“You can’t just fire the FBI director!” cried Trevor Noah last night. “If he’s fired, who’s going to investigate the Russian…Oh!”

It was a blatantly authoritarian maneuver, topped with a wholly implausible gas-lighting justification. And the Daily Show host often notes Trump’s growing resemblance to the African dictators he has long observed on his home continent — a resemblance that, in the wake of the firing of James Comey is even more distinct. The preposterous pretext proffered by the White House for dismissing the overseer of the Russia investigation is “the most gangster excuse” he’s ever heard.

Noah reviews the state of play in the Russia investigation, the blistering testimony of fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, and the advice that President Obama reportedly gave Trump against hiring Michael Flynn as national security adviser (which the president-elect typically ignored).

Somehow he makes this disturbing turn in history comprehensible and funny, at least momentarily.