This Trevor Noah thing has us torn.
We're not sure if we should condemn him for sending out uncool tweets six years ago, or if we think we ought to let the South African comedian, who was just announced as Daily Show host Jon Stewart's replacement, off the hook by chalking it up to youthful indiscretion and forgive.
The posts, a couple of which could be perceived as anti-Semitic, are from 2009, when he was in his mid-twenties.
But we did give Ethan Czahor, that guy Jeb Bush's campaign hired, a pretty hard time when someone unearthed texts of his, also from 2009, that showed his simultaneous hatred of/likely frustrated longing for sluts and gay men. And he left his job over the tweets.
That settles it.
Out of fairness, we are going to have to judge Noah, who just yesterday was revealed as the successor to Daily Show host Jon Stewart, by the same standards as we judged what's-his-name.
...or we would, anyway, if his tweets were remotely as terrible as his GOP counterpart's.
If you look at the two sets of tweets side-by-side, many of Noah's seem to have been jokes that were poorly executed, like the ones about fat chicks. The one about hitting a Jew with his car, though, is probably a tad off-color.
Here's Noah's response:
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.
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) March 31, 2015
In any case, Comedy Central has said it stands behind Noah at this point, despite widespread criticism.
"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."
Yet another potentially damaging revelation of a rising star's off-color tweets from years ago should be an obvious lesson to anybody who is earlier in his or her career and is on Twitter: Don't post things that are racist, sexist or homophobic.
Better yet, don't be racist, sexist or homophobic.
