The Daily Show‘s Aasif Mandvi told LinkedIn exec editor Dan Roth today the controversy over new host Trevor Noah is “much ado about nothing.”
“The guy made some sort of, you know, off-color, irresponsible tweets, but he was trying to be funny,” Mandvi said, adding, “I think the millennials understand this more than the people who are sort of upset about this…”
Asked how he thinks Noah will do as Jon Stewart’s replacement, Mandvi said, “great” because, “They wanted someone who’s a fresh, new face. I don’t think they wanted to go with somebody who’s a part of The Daily Show family already in a more entrenched way. So Trevor is relatively new, and he’s a great stand-up, and he’s funny…I think it’s going to be great. He’s young and all that stuff.”
One day after announcing its new The Daily Show host, Comedy Central said this afternoon it is standing by Trevor Noah while the media and the blathersphere blasted away at the comic’s Twitter history, digging up some pretty incendiary stuff in less than 24 hours.
“Like many comedians, Trevor Noah pushes boundaries; he is provocative and spares no one, himself included,” Comedy Central felt compelled to say this afternoon, following a brutal morning of Noah bashing in the press. “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.”
Others, however, aren’t so sure, after half a day’s worth of headlines wondering Did Trevor Noah’s Twitter History Just Kill ‘The Daily Show’? or insisting, Trevor Noah Goes From Hero To Villain In 24 Hours.
Noah dismissed his tweets as just bad jokes that “didn’t land.” Which begs the question why Comedy Central hired the guy, some asked – or at least why the network didn’t vet his Twitter account before making the announcement.
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