The Daily Show proposes electing Donald Trump as mascot

The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah explains why Americans should elect both a president and a mascot

On Monday’s episode of The Daily Show, host Trevor Noah first recapped the recent primary wins by Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders, before mocking all of the presidential candidates for their actions while on the campaign trail in New York ahead of the state’s primary contest next Tuesday.

Noah reveled in making fun of John Kasich for eating every Italian dish in sight while callously ignoring a voter’s concerns, and Hillary Clinton for not knowing how to use a MetroCard, before lamenting that the media was more concerned with covering meaningless things like what the candidates are eating, bad jokes they’re telling or if they’re fun to hang out with rather than discussing important issues.

“This is the problem America finds itself in: Voters need a brilliant policy mind who can address serious problems, but at the same time, Americans just kinda want a leader who’s a fun best friend,” Noah said. “And I get that. But maybe we shouldn’t demand that these two be the same person.”

More from The Daily Show

• Al Franken: Most popular to host The Daily Show permanently
• Jordan Klepper and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer talk Guns, Voting, and fighting Mickey Mouse
• Chelsea Handler announces run to become The Daily Show host
• Ben Shapiro responds to rumours: Replacing Trevor Noah on Daily Show?
• Stephen Colbert has two picks for who should host The Daily Show

That led the comedian and the folks at The Daily Show to come up with a better solution: “This November, America must elect both a president and a mascot.”

His proposal includes allowing the president to handle the “boring, grown-up stuff” like signing bills and ordering the drone strikes, while the mascot does fun things like “ride around in a drop-top, eating local foods, kissing babies, [and] dancing for our entertainment.” That will prevent the candidates from doing embarrassing things like dancing in public during an appearance on Ellen.

Noah then noted that the U.S. would essentially be emulating Great Britain, who have the queen as their mascot, while their prime minister can be a “perfectly mundane politician who runs the country and hides his money in Panama.” He then offered some suggestions for this “super fun sidekick” such as a “bald eagle driving a monster truck,” before landing on the perfect “brightly colored cartoon character who pumps up the crowd with a giant head and weird-sized hands as he comes on the stage to Jock Jams”: none other than Donald Trump.

“America, I give you your new mascot,” he announced, as footage of Trump entering a rally to the song “Get Ready For This?” from Space Jam was displayed behind him. Watch the entire segment below, which includes Noah’s theory that Sanders’ presidential campaign was all part of a plot to score Hamilton tickets:

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Get More: The Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook,The Daily Show Video Archive

Next: The Daily Show host Trevor Noah hits back at John Kasich

The idea that Americans would rather elect a fun, charismatic president rather than a policy wonk has been around since at least the election of George W. Bush, who was often referred to as a guy you would want to have a beer with. Will Ferrell even admitted that his affable portrayal of Bush on SNL may have helped the former president’s image with voters, inadvertently influencing the 2000 election.

As for The Daily Show clip above, Noah continues to appear more confident in his role as host, and though the show is nowhere near as influential as past election seasons during Jon Stewart’s tenure, it was still a solid segment with quite a few laughs where he mocked all of the remaining presidential hopefuls, though Trump continues to bear the brunt of it.

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah airs weeknights at 11 p.m. on Comedy Central. This week’s guests lineup includes King Bach, Ken Jeong and W. Kamau Bell.