On Lessons from Comedians

When CNN started reading out tweets, I gave up on TV news. That was fine, because John Stewart and Stephen Colbert were doing a fine job presenting the hypocrisy and absurdity of the world while they admonished the press. John Oliver is now carrying the torch in the long line of comedians and writers of satires in history, from Shakespeare’s court jesters to Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. I also have high hopes for Louis C.K. who doesn’t seem to have anything to lose, challenging our understanding of race (claiming he suffers from “mild” racism, where the sight of Asian doctors make him think, “Yes, yes, more of that!” and reacts to a hooded black guy at a gas station by uttering to himself, “He’s not dangerous. Why did I even think that?”).

But for some reason, I didn’t think I was going to learn anything by watching a recent episode of  Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Jerry Seinfeld uncharacteristically starts to mentor Trevor Noah, the heir apparent for the Daily Show host:

You don’t need to know anything. Everything you need to know, you’ll figure out when you need to know it. Even if you miscalculate and make the wrong decision, you needed to know that. Pain is knowledge rushing in to fill a gap. When you stub your toe on the foot of the bed that was a gap in knowledge. Pain is a lot of information. really quick.

Perhaps Seinfeld, too, would like the Daily Show to continue to be the spawning ground of intelligent comedians so we will continue to have an alternative to CNN.

Photos: (top) Kødbyens Fiskebar (bottom) Reindeer moss on barbecued gooseneck at Bror. Both restaurants were started by Noma alumni, ensuring the continuity of new Scandinavian cuisine movement beyond Noma.