Patton Oswalt Had a Lot to Say About the Trevor Noah Backlash

2 minute read
By Nolan Feeney

Within 24 hours of being named Jon Stewart’s successor on The Daily Show, South African comedian Trevor Noah found himself in hot water over some old tweets that critics deemed sexist, anti-Semitic and fat-shaming. “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 wrote in response.

Enter Patton Oswalt, who is no stranger to criticizing what he thinks is unnecessary political correctness infiltrating comedy (for the worse). Last night Oswalt came to Noah’s defense with an elaborate, 53-part Twitter joke that took aim at trigger warnings, disclaimers and the way people talk about privilege on the Internet. The gist of his argument is basically, “So what if jokes are offensive? Deciding who or what is off-limits—or going out of your way to placate—is terrible for comedy.” But you can read the whole thing (excerpted below) over at his account and decide for yourself.

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Write to Nolan Feeney at nolan.feeney@time.com