Trevor Noah Accused of Being an Anti-Semite and Sexist over Tweets
Updated: | Originally published: ;
Less than 24 hours after comedian Trevor Noah was named as Jon Stewart’s replacement as host of The Daily Show, people have taken issue with some of the South African’s past jokes.
Noah, who has previously appeared on the show as an international correspondent, has been acting and doing stand-up comedy for years. Though he has a large following internationally, he hasn’t been a household name in the U.S. But it appears that as Americans began acquainting themselves with 31-year-old Noah, they also discovered a few jokes that were quickly deemed “anti-Semitic” and “sexist.”
For his part, Noah broke his silence Tuesday in a tweet.
To reduce my views to a handful of jokes that didn’t land is not a true reflection of my character, nor my evolution as a comedian.
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) March 31, 2015
MORE: Comedy Central Calls Criticism of Trevor Noah ‘Unfair’
Many of the jokes in question were in the form of old tweets from Noah’s account:
As more of Noah’s old tweets were dug up and retweeted, a number of people expressed their disgust on social media. Several even tweeted at Comedy Central and called for Noah to be fired:
Jews, "untermenschen", "fat chicks" & "girls with big asses" - subjects of @Trevornoah's low-brow humour. Jon Stewart's replacement, folks!
— ArianaGic/Аріянॳць (@GicAriana) March 31, 2015
Others felt the need to defend the comedian, even pointing to his background (he’s the son of a black Xhosa mother and a white Swiss father):
Now he's accused of being racist.. Damn people of the world. Why can't you take something positive for what it is?? Urgh 😒😒 #TrevorNoah
— breezy (@cocobrownza) March 31, 2015
MORE: Abe Foxman Says ‘Let’s Not Pre-Judge Trevor Noah
Then there were the people who seemed to expect a backlash of some sort:
i see we've reached the point of the trevor noah news cycle where we retweet the problematic tweets
— man it’s a hot zone, (@Mobute) March 31, 2015
Weird that Trevor Noah didn't do a quick twitter cleanup before getting the job.
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) March 31, 2015
Read next: Watch Trevor Noah’s 3 Appearances on The Daily Show
Listen to the most important stories of the day.
