Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNETGoogle announced last week that Trevor Noah, South African comedian and former host of The Daily Show, would be hosting their big mobile Made by Google event. My initial reaction was a mix of, “Huh… wait, what?”
It’s not like getting celebrity entertainers to host these tech shows is a new thing. After all, Jimmy Fallon hosted the Pixel 10 event last year. But the host of The Tonight Show isn’t particularly known for being scrutinizing outside of a few sharp jokes that might make it into his opening monologues.
In fact, Fallon’s overly enthusiastic and goofy persona at the event, along with the overall tone being more focused toward “normies” than tech-savvy watchers, was seen as “cringe” for some. [This author acknowledges she did appear in an episode of the game show Password with Fallon and didn’t win, but is not holding that against him for the purposes of this commentary.]
Noah, on the other hand, regularly skewered political figures and major tech companies when he was the host of the satirical Daily Show, and continues to take on hot-button topics like colonialism in his stand-up comedy. Even hosting major events like the Grammys, which he’s done six years running, has an edge, like referencing Epstein Island in a joke about Donald Trump’s quest for Greenland.
The Daily Show comedian Trevor Noah told a joke during his Black Panther presentations at the Oscars that only Africans will truly appreciate.
Video screenshot by Bonnie Burton/CNET
Perhaps it’s that edge that Google wanted to borrow to make up for the “cringefest” of last year, while still appealing to more audiences. The company specifically scheduled its product announcements to go live 8 hours ahead of the official event. This gives the impression that Google, like last year, still wants to make the show less about the spec surprises that tech enthusiasts look for in these types of presentations, and more about maintaining good vibes with the general public.
Google needs to build this goodwill as its forward march into an AI-dominant future has it facing multiple lawsuits. The tech giant has also seen its fair share of controversy around phone launches, like in 2024 when content creators were told their relationship with the brand would be terminated if it appeared they preferred other phones over the Google Pixel.
That all said, I was curious to see whether Trevor Noah could pull off this hosting gig while avoiding the risk of coming off as a shill. After all, despite regularly sharing his doubts about whether AI can be helpful, he has been Microsoft’s official Chief Questions Officer since 2024, exploring “the future of nonprofits making an impact with AI” with the branded web series The Prompt.
So, although there would be some opportunities for some extemporaneous asides, I thought it was unlikely he’d make many barbs about corporate world domination, just to keep it on this side of brand safety. Maybe that’s what made Google feel like it could have its cake (or Malva pudding, in this case) and eat it too.
Now that all is said and done, it appears Google made a good bet with Noah.
Consensus within the CNET digital bullpen (aka Google Chat) from editors watching the show was that the comedian had natural chemistry with many (though not all) of the Google employees on stage and added a pleasant amount of chaos as he occasionally veered into slightly edgier territory than you’d normally hear on a fully scripted set. CNET senior tech reporter Abrar Al-Heeti said during our Live After Show that he brought “just enough cynicism,” bringing humor without fully lambasting the industry.
That cynicism was apparent right at the beginning of the show, as he joked about a fake feature called Search Roulette that would send your search history to random people on your phone. But Noah also kept the energy positive with a professed genuine enthusiasm about the possibilities of emerging tech. Sitting down with Rick Osterloh, Google’s senior vice president of devices & services, at the top of the event, Noah admitted, “I have a complicated relationship with technology. I love it, but I wish I could use it less, but I can’t live without it at the same time.”
As Osterloh talked about Gemini Intelligence’s mission to make it easier to use your phone less often, Noah quipped that it was the “GLP-1 of technology, it takes things off your plate.”
Throughout the hour-long event, Noah vamped his way through awkward transitions and scripted banter like a professional, adding color commentary to some of the eye-rolling corporate speak used throughout. In one seemingly off-book riposte to the VP of Google hardware design, Isabelle Olsson, Noah prodded, “Early on, you said you ‘create’ the colors. If I’m honest, you didn’t invent black. The other ones you can say you made, but you didn’t invent black… I’m from Africa, I would know.”
During a segment about the Pixel 11’s new cameras, he set his aim on the state of New Jersey, and asked, “What does 120x zoom mean? Like, like how far is it? Can we zoom all the way from here to New Jersey so I can see why I don’t live there?”
These asides were much appreciated to keep viewing interest going, as Google’s laundry list of announcements were often iterative, incremental updates to existing features and hardware. The standout moments were the Live Demos, with or without Noah on stage. Especially when Google could show off the tools that are making conversation and connection easier, like with actor Daniel Durant signing in ASL live on stage to demonstrate the new Sign-to-Text ability for Gboard and Live Translate.
Another highlight was Noah sharing creative chemistry on stage with fellow South African Joël Yawili, senior product manager at Google Deepmind. While discussing Gemini’s Live Translation ability, Yawili mentioned he could speak five languages.
“That’s weird to brag about,” Noah interjected. “It’s unnecessary to just say it. I speak six, but I don’t say that.”
“First of all, I wasn’t making this a competition… you came out with the, ‘Oh, I speak six languages,’” Yawili mocked playfully.
Overall, I’d say Trevor Noah brought the kind of wink-wink-nudge-nudge, barbed yet good-natured energy you’d expect from the best wedding emcee at an awkward but pleasant wedding. The kind of emcee who knows to spotlight Uncle Jim’s odd dance moves but leaves Grandma’s name out of his mouth to keep the mood light for the newlyweds. Maybe the ceremony wasn’t perfect, but people left having had a good time.
Google and Trevor Noah: a match made in tech heaven. Who knew?
