On Monday, Comedy Central announced that South-African comedian Trevor Noah would succeed Jon Stewart as host of “The Daily Show.”
On Tuesday, the backlash began.
Noah, 31 and largely unknown in America before being tapped as the new emcee of the satirical news program, has been criticized for some of his past Twitter posts.
A few of his posts made fun of Jews in a manner that some critics have called anti-Semitic:
Other tweets were jokes about women that some have interpreted as misogynistic:
Noah’s defenders have said the controversial posts should be seen in context: He is an edgy stand-up comedian widely known in his native country for pushing boundaries in the name of a laugh.
Other commenters have pointed out that Noah is being judged on roughly six of his roughly 8,900 tweets, and that he has a history of engaging in debates on race, social justice and the power of words — and jokes — to work through painful experiences.
As for Noah, he hasn’t responded. Requests for comment from him — directed at his agents, managers and publicist — were not immediately returned Tuesday morning.
But in the past he has spoken bluntly — and with humor — about his difficulties growing up in apartheid-era South Africa as the son of a white father and a black mother, whom he has described as half-Jewish.
He has joked that he was “born a crime.”
He has wrung laughs out of his childhood in stand-up routines.
“In the streets my father couldn’t walk with us. He would walk on the other side of the road and wave at me like a creepy pedophile,” he was quoted as telling a London audience. “And my mom could walk with me but every time the police went by she would drop me. I felt like a bag of weed.”
Stewart, 52, said on Feb. 10 that he was leaving the popular series after 16 years at the mock-anchor desk. Noah’s starting date hasn’t been announced.
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— Jon Schuppe
First published March 31 2015, 8:35 AM
Trevor Noah, New 'Daily Show' Host, Criticized for Tweets About Jews and Women - NBCNews.com
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