Trevor Noah to Succeed Jon Stewart on 'The Daily Show'

[Wax Lion]

But, we still have no women which is pretty absurd.

 

Isn't Samantha Bee getting her own show on TBS?

 

Yes and we don't know. Bee is getting her own TBS show but we don't know if it will be a daily show, a weekly show, late night or some other time slot. Grace Helbig has a show debuting Friday, but it'll be a weekly show which means she hasn't really broken into that boys club the way Chelsea Handler did.

 

My gut feeling is that this is a good pick. I like that a lot of his comedy seems amused at the US' self-centered tendencies and I like that he's got a voice but not one that makes his version of The Daily Show something we can easily imagine right now.

 

Still, after The Nightly Show I'm cautious in my optimism.

[Tardassian]

Looks like he's a racist asshole. Cool. Cool cool cool.

 

http://gawker.com/trevor-noah-offers-six-great-reasons-to-never-tweet-1694704114

[brgjoe]

Well...he pretty much insults about everyone in those tweets.  ;)

 

Maybe he can try to explain that in his country this is typical for the type of humor that goes over down there(?)  Or that was youthful indescretion and he profusely apologizes and won't say those sort of things again.

 

It doesn't bother me.  But then again, this sort of stuff can cause a shitstorm.  I guess better now than on the eve of him taking over for Jon.  Be interesting to see how this sort of thing plays out.  Though you know one network that will most probably make this huge news, don't you?  :)

[dusang]

Those don't look too good but there are so many people I've formerly liked who's Twitter feed makes them seem like asshats, so I've come to a point where I just try not to judge too fast or harsh on tweets alone.

[Ms Blue Jay]

These are ridiculous.  Such a turn off.  I still enjoy some comics on television even though I find their tweets horrible, so we'll see.

Edited March 31, 2015 by Ms Blue Jay

[LADreamr]

I'm just so tired of all forms of women shaming. It's not just a joke for women to just get over and have a sense of humor about. Those attitudes affect every area of our lives and in some cases, our safety. There are smart, funny comedians who never need to resort to nastiness like that. Any "comedian" who does has already lost my respect.

[AlwaysWatching]

Hmm.  When John Oliver took over for Jon Stewart when Jon was making his movie, I still turned in every night because I was already a big John Oliver fan.  When it was announced that Jon Stewart was stepping down from the show, I almost cried.  Simply couldn't imagine late night TV,  or maybe even a world, without my constant fix of Jon Stewart.  I've already realized that I will no longer be watching The Daily Show once he's gone.

 

The only thing that might have kept me watching is if they had gone for known hilarious and smart women like Amy Poehler or Amy Schumer.  For some reason it feels like The Daily Show would be a step down for Poehler, but possibly a good fit for Schumer.  Also, there could have been other women who could have done the job.

 

The more I think about, though, I do think my attraction to the show was the personality of Jon Stewart and his particular group of writers.  I don't know who this Trevor guy is, so just this bit of controversy is enough for me to think I won't even watch his first episode - if he keeps this gig.

 

I'm already saying good-bye to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart while I watch these last few episodes ever so slowly/quickly passing until the end.

 

edited because I couldn't keep my John's and Jon's straight...

Edited March 31, 2015 by AlwaysWatching

[possibilities]

Those tweets are disgusting. What's worse is, it shows Comedy Central really didn't vet their replacement, or didn't care enough about this bullshit if they did. And they weren't that long ago that he can claim he was just stupid back then.

Edited March 31, 2015 by possibilities

[trow125]

It would look a tad hypocritical for Comedy Central to dump Noah after this controversy considering what aired in TDS' time slot last night (the roast of Justin Bieber). I'll bet a lot of comics are busy scrubbing their Twitter histories today, though.

[Kromm]

Looks like he's a racist asshole. Cool. Cool cool cool.

 

http://gawker.com/trevor-noah-offers-six-great-reasons-to-never-tweet-1694704114

It's part of the real risk of going outside of the usual venue for talent.  Ferguson and Corden were from the UK, who's cultural values match ours closest.  South Africa?  Not as much. Making a Jewish joke there is probably akin to someone here making a joke about the Zulu--a slightly distant thing where you just don't GET how inappropriate it might be (or don't care).  

 

Putting aside the Jewish jokes for a bit (where as much as it troubles us there could be some antipathy against Israel reflecting back to disgusting comments about Jews in general), there's the weird blunt jokes about lesbians and "fat chicks".  Which face it... are jokes a lot of young comedians might make.  And are forgivable in a sense.  But forgiving them in terms of a general career is different, I think, then putting someone with that history on what's become a political affairs program as much or more than a comedy one.  There, with his sense of comedy seemingly set to such low humor, it's a big flashing red warning light.  Do you want someone barely out of the "dumb kid making bad jokes" stage in charge of a show like this?

Edited March 31, 2015 by Kromm

[Miss Scarlet]

Apparently this isn't the first time the media has criticized Trevor Noah's tweets:

 

http://mg.co.za/article/2013-08-09-upset-over-trevor-noahs-insensitive-caster-tweet

 

Great. So not only are there no women hosting late-night shows, but now we have added a misogynistic asshole to the mix. And no, I am not going to excuse those tweets as just "jokes". 

[Victor the Crab]

Since the story about Trevor's horrible tweets just broke, it's going to be very interesting to see if an outrage tsunami builds and if it swallows Trevor up whole, thereby denying him the role of TDS host. It wouldn't surprise me the least if it happens, especially if this particular storm is caused by people still frothing at the mouth of another late night talk show host's chair denied to a woman.

 

I hate social media like Twitter and Facebook.

[trow125]

Prediction: if CC sticks with Noah, the Fox News crowd will feign outrage at his offensive Tweets. If Noah gets the boot, they will hail him as a martyr who fell victim to the left's punishing insistence on political correctness.

[dubbel zout]

his sense of comedy seemingly set to such low humor

 

Noah shouldn't be given a pass—his misogynistic jokes are disappointing, to say the least—but Jon's dick jokes aren't exactly the height of sophistication, either. 

Edited March 31, 2015 by dubbel zout

[trow125]

Comedy Central has issued a statement:

“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.”

[Jaded Sapphire]

Wow, I went from very excited to very wary in the span of a 2 page thread.

 

 

Comedy Central has issued a statement:

“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.”

 

Yeah except these handful of jokes all have a recurring theme of unprovoked misogyny, and the 'knowing' wink attached doesn't make it okay. I got enough of that with Larry's show before I stopped watching. 

 

Noah shouldn't be given a pass—his misogynistic jokes are disappointing, the say the least—but Jon's dick jokes aren't exactly the height of sophistication, either. 

I can deal with dick jokes and low-brow humor because it's just silly, not silly and insulting to part of who I am as a person. Maybe they are just bad jokes that won't be part of the new show's direction but if they are, TDS can join TNS in my used-to-watch pile. I'm not seeking out entertainment that's going to slap me in the face. 

[Bastet]

I won't judge him by a handful of jokes in the sense that I'm not going to say none of his comedy is thought-provoking and funny because some of his jokes are offensive.  (I liked some of Joan Rivers' comedy even though I absolutely hated some of it, too.)  But damn straight I'm going to judge the jokes themselves, and the thread of sexism running through them.  If he brings that aspect of  his comedy to TDS, I'll pass.  Regardless, the fact he thinks it's harmless fun is disturbing.  And I'm tired of it.

[Wax Lion]

Whenever a comedian gets into a Twitter controversy, I try to put in in context of what I know about his career and that some comedians use twitter to try out jokes and can get pretty fast and furious (which is increasingly a bad idea)... and the weird thing is that these tweets are not in the same universe as the guy in that Netflix special or three TDS appearances. (I've yet to see his QI appearance.) A lot of those jokes are Joel McHale on a bad day-bad.

 

But the thing is this is a four-show a week grind and when there's so much time to fill a lot of weak jokes come through, so this is a little worrisome. But for me a bigger question is if he's capable of listening and learning. I still watch McHale because when he hits, he hits and he's slowly learned why some of his jokes get Soup viewers complaining. I rarely follow Bill Maher and Chelsea Handler because it's become clear they're just assholes who are sometimes effective at turning their asshole nature on people I don't like.. and that becomes pretty clear when I look back at jokes of theirs I liked in the past and put them in context.

 

Im bothered by those tweets, especially since the rely on misogynistic cliches for a quick laugh but they're the beginning of putting Noah in a larger context for me.

[dusang]

Whenever a comedian gets into a Twitter controversy, I try to put in in context of what I know about his career and that some comedians use twitter to try out jokes and can get pretty fast and furious (which is increasingly a bad idea)... and the weird thing is that these tweets are not in the same universe as the guy in that Netflix special or three TDS appearances. (I've yet to see his QI appearance.) A lot of those jokes are Joel McHale on a bad day-bad.

 

But the thing is this is a four-show a week grind and when there's so much time to fill a lot of weak jokes come through, so this is a little worrisome. But for me a bigger question is if he's capable of listening and learning. I still watch McHale because when he hits, he hits and he's slowly learned why some of his jokes get Soup viewers complaining. I rarely follow Bill Maher and Chelsea Handler because it's become clear they're just assholes who are sometimes effective at turning their asshole nature on people I don't like.. and that becomes pretty clear when I look back at jokes of theirs I liked in the past and put them in context.

 

Im bothered by those tweets, especially since the rely on misogynistic cliches for a quick laugh but they're the beginning of putting Noah in a larger context for me.

 

Except, of course, that they have a team of writers so it's not all on Jon Stewart and will not be on Trevor Noah to fill 88 minutes of content per week.

 

Also, those are a handful of tweets culled from nearly three years of content. Looking at his substantive material fat jokes aren't really his go-to.  It's disappointing that he's written bullshit like this but, at the same time, I find it really hard to dismiss all the things I enjoyed in his material because of a few tweets that don't really seem representative of his overall comedic voice.

[Miss Scarlet]

There's been a lot of outrage over his misogynistic tweets, but I'm also appalled by his anti-semitic ones. Why can't more comedians use their comedy to show how ridiculous stereotypes are, instead of the dumb, unfunny and unoriginal *insert stereotype here* joke?

 

For anyone who followed him on twitter before yesterday and who's gone through more of his tweets, does he make idiotic tweets about other groups of people? Or just Jews and women?

 

I was reading comments on Gawker about this and one of them said that Trevor Noah does a joke in his stand-up special where he talks about women with Valley Girl accents and says that he knows the accents are real because he tried to choke a girl like that once and she still had the accent. Domestic violence jokes are not okay. Ever.

 

I think I'm done with the Daily Show after Jon leaves.

Edited March 31, 2015 by wudpixie

[solotrek]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know what Jon's standup  was like before TDS? I've only seen the HBO special and his Letterman & Dennis Miller appearances.

 

All I can say is, I'm sure Jon and his generation of comedians are happy twitter wasn't around when they started. Then again, some of them are on twitter now and have made up for that lost time.

 

Trevor's tweets and his actual scripted standup that he's had a lot of time to finesse seem pretty different. He was great in his 3 TDS apperances, but this controversy obviously brings him down by a lot. I know the US tends to be a lot more PC than other countries, but those are really easy and low jokes about women. Woo, you made a fat girl joke in 140 characters or less, how edgy.

 

Still, can't see Comedy Central really caring that much. Daniel Tosh is still around.

[trow125]

There's been a lot of outrage over his misogynistic tweets, but I'm also appalled by his anti-semitic ones. Why can't more comedians use their comedy to show how ridiculous stereotypes are, instead of the dumb, unfunny and unoriginal *insert stereotype here* joke?

 

For anyone who followed him on twitter before yesterday and who's gone through more of his tweets, does he make idiotic tweets about other groups of people? Or just Jews and women?

 

I've been following Noah on Twitter for several months now (I followed him right after he was announced as a new correspondent) and I haven't been offended by anything he's said. Some of the jokes aren't that great, but that's true of most comedians on Twitter. Someone like Conan O'Brien, who Tweets one no-doubt carefully-thought-out Tweet a day (probably written by his writing staff) are the exception.

 

Noah's response (on Twitter): "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."

 

BTW, on his episode of "The Daily Show Podcast without Jon Stewart," Noah talked about casually mentioning a friend of his named Hitler to a Jewish TDS writer. That discussion is around the 22-minute-mark. "This is not a nickname... his name is Hitler... I tried to explain, Hitler's mom clearly didn't see Hitler the same way you or even the Western world saw Hitler. I didn't question this in my world... People would name their child after great leaders. 'Great' doesn't mean 'good.' They really changed the world."

 

I'm not trying to be a Noah apologist -- it's very likely that I'll drop both TDS and TNS from my DVR lineup if Stephen Colbert's "Late Show" is at all decent -- but IMO this kind of helps explain where he's coming from. Living in New York and working with the diverse TDS writers and crew will, I'm sure, change his world view.

[marie]

Yeah, I'm out when Jon leaves. This isn't "cultural differences" humor barriers. This is misogynistic dudebro crap. And as others have said, if he was just a stand-up comedian. Fine. Not to my taste, and I'll happily ignore while jerky frat boys make him their hero. But...this is about politics, social issues, calling out the media on their problematic attitudes. Do I really want to watch someone 4 times a week when I think they're probably of the mindset that jews control the media and women are useless?

 

I also can't get down with excusing it as just a "handful" of tweets. Cause it's pretty consistent over a period of years.

 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/03/31/trevor_noah_to_replace_jon_stewart_on_the_daily_show_offensive_yes_but_also.html

http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/95004408.html

 

I think the ones about a woman being in prime punching position during marriage proposals and the "Quarter Poundher" ones are my ~faves~. 

[Kromm]

BTW, on his episode of "The Daily Show Podcast without Jon Stewart," Noah talked about casually mentioning a friend of his named Hitler to a Jewish TDS writer. That discussion is around the 22-minute-mark. "This is not a nickname... his name is Hitler... I tried to explain, Hitler's mom clearly didn't see Hitler the same way you or even the Western world saw Hitler. I didn't question this in my world... People would name their child after great leaders. 'Great' doesn't mean 'good.' They really changed the world." 

I can't even pretend to get this.  Seeing Adolph Hitler (the original) as a total monster doesn't seem like "western bias".  I'm not aware of anywhere in the world where Genocide is accepted as the norm (excepting maybe the radical Islam countries--and even there you've got a big divide between the clergy and the normal people).

 

I do understand that norms differ on a lot of things.  Sometimes horribly.  Every couple years, for example, some story sneaks onto the Internet about some entertainment piece in some country with tiny or no black population, where they've done some show with blackface.  And everyone from that country seems genuinely shocked when they read international mockery or condemnation.  

 

 But STILL seems different to me from having some supposed (modern) context somewhere where the name "Hitler" doesn't represent a monster.

[Miss Scarlet]

I can't even pretend to get this.  Seeing Adolph Hitler (the original) as a total monster doesn't seem like "western bias".  I'm not aware of anywhere in the world where Genocide is accepted as the norm (excepting maybe the radical Islam countries--and even there you've got a big divide between the clergy and the normal people).

 

I do understand that norms differ on a lot of things.  Sometimes horribly.  Every couple years, for example, some story sneaks onto the Internet about some entertainment piece in some country with tiny or no black population, where they've done some show with blackface.  And everyone from that country seems genuinely shocked when they read international mockery or condemnation.  

 

 But STILL seems different to me from having some supposed (modern) context somewhere where the name "Hitler" doesn't represent a monster.

Totally. The Hitler part of this I can't even comprehend. And the whole "the Daily Show will expose him to different views and diversity" is nice, but the point of the Daily Show is not to educate its host/correspondents/writers/whoever. It's also weird to say that about him because one of the reasons they cited for bringing him on is that he's supposed to be so worldly and knowledgeable already.

 

And I'm really sick of people using "bad jokes" as an excuse to write/say really awful, offensive things that it appears they do believe. At this point I don't give a crap that he's a comedian. His tweets are repulsive. 

 

As other people have mentioned, I'm really appalled that CC didn't research Trevor Noah properly or, worse, researched him, found out about all of this and shrugged their shoulders. 

Edited March 31, 2015 by wudpixie

[trow125]

Is anyone else on Comedy Central's online focus group mailing list? I just got this (I responded that I was disturbed by the content of some of his Tweets and hoped that TDS would retain a strong group of female writers & correspondents when he takes over):

As you may have heard, Trevor Noah has been named as the next host of The Daily Show.

You might be wondering, “who is this guy?”

[some biographical info redacted]

So, what do you think of Jon Stewart’s replacement as the host of The Daily Show? Sound off below!

[solotrek]

I can't even pretend to get this.  Seeing Adolph Hitler (the original) as a total monster doesn't seem like "western bias".  I'm not aware of anywhere in the world where Genocide is accepted as the norm (excepting maybe the radical Islam countries--and even there you've got a big divide between the clergy and the normal people).

 

I do understand that norms differ on a lot of things.  Sometimes horribly.  Every couple years, for example, some story sneaks onto the Internet about some entertainment piece in some country with tiny or no black population, where they've done some show with blackface.  And everyone from that country seems genuinely shocked when they read international mockery or condemnation.  

 

 But STILL seems different to me from having some supposed (modern) context somewhere where the name "Hitler" doesn't represent a monster.

I think that kind of is a Western bias to be honest. Or maybe it's a lack of education in other places because we have WWII and it's atrocities drilled into us. Whereas for other places, it's not necessarily - or they and the people around them weren't impacted the same way.  Last time I was in China (~2008) I saw a shirt that had Hitler Hitler Hitler <3 <3 (picture those massive red hearts you see on those I <3 NYC shirts) Hitler Hitler repeated on the front. So later I asked my cousin WTF the deal was with that shirt and some other shirts I saw (like "My anal" or "Abksiexz", swastika shirts, KKK shirts - seriously they have the weirdest shit printed on shirts - a lot of them would be deemed insanely offensive in the US. You should see the Obama caricatures and prints they have now.) and a lot of other things like keychains that use offensive symbols. She said it was because it had English words/letters written on it or were symbols they knew were "popular". I asked if they learned who Hitler was, she said yes, but it doesn't matter. That's just what is cool and it's just a shirt. I mean, I obviously asked how people would feel if I wore a shirt that said  "I <3 Nanjing Massacre" or some Japan pride shirt and the answer was they'd kill you. So I don't get how the "that's just a shirt" argument works. But it makes sense to them.

 

Or someone I was talking to on another forum mentioned a trip to Thailand (another places that sells knock off and offensive T-shirts it seems - my friend got me a few cool threadless knockoffs) where they saw a Thai girl wearing a hot pink T-shirt with silhouttes of Hitler all over it that said "White Power".

 

I guess my point is, as westerners we were taught about Hitler and everything that resulted from his actions. We read the Diary of Anne Frank, we would have holocaust survivors come to our schools or WWII vets who fought in the European theater, we read first hand accounts of what happened, people had family members/friends directly involved or effected, a ton of movies made about it etc...When you live in a place where you aren't as touched by the events, then your perception of it is going to be different and how you're taught it is going to be different. Mass genocide or not.

 

If you look at it from the flip side, it's similar to how many westerners (I say this from some discussions I've had with friends both British and American) don't understand why Stalin and Mao deserve a similar level of disdain. "Stalin was our ally, so he gets a pass. But Mao was a communist that's why he was considered evil, but China's ok now so whatever." Both these guys committed horrific atrocities and individually had regimes that killed more people than Hitler's. Or ask anyone about the massacre in Nanjing.

 

TL;DR - It happens.

Edited April 1, 2015 by solotrek

[Pete Martell]

Comedy Central has issued a statement:

“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.”

 

I don't understand this type of defense. He spares "no one" - what does that mean? Blanket statements about Jews and women - is it really a daring, wild, wonderful thing to make blanket statements against Jews and women? 

 

I didn't agree with the criticisms of this show for not hiring a woman, because I think they should have gone based on who they thought best filled the role, but they shouldn't not only hire someone with a history of such unpleasant comments, but then try to make him into some George Carlin-style warrior of comedy when he's caught out.

 

This show has had a history of misogyny and accusations of misogyny back from the Kilborn days, but even by those standards, those tweets make me uneasy. There's already a frat boy streak in this show that doesn't need worsening.

[Nidratime]

I don't understand this type of defense. He spares "no one" - what does that mean? Blanket statements about Jews and women - is it really a daring, wild, wonderful thing to make blanket statements against Jews and women?

 

 

Yeah right. No one ever attacks jews and women so clearly they were two groups who should have mean-spirited jokes made about them. It's so brave. ;-/

[EyewatchTV211]

Not that I agree at all, but I think they are trying to say that by sparing "no one," he makes fun of all groups. However, as many have pointed out, this does not seem to be the case. There seems to be a pattern with Jews and females.

[Luciano]

I think that kind of is a Western bias to be honest. Or maybe it's a lack of education in other places because we have WWII and it's atrocities drilled into us. Whereas for other places, it's not necessarily - or they and the people around them weren't impacted the same way

That's basically it. These are focused on countries in Asia rather than Africa but you could see some of the same things Noah spoke of in that podcast.

[possibilities]

All CC had to do was say not to worry; the show will not be airing any anti-semitic or misogynist material, and they apologize if that wasn't clear. Or Noah could have said: I regret that some of my material was offensive to women and I have learned from my mistakes; while Israel did participate in support of the Apartheid government, I realize this is not true of all Jews, and I don't plan to unfairly condemn others who in fact worked to bring change to my home country. I hope those who were upset by some of my past statements will give me another chance.

 

But honestly-- if it's OK for Wilmore to behave the way he does, why should we expect more from them wrt Noah?

The good news is, it's easy to change the channel if they don't deliver.

 

I wonder if anyone names their kid Pol Pot, or Apartheid, or Khmer Rouge.

Edited April 1, 2015 by possibilities

[LADreamr]

The good news is, it's easy to change the channel if they don't deliver.

I really hope it turns out OK. I'm worried about it going back to Kilborn-level humor, but I'll give it a try.

Side note: I really wish we could get clear that criticizing Israel is different than criticizing the Jewish faith. Comedians could help out by not conflating the two.

[purist]

Here's an article from the Washington Post by Caitlin Dewey called 'In defence of Trevor Noah's stupid, tasteless tweets'. Well worth a read. It references last week's guest Jon Ronson and his book on shaming by social media. Here's a quote:

Incidentally, if the “normal people” currently piling on to Noah’s shamers had looked at his other 8,898 tweets, they may have formed a different impression of him: He’s concerned about apartheid and social justice and subverting prejudice and past wrongs through jokes. He’s tweeted, frequently and thoughtfully, about privilege and power and how comedy fits into the two.

Edited April 1, 2015 by purist

[possibilities]

I read the Wash Post article and I watched the Ronson interview. Sure, we need to accept that everyone is fallible. Being defensive and doubling down on your errors, while attacking people who point them out, is not the way to handle things. Apologies and taking responsibility is all anyone needs to do. I don't think the remedy for exposure is crass defiance; just be a grown up and acknowledge you fucked up, and most people will move on. But dig your heels in and get snide about your critics, and you only convince everyone that you really are an asshole who's incapable of remorse. Why is it so hard for people to understand that if they seek publicity they will receive scrutiny? And if the hurl insults, sometimes they will be asked to account for their thought processes when their targets are unfair? Dish it out, meet take it. If you want to be left alone, don't speak in public.

Edited April 1, 2015 by possibilities

[SpiritSong]

I really hope it turns out OK. I'm worried about it going back to Kilborn-level humor, but I'll give it a try.

Side note: I really wish we could get clear that criticizing Israel is different than criticizing the Jewish faith. Comedians could help out by not conflating the two.

I'll give it some time too, before I judge how he does as host. He's a *comedian*, not a politician. Now he's going to host a comedy news show. Can we not even give him a chance?

And thank you for bringing up the point that it's perfectly okay to criticize Israel and doing so does not make you anti-Semitic. The more criticism of that terrorist government the better, as far as I'm concerned. And I have nothing at all against Jewish people. I criticize the US government all the time. Doesn't mean I hate Americans (with a few notable exceptions.)

Edited April 1, 2015 by SpiritSong

[trow125]

I'm sure there were thousands of Tweets in Noah's defense today and the one he chooses to retweet is by Seth MacFarlane, who has his own history of misogyny. Ugh.

Trevor Noah retweeted
Seth MacFarlane ‏@SethMacFarlane  3h3 hours ago
Hey press: Corporate pollution. Mass incarceration. Animal abuse. These are things to be offended by. Not Trevor Noah's Twitter feed.

[LADreamr]

And thank you for bringing up the point that it's perfectly okay to criticize Israel and doing so does not make you anti-Semitic. The more criticism of that terrorist government the better, as far as I'm concerned.

Amen. The problems with the Israeli government come from Zionists, many of whom are Christian, so it's not about religion, it's about politics. Very dirty, mean, genocidal politics.

Oh and Seth MacFarlane, add to your list rape culture and the daily degradation of women, which misogyny absolutely fans the flames of. Sorry to interrupt your dudebro time with our demand for the same respect you take for granted.

[Wax Lion]

I'm sure there were thousands of Tweets in Noah's defense today and the one he chooses to retweet is by Seth MacFarlane, who has his own history of misogyny. Ugh.

Quote

    Trevor Noah retweeted

    Seth MacFarlane ‏@SethMacFarlane  3h3 hours ago

    Hey press: Corporate pollution. Mass incarceration. Animal abuse. These are things to be offended by. Not Trevor Noah's Twitter feed.

 

Ugh. I'm really disappointed. Not just because it's MacFarlane but because I hate it when someone tries to derail any kind of discussion of insensitive language by bringing up a bigger issue. Yeah, mass incarceration does more harm than one guy's Twitter feed, so why doesn't MacFarlane do episodes where Stewie pleas with the audience to fight for the decriminalization of minor drug possession instead of another episode where he travels through time to wacky results.

[Bastet]

What a lazy defense of the indefensible.  I was already giving the side eye at Noah characterizing his tweets as "jokes that didn't land," as if the harm was simply that they weren't funny, but at least in the rest of that statement he was hinting at a sense of "I screwed up, please give me the chance to show I can do better."  But now - please.  So he's just going to dismiss the criticism as typical media overreaction and never bother to examine the impact of what he posted given the world in which we live.  Because, hey, if something matters more, then this doesn't matter at all, right?

[Miss Scarlet]

I'm sure there were thousands of Tweets in Noah's defense today and the one he chooses to retweet is by Seth MacFarlane, who has his own history of misogyny. Ugh.

Not to mention his own history of disgusting anti-Semitism. 

 

I totally get that criticizing Israel is different from anti-Semitism. But it is interesting that there's been a lot of coverage/discussion about his misogynistic tweets and less so about his anti-Semitic ones. And I know this isn't useful, but I can't help but wonder what CC's reaction would be if his tweets were derogatory towards other minority groups. Things that make you go hmmm....

[solotrek]

Not to mention his own history of disgusting anti-Semitism. 

 

I totally get that criticizing Israel is different from anti-Semitism. But it is interesting that there's been a lot of coverage/discussion about his misogynistic tweets and less so about his anti-Semitic ones. And I know this isn't useful, but I can't help but wonder what CC's reaction would be if his tweets were derogatory towards other minority groups. Things that make you go hmmm....

He also had some tweets about Asians. But no one cares about us. *shrugs*

 

I do think, at the end of the day, it's a story about a young stand up comedian writing tweets to his demographic. And now he has a job that has to cater to a much larger one with a lot more scrutiny to go with it. So welcome Trevor to a small taste of the microscopic scrutiny to come.

Edited April 1, 2015 by solotrek

[possibilities]

solotrek, what did he say?

[solotrek]

solotrek, what did he say?

Is it racist to say "Opa Gangam Style" every time you see a fat person?

1/7/13

Just saw a Japanese supporter crying after the loss. His eyes were so small his tears were coming out as mist.

6/29/10

As in blond hair blue eyes or ET pronounced by an Asian? RT @khayadlanga: Shout out to all the Ariens up in here.

2/3/12

You can tell how angry the Chinese kid at the factory was by how hard it is to open the packaging.

1/14/14

 

Here's some of them. Asians have small eyes and can't differentiate between l's and r's. It's all very edgy and funny stuff. TBH, I don't find most of it offensive, just not funny. I don't even get the Gangnam style joke. Psy's fat ha ha ha? What?

 

It's more tiring than anything. I guess it could be funny if you have a 8 year old's sense of humor because we got those jokes on the playground in elementary school. So growing up with a fucking song about Chinese and Japanese eyes and the slanty eyes movements that go with it, it's just tiring. Or when people think it's funny to come up to you and interchange l's and r's (which doesn't even make sense because the joke should actually be the lack of one of them) the entire time they're speaking to you. It's fucking annoying. All he needed was a "ching chong" joke.

 

I feel that way about all the jokes I've seen people be upset about. They either work if you're a kid just learning "insult humor" or if you're with a group of drunk friends playing Cards Against Humanity. Quick stereotypes or easy jokes.

Edited April 1, 2015 by solotrek

[Kromm]

I read the Wash Post article and I watched the Ronson interview. Sure, we need to accept that everyone is fallible. Being defensive and doubling down on your errors, while attacking people who point them out, is not the way to handle things. Apologies and taking responsibility is all anyone needs to do.

Well here's a key.  It seems he's just hedged about those tweets, not apologized or taken larger responsibility for them.

 

There's a school of thought in comedy that you should never apologize.  In some ways it's a righteous idea.  But it's dependent on you being willing to take the lumps and practice your no-holds-barred flavor of comedy in whatever venues are necessary to be like that.

 

When you promote yourself for a larger public forum you lose the privilege of not having to apologize.  It's the bargain for being on that guaranteed larger stage.  And then again with a show like The Daily Show, you also take on a public affairs responsibility.  I know I've heard even a guy like John Oliver, who I respect a lot, claim "hey I'm just a comedian" and directly say that he doesn't have any goal (or even a responsibility) to make people think (even though his show SO totally has that slant).  But I think Oliver is fooling himself there, and the reality of these politically tinged comedy shows like The Daily Show, The Nightly Show, Bill Mahr's show, and Oliver's own Last Week Tonight, is that the public sees you as a voice of wisdom--even if comedy is being used to deliver that.  That's the forum Trevor Noah is being thrust into and so if you want to KEEP that audience you inherit responsibilities and lose the right that you're totally above public perception.

 

So you apologize.

[Judois]

I'm getting the vibe that Trevor Noah just really hates fat people. And as a fat person,I'm just going to not watch him.

[Darian]

I'm getting the vibe that Trevor Noah just really hates fat people. And as a fat person,I'm just going to not watch him.

I am a skinny person and once I saw the fat-shaming tweets, which were the first I saw, I was done with him. The rest just confirm my negative opinion. I guess he could have a zillion admirable tweets, but they don't excuse the others, for me.   

[trow125]

Patton Oswalt Tweets In Defense Of Comedy — And Trevor Noah (NPR.org)

 

Fast Company: 

Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi then jumped into the conversation during an event last night at LinkedIn's New York City office. "I think it’s much ado about nothing. The guy made some off-color, irresponsible tweets, but he was trying to be funny," Mandvi says. "I don’t think we’ve quite decided what Twitter means. Because you can read that and act like he said it yesterday and it defines him now, but do we all want that?"

[Kromm]

I like Patton and usually agree with him. 

 

But again... what's keeping Noah from just freaking apologizing?

 

These aren't sacred dangerous political jokes, where a point of view needs defending.  They aren't coming from an established base, like Gilbert Gottfried or Joan Rivers, where their reps were all about being outrageous and not apologizing (and consequently them both accepting that they'd never have a universal platform to deliver their comedy from). They're from a newbie to the upper echelons of fame, where an apology is his way out.  

 

So yes, we can accept that they're just tweets and best left in the past.  If he showed any remorse for them and promised that they don't actually represent him.  Hedging with "hey, it's just a tweet" is neither of those.  It's a deflection.

Side note: I really wish we could get clear that criticizing Israel is different than criticizing the Jewish faith. Comedians could help out by not conflating the two.

But as we see of course, he's in fact he's NOT criticizing Israel.  He's making jokes about "jewish girls".  While many might disagree if he was making Israel jokes, at least there might be some level of respect for him hitting a proper political target and not an ethnic one.

[ruby24]

I don't think it's important to defend this guy for stupid tweets- comedians are just very sensitive about anyone calling anyone out for "jokes," even if they're bad ones. If anything, to me this makes him look immature and like others have said, below the "gravitas" of The Daily Show, but that might be a good thing for expectations. We know immediately this will no longer be a Daily Show that's perceived as important by political/media figures, so I'm just not going to watch. I didn't watch Kilborn either. Jon Stewart was the Daily Show for me, and if him and his show are gone, I'm just not interested.