South African comedian and talk show host Trevor Noah recently announced that he will be quitting late night satirical news TV series ‘The Daily Show’ after seven years. He made the announcement through an emotion-laden video message shared on his social media sites. “We’ve laughed together, we’ve cried together. But after seven years, I feel like it’s time,” he said. He added that he had come to realise that there was “another part of my life that I want to carry on exploring,” he said. Noah took over from Jon Stewart in 2015. Before that he had been a correspondent for the show.

Controversies

While during Noah’s tenure, ‘The Daily Show’ was mostly praised (and awarded), there were a few times when he attracted the ire of some through his humour. Here is a list of some of those incidents:
 

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Comments on India-Pakistan border tensions

The conflict between India and Pakistan is one of the most enduring in the world, beginning from the country’s British-orchestrated partition, and has caused unimaginable bloodshed, untold pain, and trauma to millions on both sides over about three-quarters of a century. Noah, however, chose to crack jokes about it, and not very good ones if we may say so. During the show, he said if the two countries went to full-blown war, it would be the most entertaining of all time, and added it would be a dance-off while putting on an Indian accent. The resulting outrage forced Noah to issue a social media apology.
 

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Alleged anti-Semitic tweets

Whenever a person becomes popular in the internet age, it is a rule by now that their social media accounts will be closely scrutinised for any content potentially offensive to some community, sexual orientation, sex race, and so on. Noah had to face that as well. After he was announced as the successor to Stewart, it came to light that he had cracked unsavoury jokes about Jews and the Holocaust. One, for instance, read, “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!” 
 

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Sexist tweets

Around the same time, Noah’s tweets that appeared to mix sexism and anti-Semitism also went viral. One, for instance, read, “Messi gets the ball and the real players try foul him, but Messi doesn’t go down easy, just like jewish chicks.” And one more: “A hot white woman with a** is like a unicorn. Even if you do see one, you’ll probably never get to ride it.” 

One other read, “Originally when men proposed they went down on one knee so if the woman said no they were in the perfect uppercut position.”
 

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Trevor Noah’s response to old, offensive tweets

In response to the tweets, he said, “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.”
 

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Racist jokes on Aboriginal Australians

During a stand-up routine in 2013, Noah once said, “All women of every race can be beautiful. And I know some of you are sitting there now going, ‘Oh Trevor … I’ve never seen a beautiful Aborigine.’ But you know what you say? You say, ‘Yet.’ Because you haven’t seen all of them, right? Plus it’s not always about looks, maybe Aborigine women do special things, maybe they’ll just like, jump on top of you.” He proceeded to imitate sounds of wind instrument didgeridoo to indicate oral sex. Gulp. 
 

(Photograph:Others)