Posted on July 23, 2018

Trevor Noah: “I’ve Never Seen a Beautiful Aborigine.”

Sam Lock, Daily Mail, July 22, 2018

Popular U.S. comedian and host of the top rating ‘The Daily Show’ Trevor Noah has come under fire for a comedy routine where he called Aboriginal women unattractive.

Footage of his stand-up show, from 2013, emerged ahead of his Australian tour, which starts in Melbourne next month.

‘All women of every race can be beautiful,’ Noah tells an audience in the footage which emerged online overnight.

‘And I know some of you are sitting there now going, ‘Oh Trevor, yeah, but I’ve never seen a beautiful Aborigine’, he jokes.

‘Yeah, but you know what you say? You say ”yet”, that’s what you say; ”yet”. Because you haven’t seen all of them, right?’

‘Plus it’s not always about looks, maybe Aborigine women do special things, maybe they’ll just like, jump on top of you,’ Noah, 34, concludes, before imitating the sound of a didgeridoo while inferring oral sex.

Noah, who took on the role as The Daily Show host three years ago from Jon Stewart, apologised for his comments on Twitter on Monday.

‘After visiting Australia’s Bunjilaka museum and learning about aboriginal history first hand I vowed never to make a joke like that again. And I haven’t. I’ll make sure the clip from 2013 is not promoted in any way,’ he wrote.

The clip, which was uploaded to YouTube under the title of ‘Women of all Race are Beautiful’, has since been removed by The Daily Show’s David Meyer, who filed a copyright complaint against the video.

However, Daily Mail Australia has obtained the original footage.

Social media has erupted with calls for the comedian’s upcoming Australian tour to be boycotted.

‘He grossly sexualises and objectifies First Nations Australian women for a ‘joke’,’ Katelyn Jones of the Feminism & Decolonisation Facebook page said.

‘He perpetuated incredibly harmful stereotypes … that Indigenous women aren’t beautiful, that Indigenous women are only good for their bodies; and Indigenous women are over-sexualised sex starved beings,’ Ms Jones said.

Others said Noah’s comments were ‘unacceptable’ and ‘perpetrating and encouraging racial abuse.’

‘For such a social justice warrior, your race baiting isn’t smart or witty at all. It’s simply racist. Our beautiful black women shouldn’t be treated like the punchline of a joke,’ wrote one user on Twitter.

‘I can’t bring myself to watch that, I’m so tired of Aboriginal women being used as punchlines for cheap laughs from talentless hacks,’ another person said.

‘We deserve so much better and I hope this guy falls and fades into obscurity, he doesn’t deserve a platform if he’s going to punch down like this.’

The South African-born comedian who hosts the Emmy Award-winning show, caused controversy with previous tasteless jokes in relation to women, Jewish people and rapper Chris Brown.

‘You show me half my jokes from even two years ago, three years ago — I hate them,’ Noah told GQ in 2015.

‘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,’ he said.

The comedian is set to touch down in Australia next month for a five-date tour beginning August 23 and including Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, and Sydney.