Trevor Noah’s World Cup joke upsets France
After France triumphed Sunday in the FIFA World Cup, Daily Show host Trevor Noah was ready to celebrate. “I’m so excited,” he said on his show Monday, grinning and breaking into a little ditty. “Africa won the World Cup! Africa won the World Cup!” he sang, before joking that “you don’t get that tan by hanging out in the south of France.”
Noah was recognizing the multi-ethnic background of France’s team, which topped a list of World Cup teams with the most diversity. It was a joke you might expect from Noah, a South African native and biracial son of a white father and black mother.
But as Noah informed his audience in between scenes while filming his show, Gerard Araud, France’s ambassador to the United States, didn’t find the joke funny. “I heard your words about ‘an African victory,’” Araud wrote in a letter the host read to his guests. “Nothing could be less true.”
“Now, first of all ... I could have said they were Scandinavian,” Noah joked. “That would have been less true.”
Noah read more of the letter, which was posted to the French Embassy’s official Facebook page, in a faux French accent. Araud noted that “all but two out of 23” of the players “were born in France, they were educated in France, they learned to play soccer in France, they are French citizens.”
Noah said Araud’s letter ignored something. “Black people all over the world were celebrating the African-ness of the French players,” Noah explained. “Not in a negative way, but rather, in a positive way, going, ‘Look at these Africans who can become French.’ You know what I mean? It’s a celebration of that achievement.”