Trevor Noah defends comedy (along with Seth MacFarlane, Patton Oswalt) after ‘Daily Show’ hire
Given that the United States has become in many ways a land of outrage just as it has become a land of opportunity, we cannot say that we are particularly surprised by all of the hubbub so far when it comes to Trevor Noah being hired to host “The Daily Show” because of some comments he made on his Twitter feed in the past.
If there is anything that Noah may have learned in the process of seeing some of the outrage to some of his jokes (read about them here), it is that things you say in a comedy club do not necessarily work on social media. They lack context, and at the right moment and to the wrong people, they can be deemed as offensive while you mean for them to be merely silly and lighthearted. It is part of the ultimate conundrum of being a comic and an edgy one in an era where everyone wants to be politically correct.
Noah himself responded to some of the flack yesterday on Twitter (interestingly enough), reminding us that it may not be the best idea to judge his entire personal thoughts and feelings on joke comments, some of which being more than three years old.
Hey, he did at least mention that some of the jokes he made weren’t particularly funny. Had they been, maybe there wouldn’t be as much outrage in the first place.
Some of our other favorite responses include Seth MacFarlane’s simple reminder below below that there are probably more important things to be angry about in the world, or an incredible series of 50+ tweets that comic Patton Oswalt sent out about the subject.
Ultimately, Noah will be judged based on the ratings for his new version of “The Daily Show” so much more than anything that he says right now. That is just the way of things when it comes to comedy and television: Money matters most. “South Park” is extremely offensive, but because of its numbers and pop-culture significance it stays around forever no matter how many people get offended by the material.
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