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New Daily Show host Trevor Noah is already in Twitter trouble

Jokes on the social network about women and Jews has made comedian's anointment kinda awkward
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New Daily Show host Trevor Noah is already in Twitter trouble

Jokes on the social network about women and Jews has made comedian's anointment kinda awkward

The online ink is barely dry celebrating the announcement that senior international correspondent Trevor Noah is to be the next host of The Daily Show, replacing the much loved Jon Stewart, and already Comedy Central bosses might have a bit of an awkward situation at hand.

Anyone who follows comedians on Twitter will know they test out a lot of jokes on there. Some feeds are just a series of good, bad and, let's be honest, ugly jokes that take aim at all and sundry. However, not 24 hours since Noah, son of a Swiss-German father and half-Jewish South African mother, was appointed heir to the Daily Show throne than some industrious soul trawled through his 8,904 Tweets and cherry-picked a selection of offensive attempts at humour. The controversial jokes span a period stretching back to 2009 and predominantly take cheap shots at Jews and women, sometimes both together in a single tweet.

Now it's not exactly breaking news that a comedian has crossed the line on social media (let's face it, there's probably a bad joke dispensed every 0.5 secs). The problem is much more to do with the position Noah is set to fulfil, replacing a person seen by many as the left's knight in shining armour. Which makes it all the more surprising that Comedy Central weren't more careful about vetting the comedian's Twitter feed before formalising their appointment in the media.

The List interviewed Trevor Noah in 2013 when he brought his show, 'The Racist', to Glasgow (a year after its Edinburgh Fringe run) and a couple of quotes stand out in relation to this story:

‘I’m not a confrontational person or comedian,' he said, back then. 'But I do like comedians who are very different from myself: I love dry comics with deadpan one-liners... I’ve always been a fan of issues around race and racialism and I’ve loved playing with it. People act as though it isn’t an issue, but it’s a recurring theme in our lives globally.’

Does this make him a hypocrite if his bad Twitter jokes are deemed sexist, homophobic or antisemitic? Well, the internet mob will probably decide, but you can read over some of them below and judge for yourself. Either way, Comedy Central probably have a bit of a headache on their hands unless someone can make a deft turn of hand.

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