On Monday March 30th, Comedy Central named Trevor Noah as Jon Stewart's replacement on The Daily Show. While Noah is well known as a stand-up comedian on the international scene, here in the US very little is known of the 31 year old South African comedian. While Americans tried to familiarize themselves with some of his material they inevitably managed to dig up a couple of less than tasteful jokes in the comedians closet in the form of old tweets. The tweets were quickly projected into the spotlight as anti-Semitic and sexist. So in proper American fashion the masses took to social media to express their views. Those who had already predicted the scrutiny, were not surprised at the backlash from those expressing their disfavor and even calling for Comedy Central to fire the newly appointed Noah. Of course at the other end of the spectrum there were those who felt the negative responses were uncalled for. Some expressed confusion as to how a mixed raced comedian could be deemed racist. Others pointing out that such content is not uncommon among comedians in general. And that zeroing in on a few jokes was unwarranted.

 

Trevor Noah took to his twitter account, which he has had since 2009, on Tuesday to defend his position stating: "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" . For their part, Comedy Central stands behind their pick and released a statement which in whole defended the comedian and states that in his line of work Trevor Noah pushes boundaries, and his provocative humor spares no one including himself. They went on to say that judging Noah for a handful of joke is unfair and that he is a talented comedian with a bright future on their network. The national director of the Anti-Defamation League released a statement wishing Noah the best but cautioning him and Comedy Central in crossing the line between legitimate satire and jokes that are degrading and offensive and could jeopardize the reputation of the Daily Show.

 

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