As we sit on the precipice of the third and final presidential debate, the major-party candidates have had their fair share of bad moments. Fewer than three weeks from Election Day, the Hillary Clinton e-mail saga has become further complicated with WikiLeaks releasing damning documents suggesting that the Clinton campaign has actively colluded against rivals. Donald Trump, on the other hand, continues to deflect the ramifications of his latest off-the-cuff statement while simultaneously dodging sexual-assault allegations.
Through it all, late-night comedy has had a field day unpacking and ridiculing each candidate’s mistakes; however, Trevor Noah of “The Daily Show” has been highly critical of Trump. Over the course of the election cycle, Noah’s commentary has progressed from jovial mockery to outright assault. At first glance, “The Daily Show” is normally esteemed equally with competing shows such as John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” or “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” but if you truly analyze the substance of the shows, it can be argued that Noah brings up some compelling points.
With this in mind, Noah had a field day after the last debate. During the debate, Trump tried to rationalize the substance of his infamous comments with Billy Bush by characterizing the conversation as “locker-room talk.” Noah could have opted to satirize many elements of the debate, but instead, he chose to lambaste Trump before poking fun at the nation’s newest pop-culture icon Ken Bone.
Noah held no reservation in saying, “Trump can try to excuse his behavior by calling it locker-room talk, but you realize he wasn’t in a locker room. He was in a TV interview. If you conduct locker room talk everywhere, it’s not the locker room, it’s you.”
Seemingly, Noah distinguishes Trump’s “locker room” excuse as just that, a lame excuse that doesn’t detract from the hurtful substance of his conversation with Billy Bush.
Moreover, many current and former athletes have come out shaming Trump for his “locker room” excuse as well. Seattle Seahawk cornerback and Stanford alum Richard Sherman said, “I think it was a cop-out. He [Trump] needed some way to divert attention from himself.”
Former Iowa State and NFL quarterback Sage Rosenfels echoed Sherman’s belief. Rosenfels believes Trump is playing on the stereotype that athletes are dumb jocks. “He says that this talk is normal, and it’s not,” he said.
This raises the question, if it isn’t normal locker-room banter, then what is Trump’s locker-room talk?
Perhaps 2012 Super Bowl winning Baltimore Raven Brendon Ayanbadejo summed up what Trump’s locker-room talk really is. With more than a decade’s worth of experiences in NFL locker rooms, Ayanbadejo said, “No one is talking about assaulting anyone. That’s criminal talk.”
