Vox: Trevor Noah's offensive tweets

[tacosforlife]

www.vox.com/2015/3/31/8319065/trevor-noah-twitter-offensive-jokes

It was only a matter of time before people scraped through the Twitter feed of Trevor Noah, the comedian who will replace Jon Stewart as the host of The Daily Show. What they found — misogyny, fat-shaming, anti-Semitism, and a large dose of homophobia — is upsetting.

Many people have gone through Noah's Twitter feed, pulling out examples of offensive jokes he's made in the past. Here are a few of them. Many are from 2012 or before, but one is as recent as last summer:

I like women that don't wear make up. For me they're like pizza- still great the next morning!

— Trevor Noah (@trevornoah) May 2, 2010

Messi gets the ball and the real players try foul him, but Messi doesn't go down easy, just like jewish chicks. #ElClasico

— Trevor Noah (@trevornoah) January 25, 2012

South Africans know how to recycle like israel knows how to be peaceful.

— Trevor Noah (@trevornoah) June 2, 2010

"Oh yeah the weekend. People are gonna get drunk & think that I'm sexy!" - fat chicks everywhere.

— Trevor Noah (@trevornoah) October 14, 2011

I'm watching Olympic women's hockey. It's like lesbian porn. Without the porn. #InLove

— Trevor Noah (@trevornoah) July 31, 2012

Almost bumped a Jewish kid crossing the road. He didn't look b4 crossing but I still would hav felt so bad in my german car!

— Trevor Noah (@trevornoah) September 18, 2009

pic.twitter.com/0gdQO2MShf [NOTE: I couldn't see the picture on my computer, but it is a retweet that says: "Getting your breasts tatooed is a great way of letting people know you've had multiple abortions."]

— Cates Holderness (@catesish) March 31, 2015

So she gets fat? RT @missdanibagel: When a woman is loved correctly, she becomes 10 times the woman she was before

— Trevor Noah (@trevornoah) July 18, 2014

In these tweets Noah is consistently shaming three groups of people: Jews, women, and LGBT people — all groups Noah doesn't belong to.

A Daily Show host should be held to a higher standard than other comedians
Trevor Noah is a good comedian. His standup routines are funny, and his timing makes it seem like he'll be a good fit to take over The Daily Show.

Still, these jokes are offensive because they are reflections of cultures that are oppressive and privileged — and rather than being critical of those societal constructions, the jokes instead reinforce them. The jokes imply that it is acceptable — funny, even — to belittle gay, heavy, or Jewish people.

Now, of course, Noah is not the first comedian to make jokes at the expense of vulnerable people. Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist, tweeted in response to the Noah tweets: "I'm not saying his old tweets are ok but I hope you are crawling through the tweets of a range of comedians. The results will be interesting."

She's right. Daniel Tosh and Dane Cook still perform despite the fact that both consistently make much more offensive jokes at the expense of women, people of color, and pretty much all non-straight white men. Some people even like those performances! They laugh! Hell, Bill Cosby has performed standup routines in which he makes jokes about horrible crimes he's been accused of by more than a dozen women.

But here's what makes Noah's situation different: his new platform as the host of The Daily Show. He's not a standup comedian anymore. He's about to step into a job that discusses high-profile political and social issues. Noah needs to be trusted to be able to do that in a way that is smart and fair and certainly not bigoted. As Jamie Weinstein wrote for the Daily Caller, "Many young people don't watch ‘The Daily Show' just to laugh — they watch the show to get their news. The show shapes perceptions."

If Trevor Noah wants to be the next Jon Stewart, he certainly can't do it like this.

[teflepi]

He is not American and they don't get the offense? That's all I got; Ew and I hope these are not him. I am holding out hope.

[charminglife]

So either Comedy Central didn't fully vet the guy or they don't care about this. I'm not thrilled with either one.

[LoveTrains]

Ugh. I agree that this type of stuff is generally done by Daniel Tosh, but that is Daniel Tosh. I do think that we should hold the host of the Daily Show to a higher standard. Making jokes about fat women makes me want to throw things. I used to watch Tosh.0 but I stopped after he just wouldn't stop with the rape jokes.

[meshaliuknits]

This would be the upside to an older dude like J Stew. No social media presence of which to speak.

[jillboston]

fuck this guy.. Won't be watching if he's hosting.

[ESF]

Ugh....I was really excited about this guy, but now I'm skeeved out.

I don't even get half of these. They aren't so much as actually offensive as they are really, really lazy comedy that suggests he's a douche.

Blah.

[penguingrrl]

Wow, this sucks. I really liked his segments on TDS and thought that his style was not unlike Stewart's in being a bit drier. I had really high hopes for him as a good choice as successor. But I won't him watch now. I've never watched Tosh.O either because the times I've seen snippets I found him offensive and decidedly unfunny.

[Deleted]

I maaaaay have laughed at the recycling one. The rest were unfunny.

I think this dude sucks btw. These jokes are hella lame, unfunny, and play on stereotypes about as hard as Seth McFarlane. But the author of this piece is high if they think Trevor Noah is writing his own shit on TDS. He will read what they tell him. There is no way the producers picked some young, mostly unknown to Americans dude so he could direct the show.

[ttt]

Some of those I didn't think were so bad, but some of the others...yikes.

This is disappointing.

[AJL]

Trevor Noah! I really liked you. But I'm a fat Jewish woman and you're a South African twat. *sigh* Sorry, dude. I have to take my love away.

[AJL]

OK, looking at the dates of those tweets, they're old. I'd like to hear what he has to say in response to them. If he's trying to be funny and realizes that he wasn't and his material was lame, OK, I'll give him a pass. I didn't hear about this guy until last year and none of his material has been in this vein. So... I'm going to put my love on hold until I hear a reaction from him.

[lya]

Wow! I am surprised. The stand-up I have seen was not at all like those tweets. It definitely changes my impression of him though.

[Skyesthelimit1212]

Mar 31, 2015 11:58:22 GMT -5 lya said:

Wow! I am surprised. The stand-up I have seen was not at all like those tweets. It definitely changes my impression of him though.

I was thinking the same thing. I loved the routine about being asked if he wanted a napkin with his taco.  

[meshaliuknits]

Mar 31, 2015 11:25:02 GMT -5 @majorwife said:

Mar 31, 2015 11:22:24 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

This would be the upside to an older dude like J Stew. No social media presence of which to speak.

lolz who wants to watch hours of VHS stand-up routines for his offensive shit?!

VH what now?