Comedy Central stands by Trevor Noah after new ‘Daily Show’ host’s comments emerge

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Do you know what happens when you are a famous person who finds themselves in a significantly larger spotlight than ever before? Well, people spend hours digging through your history to figure out if there is any dirt that they can uncover to stir up some controversy. With Trevor Noah, this happened within 24 hours of him being named as the next host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central.

A series of tweets (see two examples below) were made by Noah that caught the attention of many out there. Some have been considered to be misogynistic, while others have been viewed as anti-Semitic. One thing to remember here? That Trevor is a comedian. Going back and looking at old jokes without context of the time for a comic is different than a politician; comedy may always be subjective in that a way. There will be some who understandably find some of what he said to be offensive, and others who will think them to be silly jokes. No one is necessarily right or wrong, but these are reactions that comics often intend to draw.

What we know for now is that Comedy Central is standing firm behind Noah to replace Jon Stewart later this year. In a statement after the controversy was started, the network had the following to say in support of their new man:

“Like many comedians, Trevor Noah pushes boundaries; he is provocative and spares no one, himself included … To judge him or his comedy based on a handful of jokes is unfair. Trevor is a talented comedian with a bright future at Comedy Central.”

Given that we’ve heard jokes far more offensive than these on almost every comedy show (and we’re not even talking about roasts), we’ll give Noah a chance when his show airs. Our biggest concern is that we haven’t found him extremely funny in anything that we’ve seen just yet, and that is essential if you are going to take over for one of the funniest, sharpest guys in show business.

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