The Stream

New ‘Daily Show’ host Trevor Noah caught in a storm of controversy

Twitter debates accusations of racism and sexism against new host of US comedy programme.

South African comedian Trevor Noah was recently announced as the successor of Jon Stewart, the soon-departing host of the immensely popular US news comedy programme The Daily Show, which airs on Comedy Central. But it didn’t take long for initial jubilation over the announcement to turn to controversy, as old jokes tweeted by Noah were widely deemed “racist” and “sexist”: