Sykes is currently guest hosting. After her comes the likes of Sarah Silverman, Al Franken, Kal Penn, and more. While it will be fun to see how each of them approach being behind the desk, The Daily Show has already found its new permanent host. First to take on the guest host role was Leslie Jones. Her week at the helm was so unexpectedly perfect that the producers should stop looking at anyone else and give the gig to her.

RELATED: 'The Daily Show' Names Sarah Silverman, Chelsea Handler, John Leguizamo & More as Guest Hosts for 2023

Leslie Jones Didn’t Play It Safe In Her Week As 'The Daily Show' Guest Host

Leslie Jones making Morris Chestnut laugh as she interviews him on 'The Daily Show'
Image via Comedy Central

In Jones’ one week at The Daily Show, she nailed the role in such a way that she, at the very least, has to be considered a front-runner. You’d be forgiven for not expecting much going into Jones’ first night. The Daily Show’s producers could have chosen to take it easy and have the guest hosts simply read the news from a teleprompter, crack a joke, smile, say something witty, rinse, repeat. Keeping the ship steady until a new captain was found to come onboard would have been the safe route.

There is nothing safe about Leslie Jones though. For those familiar with her comedy, she has never been someone to be confined and stay in the margins. Jones is unique in her confidence and passion, in her ability to take any subject and turn it on its head and find the hilarious absurdities underneath. It’s what helped create a successful standup career for her. It’s also what landed her a huge opportunity as a cast member on Saturday Night Live in 2014. To reach that pinnacle of comedy is already impressive, but to do so at the age of 47, when most new cast members are in their 20s or early 30s, spoke to how good she was, and was just another example of how she broke through expectations.

Leslie Jones quickly became one of the popular stars of SNL. Her roles as a toned down side character weren’t always the best, but Jones absolutely shined when she was allowed to let loose, especially on her many wild and crazy Weekend Update segments. What made her so good, however, also became a hindrance at times, for there were moments, especially in her final years (2019 would be her last), when she became a caricature of herself. That’s not the fault of Jones, who was earning Emmy nominations at the same time, but for lazy writing that typecast her and took her talent for granted.

Leslie Jones’ Stint on 'The Daily Show' Worked By Being Herself and Not A Trevor Noah Clone

Leslie Jones gesturing with her arms stretched out wide as she guest hosts 'The Daily Show.'
Image via Comedy Central

With The Daily Show, Jones found the freedom again to be herself. She didn’t copy Trevor Noah. In fact, she was almost the exact opposite, without losing the uniqueness that makes The Daily Show’s format such a standout. Noah was great at being understated. He approached the day’s news as an outsider, being that he was born and raised in South Africa. He gave it his own personal spin, comparing America’s craziness to the craziness of his own life, but always with a hopeful smile, never getting loud, never getting angry.

Leslie Jones is not understated. She gets loud. She gets angry, though not in a way that makes everything about herself and turns people off. It’s an anger based in bluntly calling out the absurd. That doesn’t mean Jones falls into the stereotype of yelling at the camera. Far from it. She is over-the-top in a way few can be without becoming annoying, and while still being in control. Her dumbfounded reactions are perfect for what The Daily Show stands for.

Proof of this is found in the clip below from her first night that immediately went viral. Recently, a statue was unveiled in Boston called “The Embrace.” It was meant to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, based on a popular photo of the couple hugging. The statue is a bizarre headless and bodiless creation, with just tangled arms bent at strange angles. It’s meant to be the arms of two people in an embrace, but instead, to many, it looks like two people involved in a sex act. Jones jumped all over it, saying, “I know Dr. King went down in history, but this is not how you show it.”

The audience roared at that, and any nervous tension about a potential awkward guest host was gone. Jones went on a vulgar rant about sex, comparing the statue to other famous statues, all while repeatedly coming back to the same joke, but in different ways, her facial expressions and tone different each time. Could you imagine Trevor Noah saying the same thing? He wouldn't.

Leslie Jones was allowed to get away with it. Several times during the week she tested the limits, such as trying to find new ways to say a certain slang word for a part of the female anatomy. No man could get away with that. When Leslie said it though, it was hilarious. It’s ironic that she can get away with things others can’t, especially when being Black or a woman, let alone both, for so long, and still for so many, means you are forced to walk a fine line because people are looking at you more and expecting you to behave in a certain way that society deems "acceptable."

Leslie Jones’ Success As a Talk Show Host Goes Beyond Her Comedy

Jones’ vulgarity works, but that doesn’t mean she spent her week just out there making dirty sex jokes. Far from it. She also used her own individuality to make a segment work, such as when she spoke about a topic that confuses most of us: the debt ceiling (you can watch in the clip below). In the days of Stewart, he approached confusing topics by showing us his in- depth knowledge. He explained things in a way that CNN and network news didn’t. With Noah, he took his outsider approach to show his confusion at American ways, while also comparing it to the confusion found in other countries of the world outside our own. Leslie Jones approached it as the common woman, someone who is not a political junkie, but who pays attention to the big stories, then loses focus on the smaller, boring government intricacies. She’s like most of us in that way.

Jones made that funny not just by being vulgar (though she was at the beginning), but by airing a news clip, and then acting like how we’d react, confused and frustrated and a little pissed off. “Where the f**k is the money going?” she asked. “We don’t have anything to show for it.” She then listed all the things we needed money for, showing that she still knows what’s going on without being above us or condescending.

Just as impressive as this was Jones’ interviewing skills. It’s what Noah struggled with most in the beginning, where his nervousness and inexperience really showed. He eventually became great at it. Leslie Jones didn’t show the need for any eventualities in her week. She brought her brand of comedy to the interviews, but was also able to take a step back and show off that she’d prepared by being able to have an informed back and forth without depending on a teleprompter or note cards to do the work for her.

From the opening monologue, to her interactions with other members of The Daily Show cast, to the interviews, to her ability to improvise, Leslie Jones hit every mark like someone who had been sitting in the chair for months or years. Her approach is a refreshing take on political comedy and a voice that’s desperately needed. What Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah did worked to great success. What Leslie Jones does, making us laugh at the outrageous by being outrageous, can work to great success as well