Comedian Trevor Noah thinks he was an “idiot” when he made controversial jokes about women several years ago, the incoming Daily Show host told GQ for a profile published this week.
“You show me half my jokes from even two years ago, three years ago—I hate them,” he said. “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.'”
Noah came under fire earlier this year for tweets from several years back that made light of overweight women and joked about Israel. And, while Noah no longer stands by those Tweets today, he told GQ that his new attitude towards the comments “shows that [he’s] grown.”
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Write to Justin Worland at justin.worland@time.com