In response to the revelations of his anti-Semitic Twitter rants, the Anti-Defamation League has said that it will be keeping an eye on future “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah. Meanwhile Noah has himself tried to play down his offensive Tweets.
While himself a Jew, Jon Stewart was never a friend of Israel nor of the Jewish religion itself. He filled The Daily Show with anti-Israel rants and criticisms of Jewish religious practices. But Stewart was allowed to do so since he himself is a Jew and he never made openly hostile or anti-Jewish remarks.
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Noah has tweeted such obnoxious comments as, “South Africans know how to recycle like Israel knows how to be peaceful, ” and how an athlete did not fall down because he, “doesn’t go down easy just like Jewish chicks.”
Imagine if a Jewish celebrity had said similar things about Blacks or Latinos.
Now ADL head Abraham H. Foxman has stated, “We welcome Trevor Noah to his new endeavor at ‘The Daily Show’ and wish him success. We need humor — perhaps now more than ever — and we hope that he will build on Jon Stewart’s great legacy.”
“We understand that comedians often use humor to poke fun at stereotypes and to push the envelope of political correctness, and it seems that many if not most of the tweets sent by Trevor Noah over the years fall into those categories.”
Now here comes the but:
“We hope he will not cross the line from legitimate satire into offensiveness with jokes calling up anti-Semitic stereotypes and misogyny. And we hope that he and Comedy Central will make a conscious effort to ensure that The Daily Show remains funny and irreverent without trafficking in bigoted jokes at the expense of Jews, other minorities and women.”
As for Noah himself, the young and until recently unknown comic returned to Twitter to clarify his previous postings which also included attacks on women.
“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, ” he posted in defense of his comments.
In support of its new star Comedy Central stated, “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.”
