Trevor Noah wins Erasmus Prize
NEW YORK - Trevor Noah’s comedic talents are making the South African a historical figure.
The former Daily Show host has won Europe’s Erasmus Prize, making him the first comedian to win the prestigious prize since Charlie Chaplin in 1965.
The Praemium Erasmianum Foundation announced Noah as the winner of the Erasmus Prize on Thursday.
“He received the prize for his inspired contribution to the theme In Praise of Folly, named after Erasmus’ most famous book, filled with humour, social criticism and political satire,” reads a press statement.
The foundation revealed that ‘only once before in its 65-year history has a humourist won the Erasmus Prize: Charlie Chaplin received the award from His Highness Prince Bernhard in 1965’.
Noting that Noah’s time as host of The Daily Show coincided with Donald foundation praised the comedian for ‘his astute reflections on such issues’, adding he had ‘garnered a young, diverse and global audience and, in the process, infused a highly polarised media landscape with a breath of fresh air’.
Furthermore, Noah was lauded for staking his claim ‘in the world of contemporary political satire’ and becoming ‘an inspiration to budding talents and a curator of comedy shows in Africa’.
“Satirical humour may be provocative, shocking and even offensive, but it is fundamental in a free society,” wrote Lyn Snodgrass - Associate Professor and Head of Department of Political and Conflict Studies, Nelson Mandela University - for The Conversation in 2016. “Charlie Chaplin observed that: ‘The function of comedy is to sharpen our sensitivity to the perversions of justice within the society in which we live’.”