A Rising Star Stalled by Toxic Tweets
"Manchester United is like a white girl. Heavy upfront but lacking in the back."
"Oh yeah the weekend. People are gonna get drunk & think that I'm sexy! - fat chicks everywhere."
"Behind every successful Rap Billionaire is a double as rich (sic) Jewish man."
Reaction to these clinkers, which sound as sophisticated as beer-soaked ramblings from party animals on spring break, has been predictably negative. Yet so has the backlash against those who, like me, want fairness for young Trevor.
It's worth noting that Noah responded by asking us, his audience, to judge him by current work, not by a few tweeted "jokes that didn't land." That's reasonable. Most of Noah's objectionable tweets come from at least five years ago. I certainly wouldn't want to be judged by every bad joke I have attempted in the past, especially those that live on in the archives of my past columns.
It also is worth noting that one of Noah's grandparents is Jewish, by his own accounts. That doesn't give him a license to tell anti-Semitic jokes but it may help explain why he, an otherwise intelligent guy, allowed himself to foolishly try out this particular line of attempted humor in a forum as public as Twitter.
Fortunately for his future prospects, Comedy Central and Jon Stewart are standing behind Noah. The Anti-Defamation League in a statement issued by its national director, Abraham Foxman, also diplomatically wished him "every success" while also urging him to make sure the show "remains funny and irreverent without trafficking in bigoted jokes at the expense of Jews."
That's good news. Noah deserves at least to be given a chance to perform his new job before he is threatened with losing it.
But Noah's experience also serves as a lesson in the unwritten rules of comedy etiquette. It is funnier to punch up, as the old saying goes, than to punch down. Deflating the pompous and powerful can be hilarious. Ridiculing the weak is just sad.
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E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.
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