"The Problem Isn�t That Trevor Noah Is Offensive. The Problem Is That He�s a Giant Dope."

Headline at Slate.

The problem is not that Trevor Noah tells offensive jokes. It�s not even that he routinely breaks The Daily Show's covenant of speaking truth to power in favor of speaking truth to fat chicks or Thai hookers or, as the Washington Post�s Wendy Todd points out, black Americans who give their kids names that Noah disapproves of. The problem is that Noah�s jokes are so annihilatingly stupid.

Jeez, they're swarming this poor man. A giant dope? Isn't that insult dopey? I read the article, and it seems that Noah's problem is he needs better joke-writers. I'd say: He's getting "The Daily Show"'s joke-writers, so the question is only how he looks, how he delivers the jokes, and how he manages the interviews. If you're not going to rest on the ground that his old jokes were so offensive that he can't be the face of the brand, what's the problem? He's a giant dope? That makes zero sense. It's as if the writer � Jessica Winter � doesn't know that there are writers. That's annihilatingly stupid.

Now, the Wendy Todd article (linked above) makes a much stronger point: It seems that "The Daily Show" may be installing Noah because he's been getting away with mocking black people. Todd, who is black, says:

[On "The Tonight Show"] Noah joked that black people are misidentified as African Americans. �They�re not African, but we�ll play along,� he said, adding, �Many of them really try to connect with Africa, you know? Some of them have these African names. They�ll be like, �Yeah, yeah, that�s my girl Wanda, yeah, yeah. Yeah that�s right, that�s Dashiqua, or dat�s Taniqua.� Noah emphasized all this �hilarity� by using stereotypical B-Boy hand gestures to drive it home � because this is how all black people communicate, obviously. Leno�s predominantly white audience ate it up....

Not only did Noah get away with these routines, now he�s being rewarded for them. And the sadder thing is that the next time we have this �there aren�t enough people of color in the late night arena� conversation, people will point to Noah and say, �See, we gave you another one.�