Trevor Noah on His Controversial Jokes: “I Was an Idiot”t

Trevor Noah on His Controversial Jokes: “I Was an Idiot”

The new Daily Show host finally addresses the criticism of his older material.

Just after Comedy Central announced Trevor Noah would take over for Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, newly anointed host Noah found himself caught in an Internet uproar around certain controversial jokes found buried in his Twitter feed. An uproar before the job even starts? That’s an inauspicious beginning to say the least. While both Comedy Central and Stewart were quick to defend their new hire, the young South African comedian remained largely silent on the subject after tweeting and then hastily deleting an oblique response. But with the dust around the original controversy settling and Noah’s September 28 start date looming, the comedian is finally addressing the indiscretions of his youth. Sort of.

In a lengthy interview with GQ titled “Is Trevor Noah Ready for the Daily Show?,” the comedian carefully refrained from saying the words “tweet” or “Twitter,” but did address the older material that people found not only controversial but, even more damningly, not all that funny. Noah told GQ:

You show me half my jokes from even two years ago, three years ago—I hate them. Because you see, like, a young version of yourself. You’re like, “Why would you say that? You idiot! That makes no sense.” Or, “That’s just stupid.” Or, “Ahh, I can’t believe I said that about a woman.” You should not like what you did back then, because that shows that you’ve grown. If you’re still doing it, that’s a scarier place to be.

The fact that Noah brings up jokes from not that long ago (his most recent controversial tweet was written in February of this year) and questionable treatment of women (afrequent subject of his early Twitter days) makes it pretty clear that while he may not address the tweets directly, he’s at least coming at them sideways. So if you’re a Jon Stewart true believer who doesn’t think this green 31-year-old is up for the job, know that at least a few of the things you’ve said about Noah are things he’s said himself—and what he thinks, ultimately, will make him good for the job after all. “That's a great thing for me,” he says at the end of the GQ piece. “When I get a chance to look back and go: ‘I was an idiot.’ ”