Network backs Noah amid tweet backlash
Trevor Noah, the newly announced host of “The Daily Show,” rejected the backlash over his graphic tweets targeting Jews and women as an unfair reflection of him and his comedy.
“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,” Noah posted Tuesday on his Twitter account, the same one that included past tweets others deemed offensive.
Comedy Central also came to his defense, calling Noah a “provocative” comedian who “spares no one, himself included.”
“To judge him or his comedy based on a handful of jokes is unfair,” the network said in a statement, adding that he has “a bright future at Comedy Central.”
Noah was announced as Jon Stewart’s successor Monday. The next day, he was a trending topic on Twitter as he drew fire for jokes described as tasteless, hateful – and unfunny.
Roseanne Barr was among those calling out the 31-year-old South African comic, who has an international following and 2 million Twitter followers.
“U should cease sexist & anti semitic ‘humor’ about jewish women & Israel,” she tweeted late Monday.
Noah’s controversial tweets were posted between 2009 and 2014.
In 2009 he wrote: “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!”
A 2012 post derides “jewish chicks.” Another one from 2011 jokes about “a hot white woman.”
Barbara’s back on ‘American Scandal’
Barbara Walters’ famous chats with the infamous have found a home on cable network Investigation Discovery.
The true crime channel owned by Discovery Communications announced Tuesday that it has ordered “American Scandal,” a new series in which Walters will revisit her interviews with convicted diet doc killer Jean Harris, John Lennon’s assassin Mark David Chapman, fallen TV minister James Bakker and others, using footage that never made it to air when first shown by ABC News.
The series promises to provide new details about the subjects’ notorious cases.
The series will be the first since Walters officially retired from ABC News last May. She has returned for a few exclusive interviews for ABC News and some visits to her old daytime talk show “The View.”
No air date has been set for the six episodes ordered from ABC’s Lincoln Square Productions.
The birthday bunch
Actress Jane Powell is 86. Actress Debbie Reynolds is 83. Country singer Jim Ed Brown is 81. Actress Ali MacGraw is 76. Reggae singer Jimmy Cliff is 67. Actress Annette O’Toole is 63. Singer Susan Boyle is 54. Comedian-actor Taran Killam is 33. Country singer Hillary Scott (Lady Antebellum) is 29.