Trevor Noah: Afraid of the Dark (2017 TV Special) User Reviews

Brilliant first half, boring second half

[marcosvinuesa · 7/10 · 2 November 2018]

I really enjoyed the first part of this stand up special: hilarious jokes and nice reflections. But as minutes pass the show loses quality. It seems as if he had prepared a 40 minutes show and Netflix had told him to make it longer. He spends the last minutes with longer and less funny jokes. Just to put an example, he spends about five minutes with a boring joke in which he imitates Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama. All in all, it was an entertaining special. It just suprised me how it goes from super funny to quite boring.

Ignore the negative reviews, this was a good comedy special

[hugosoup · 7/10 · 24 January 2020]

These people are just some haters who can't appreciate Trevor Noah's jokes, don't get me wrong, it's not the best stand-up comedy routine ever , but it's still pretty enjoyable. Come on guys, stop being so critical and get a sense of humor. It's not like he's flippantly joking about the Holocaust or something, jeez.

Respect

[born_naughty · 8/10 · 26 July 2021]

Trevor Noah isn't the funniest comedian but he might be the most impressive one. Trevor is the only comedian I know that is politically correct, unoffensive, meanful, smart and STILL manages to be funny.

What is a stand up comedian expected to do?

[NikkoFranco · 9/10 · 28 May 2018]

As an objective person, I normally scroll through the titles available that Netflix offers under a category then take my pick like taking a chance at a new ice cream flavor you haven't had before, say like wasabi as an example. Stand up comedians are good at observing normally hence they have the ability to mimic, imitate, make impressions and make fun . Comedy and the type of comedy another person appreciates is most likely not the same for me and not the same again for another person. The common denominator of all stand up comedians is the fun spirit. The material and writing varies but at the end of the day, they won't censor what they feel like saying, for me Trevor Noah is a sponge who absorbs things easily, be that accents, a portion of the culture, local customs or traditions and he turns it into an array of hilarious skits.

Laugh out loud funny

[bluebaby38 · 10/10 · 24 February 2017]

Incredibly funny! Filled with great accents that never disappoint! Yes, I have heard some version of a few jokes before but his delivery and take on them makes all the difference. Had me in tears, laughing so hard a few times. Would recommend to anyone. This is what truly good comedy looks like! "Traveling is the cure for ignorance" is my favorite line and SO true!

10 Stars Is Not Enough

[kamille · 10/10 · 10 April 2020]

I have watched 67 years of every kind of comedian that ever graced the planet - stand up comedians, sitcom comedians, comedy film stars, host comedians, comedy writers.. live, taped.. I've seen them all. But none of them can hold a candle to Trevor Noah!

This young man is beyond brilliant! His material is refreshingly unique (and that's an understatement). His timing is impeccable. His role-playing and accent and voice imitations are spot-on. When he is telling his stories you cease to see Trevor, as he becomes the British conqueror, the laid back Indian, the foggy-headed Scotsman. I could watch his stand up routines every day and never grow tired of what I consider to be the greatest comedy of all time.

I know that Trevor Noah is busy with his TV show, which is also brilliant, but I hope he continues to perform some stand-up well into the future, as he has spoiled me for other comedians. Not to say that there aren't superb comics out there, but I have seen none that I would place in Noah's league.

good inteligent clean acting and comedy

[dwinmary · 9/10 · 25 December 2019]

Really nice, clean, inteligent humor, lot of acting with accents - Trevor is the best at doing them. A lot of political jokes...more storry telling...I had a good time wathing this and the end part killed it, I laughed really badly :D He´s got the point. And his humor is very authentic. I also loved his book and other shows.

Disappointing

[almu99 · 5/10 · 9 October 2017]

It feels like Trevor Noah had booked a venue and then realized that he didn't have any new material to present, forcing him to make up a bunch of jokes in a hurry.

I'm a fan of Trevor Noah's work and I've seen some of his other shows which I really enjoyed. For example "African American" and "You Laugh But It's True" which I recommend for anyone who hasn't seen them.

However "Afraid of the Dark" was a real let down. Many jokes were so drawn out to a point where I felt awkward watching him on stage. This was followed by a punchline that was definitely not worth the wait.

I'm amazed with Trevor's ability to switch accents so quickly, but I felt like this ability was overused and the jokes were really just an excuse to show off.

Whilst the show did get a couple brief smiles out of me, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I really hope Trevor Noah does better shows in the future.

can't breathe !

[r10623 · 8/10 · 5 November 2019]

I laughed so much I can't breathe !!! Trevor's talent is amazing !!!

He can seamlessly switch between accents and role play. I've seen snippets of some of his acts, and the most funny to me is the Russian language, never gets tired, and have me in stitches every time I watch and re-watch it.

Very good comedy show

[dskywalker0 · 9/10 · 16 March 2021]

Trevor is funny in a way that doesn't hurt anybody and this special made me laugh out loud in the middle of the night. Even though he's telling smart jokes, it's still silly entertainment, as intended, and his skills are impressive. Definitely a must-see for stand up fans.

Easy applause jokes that have been done before

[therealjared · 3/10 · 23 February 2017]

Standard easy applause jokes that have been done before; "why does pu*sy mean weak" (done before many times for easy applause by hack comedians), "men are creeps", "here's a funny incident that happened" so he can have an excuse to do an accent (his Russian accent is shite), a 5 minute long Obama joke who's punchline is the word "nig*a", the irony of former British subjects immigrating to Britain, Jesus was black , all hackneyed worn out material from the last 30 years of standup. He's just not that funny but as long as he continues to crack this tired old crap there will be no end to the forced laughter by guilty white people who want to prove that they aren't racist by laughing at his tired old jokes wrapped in a foreign accent. Some of his accents are quite good, though (not counting the Russian one).

Boring and Not Funny

[fahad-70619 · 2/10 · 15 March 2018]

I love Trevor Noah, but this special was BAD. I laughed at a couple of his lines but most of his jokes were a lot longer than they should've been.

tragic

[direitoipesup · 1/10 · 21 June 2017]

Though the biggest tragedy from this was Netflix caving into his complaints and introduced the "like/dislike" feature instead of community rating. - giving it one star was extremely generous.men and women alike could not watch this. My wife and I had to turn it off after 15 minutes. I mentioned the special at work and not one person could finish watching it. Was this intentionally bad? How else could he fall so quickly?

Catered to specific audience

[collinatthebeach · 3/10 · 17 June 2017]

Warning contains spoilers. I will give credit where its due. I was grinning and smiling at parts, his impressions were excellent. However, his high points were canceled out by my disappointment in some of the jokes. Taking the place of Jon Stewart, an excellent comedian that many looked up too, he did twist the narrative with the Brit joke like with the migrant problem which I don't like. People need to read up on the migrant crisis happening in Europe, not dismiss it by calling those that oppose it as racist. Heck I'm Irish and I love a good Brit joke as much as the next but, the Brit jokes were overboard and well outright demeaning, but that would be fine IF you didn't only bash Brits. If we are gonna make political pieces like that, at least extend an olive branch. I laughed to the punch-line to the long drawn-out preachy African-Americans going back to Africa piece. The jokes are catered to make groups of people feel good about themselves. He catered a lot to women, getting very preachy, the p***y joke very outplayed. I love Obama, but again, catering to lovers of Obama, playing on popular opinions. Most of his pieces that weren't political at all were just boring. I had just watched Dave Chappelle's Netflix Special and no one was safe. Its sad that now comedians are not willing to hit hot button issues and instead well, bash men, whites, and racists (that are white and male) while holding everyone else on a pedestal. Comedy should bring people together, not bash one side and praise the other, bring equality, bash everyone Trev.

oh noah

[admalice-47901 · 1/10 · 23 June 2017]

I thought I'd giver it a spin. Now (to use a worn out cliché) I feel like I've lost 57 minutes and 2 seconds of my life I'll never get back. I sat and watched, and kept watching hoping it would get better but it never did. I never even smiled. Nothing funny here at all. Now I realize that there was a reason for the low rating by Netflix users (not to mention a pretty low score on IMDb too). History is made... and I would have given it a zero rating on the IMDb if they would have let me. bad

more unfunny special

[dentrolica · 1/10 · 19 June 2017]

Why anyone would pay to see this is beyond me. This feels like watching two bums on stage who doesn't even want to be there or understand why they got there. They seem bewildered to the fact that they have an audience in front of them. And this whole hatred against Richard Nixon, who was president before he were born, is never explained.

All in all pretty cringe worthy American humor at its worst. These guys should stick to talking with themselves in a bar or their dusty basement sofa. he do not belong on a stage.

bad didn't like

[maloragustaa · 1/10 · 16 June 2017]

Contains a mild spoiler that will give away one joke from his routine. That's all. So consider yourselves warned. I liked all of trevor work pre-meltdown or however you want to call it. This new stuff didn't convince me. However, he started ranting against doctors and appeared to be on the antivax train and that's f*cking troublesome. He takes some recent facts and spins them to fit that narrative. Not cool, man, not cool. I mean, yes, freedom of speech, and all that! But when you're in a position where people look up to you and you're spitting out fake news then you probably should fact-check your routine before.

Not particularly my cup of tea...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 9 June 2018]

I had no idea who this comedian was before I stumbled upon this show on Netflix. So I sat down to watch it with no expectations of any kind.

I will say that Trevor Noah is good at delivering his material, and he has a good charisma. But the material just fell short of being funny in most cases for me, which resulted in only a few laughs here and there for me.

He was good at doing the voice impressions, but the jokes were just a swing and a miss for me, so I wasn't overly much having fun as I watched the show.

It should be said that there is a good flow to the show and he never really comes to a halt. That is at least a driving force his stand-up comedy show. Having watched this, and without being overly impressed, then I am not particularly in a hurry to go out and watch other of his shows, if he have any.

Disappointing **Contains Spoilers** Just a few laughs but mostly boring

[shreya-12693 · 4/10 · 11 October 2017]

I was really disappointed. The first 15 minutes were good. I laughed at the immigrant and Great Britain jokes but it went down hill from there. Even though the content is repeated, there is a lot that can be done on these jokes. I think the one major problem for me was that the jokes and his narrative on a topic went on for too long. The jokes that should have been concluded in 2 minutes went on and on for 5 mins. It seems he was working on limited content and trying to buy as much time as possible. I did enjoy and laughed at the different accents but I found myself surfing the internet halfway the Obama joke because it was just not funny!