This week, host of satirical series "The Daily Show," Mr. Jon Stewart his own self, apologized on behalf of scandal-ridden replacement Trevor Noah.
Nope.
Whoops. Sorry, that was from a first draft. Stewart made no apology.
OK, here we go...
This week "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart explained in detail that his soon-to-be replacement, Trevor Noah, is in no way an anti-Semite nor a misogynist.
Dammit. That was my second draft. Sorry. Turns out Stewart didn't say that at all.
Alright...
Jon Stewart returned to air this week by taking to task all of the people who "overreacted" to tweets by "Daily Show" correspondent and future host Trevor Noah.
Fuck. That's not what happened either.
So, wait, did Jon Stewart explain that Trevor Noah's tweets were misread? Nope. Did he explain that perhaps Noah could have better worded some of his Tweets? Uh-uh.
Oh wait! I know, Jon Stewart "Daily Showed" the whole thing -- yeah, you know, he showed Fox News and CNN correspondents discussing the whole "scandal," then line-by-line tore them a new one, poking holes in their arguments, explaining that those Fox News guys have as much right to analyze comedy as Stewart himself has to, say, analyze insane rants by half-baked analysts paid by the Fox conglomerate to develop a particular narrative which causes dismay and utter outrage when anyone, democrat or republican, strays from said narrative.
Or words to that effect. You know, Stewart's usual ball of hysterically funny ass-fucking of the bad guys! (The way we love it!)
So, he ranted, and then he cut to "Sr. Women's Studies Correspondent" Jessica Williams to discuss in detail why Noah's tweets were not sexis--
Ohh, wait...turns out absolutely none of that happened either.
Actually, nothing happened. Jon Stewart opened the show, said Trevor Noah is "incredibly thoughtful and considerate" and explained we should "give him an opportunity to earn [our] trust and respect."
 |
| Trevor Noah & Jon Stewart joke backstage of The Daily Show, each wearing the uniform of oppressive regimes. |
Some might say nothing more needed to happen. That Stewart's lack of coverage meant the "scandal" was not worth further coverage or acknowledgement. And to those people I say, if Letterman can still make "Chris Christie is fat" jokes, if comic legend Robert Klein can still do his bit on the Red Hot Chili Peppers and that old 4-hour erection/Viagra joke, and if Jon effin' Stewart can shrug at the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal one day then ask us to look closer at it a few days later, then sure as George W. Bush can get a library named after him, I can sure as hell take a closer look at the dude who's made the worst splash in his meteoric rise to stardom since, well, Tom Arnold (how a rising meteor splashes is a question best answered by Neil deGrasse Tyson; me, I'm just gonna press on)...
/span> Comedy Central's Kent Alterman made the decision on Noah. And that would explain Stewart's choice to essentially say nothing more than "I don't necessarily hate him, you might not maybe shouldn't yet hate him either."
Skipping the Tweets that just fell flat (this would be most of his Tweets, but in terms of the scandal, Noah's tweet about "women's hockey [being] like lesbian porn ... without the porn" is simply saying that there are a lot of gay women playing hockey, and he seems to like looking at them. I don't know if a lot do play hockey, but if this were softball or field hockey, well, um, yeah, it sure could be the fact. A stereotype? Sure. But it's not an insulting one, unless you think that saying lesbians play sports a lot is insulting), I'm just moving ahead and looking at those tweets which truly seemed to be hateful.
In Noah's defense, let's keep in mind, each of the next three tweets are anywhere from about one to several years old:
Originally when men proposed they went down on one knee so if the woman said no they were in the perfect uppercut position.
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) December 20, 2012
"Oh yeah the weekend. People are gonna get drunk & think that I'm sexy!" - fat chicks everywhere.
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) October 14, 2011<
Messi gets the ball and the real players try foul him, but Messi doesn't go down easy, just like jewish chicks. #ElClasico
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) January 25, 2012
So the first Tweet above is about punching women. I don't think there is anyone defending this. Well, you know, except for Ray Rice's wife. (*sigh*)
The second states that women who are overweight are only attractive to drunk men. Sexist men the world over who don't like fat girls are definitely defending this one. But how that's gonna get them laid is beyond me.
The third tweet re-uses that ol' chestnut about Jewish gals not enjoying going down on men and turns it on its ear...no, wait, it just re-uses the ol' chestnut (untrue by the way, and big thank yous to Michelle, Shari, Susan, Maureen, Melissa, and all the rest whose names I have absolutely not forgotten, I swear). It's not so much offensive on its own (it's a bad joke using a stereotype), but as part of a pattern which is forming, well, it doesn't look great. Especially when the rest of that pattern is anti-Semitism...
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!
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) September 18, 2009
This one has been quite controversial. Some say it's anti-Semitic. Others say that the joke is just that hitting a Jewish kid with a German car is far worse than just accidentally hitting him.
Again, looking at the pattern of jokes (two more of this ilk follow, admittedly over the course of several years), it doesn't speak well of the author.
No matter how you look at that above tweet, however, the crux of it is that he's joking about hitting a child with his car. Tasteless no matter the creed of the subject. Now, heat your skillet to about 300 degrees, melt the butter and add just a sprig of Nazism...and what you've got will definitely leave a bad taste in your mouth (which reminds me, I owe Susan an apology).
Sooo, on its own? Not the worst joke in the world (we'll refer you to that Tosh fella and his rape joke aimed at a patron for that...or my "apology to Susan" joke above), but, thank goodness there was more!...
Sure, plenty of people have this opinion of Israel...but they don't have this opinion and also make jokes about Jewish women's aversion to sex (well, they do, but they're usually hairy Jewish men with small penises [oops, stereotypes abound!]) or about hitting Jewish children with cars (well, they do, but they're usually blonde, blue-eyed fellows in black uniforms. [ack! Did it again!]).
Speaking of doing it again...
Behind every successful Rap Billionaire is a double as rich Jewish man. #BeatsByDreidel
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) May 12, 2014
Wow, so the rich Jews control everything. That's the implication here. Now, by the same token, it might very well be a true statement, but the "double as rich Jewish man" phraseology has a tinge of spite (add it to the skillet with the sprig of Nazism and the butter, don't forget to chop the chip on your shoulder...).
That phrasing can surely be called into question. It's like if I went to watch a Washington Redskins game and, at the concession, ordered a "Bloody Tomahawk Double-Dog" (a double-sized hot dog with extra ketchup). You'd probably think that naming a hot dog that is almost as insensitive as calling your team the Washington Redskins.* That is to say, it's really just not okay.
(*No, there's no such thing as a "Bloody Tomahawk Double-Dog" -- this is satire, that was a joke. Just like Redskins owner Dan Snyder.)
The most interesting thing about the above is that a lot of people don't see this as racist. For instance after one twitter user said Noah's comment was indeed racist, another Twitterer replied:
@bluejames are you drunk who is this racist to?
Jimmy Iovine is richer than Dr Dre. How is a fact
racist? I don't need fans like you.
Oh wait, that was Trevor Noah himself handling a heckler with wit and aplomb.
Darn-it-all...there I go mistyping again: I meant, "That was Trevor Noah himself handling a heckler with a total lack of wit and aplomb."
Here he is trying it again...
@sgreenbl there's only one rap billionaire. How is this stereotyping? Are you being serious right now?
Seriously. If it wasn't so pathetic, it'd be funny. Wait, wait, it actually is funny. Trevor Noah's sad display, his awfully ridiculous attempt at defending his work is actually funnier than the work itself.
But don't fear, Z!TV is here to help with that!
See, since Jon Stewart seems to have no interest in defending Noah, outside of asking us to give him a chance, and since Noah has not apologized, nor said that people misconstrued his words, nor said that -- since some tweets are several years old -- he's grown as a person, nor said that he is seeking counseling for what seems to be his obvious hatred of Jews and women, nor said that he is going to try and do better or be a better person, nor said that he simply enjoys off-color humor and meant no harm, nor said that he actually likes Jews and "fat chicks," nor said...shit, now I've completely forgotten my point.
Oh right!
Since Noah hasn't done any of the above, let's play...
TEACH TREVOR NOAH COMEDY!...
A game where Z!TV rewrites Noah's most offensive tweets! It's in the next blog post.
-30-
Photos & Images Used Solely for Parody Purposes.
Original Trevor Noah & Jon Stewart image source: Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment