http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/arts/television/trevor-noah-new-daily-show-host-comes-under-scrutiny-for-tweets.html?_r=0
Within hours of the announcement that he had been named the new host of “The Daily Show,” the comedian Trevor Noah was subjected to the full scrutiny of the Internet. As potential audience members scoured his past work and his social media for more clues about the South African comedian, they uncovered many posts on his Twitter account that they deemed to be offensive to women or Jews. Comedy Central announced on Monday that Mr. Noah, 31, had been chosen to succeed Jon Stewart as anchor of “The Daily Show,” its satirical news program, when Mr. Stewart steps down this year. Though Mr. Noah has performed stand-up comedy around the world, he is not widely known in the United States, and he has appeared as an on-air contributor to “The Daily Show” only three times before he was promoted to host. On Twitter, where he has had an account since 2009 and accumulated more than two million followers, Mr. Noah often posts irreverent statements that reflect his interests in popular culture, global politics and issues of race. As with many comedians, Mr. Noah’s jokes can test the boundaries of what is socially permissible and what is in bad taste. In several posts, Mr. Noah came across as mocking or derisive of women. In one from 2011, he writes: “Oh yeah the weekend. People are gonna get drunk & think that I’m sexy!” a quote that he attributes to “fat chicks everywhere.” In another post from last year, he quotes another Twitter user who writes, “When a woman is loved correctly, she becomes 10 times the woman she was before,” to which Mr. Noah adds: “So she gets fat?” Mr. Noah has also posted jokes about Jewish people and about Israel. As he wrote in 2009, “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!” Another post from 2010 reads, “South Africans know how to recycle like israel knows how to be peaceful.” Reacting to some of Mr. Noah’s jokes in a post for The Daily Caller, Jamie Weinstein, a senior editor, wrote that this tweet “does seem to suggest that Noah believes Israel is an inherently belligerent country.” Mr. Weinstein wrote that this was a potentially dangerous attitude for a new “Daily Show” host, adding: “Many young people don’t watch ‘The Daily Show’ just to laugh — they watch the show to get their news. The show shapes perceptions.” Others seemed to shrug off these posts simply as unfunny. Tom Gara, the editor of BuzzFeed’s business news site, wrote on his Twitter account, “The most depressing thing about Trevor Noah’s Twitter timeline, other than how bad he is at Twitter, is how often he replies to @UberFacts.” Others pointed out that he also has made fun of Americans, South Africans and people from numerous other countries. When a fan tweeted at him last October, asking him to please come to Texas, Mr. Noah replied, “But you’ve already got Ebola?” It is not uncommon for comedians on social media to be criticized by other users who are unfamiliar with their routines or stage personas, or for comedians to distances themselves from older material as their views evolve and they become more accomplished. Still, the controversy over Mr. Noah’s tweets poses a challenge for Comedy Central and its prestige late-night comedy show. And it raises the question of why his Twitter account was not more carefully vetted before he was named host of “The Daily Show,” a late-night show with a worldwide audience of fans as well as detractors. Mr. Noah seemed aware on Tuesday of the controversy surrounding his tweets. Just before 9 a.m. Eastern time, he posted: “Twitter does not have enough characters to respond to all the characters on Twitter.” The tweet was deleted shortly after. Press representatives for Comedy Central did not immediately comment on Tuesday morning. _______________________________________________ Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews_etskywarn.net
