Trevor Noah on using the N-word: ‘Just stop saying it or just be racist’
Trevor Noah waded into the controversy surrounding the podcast host Joe Rogan on Monday evening, after the musician India Arie announced she would remove her music from Spotify, which has a lucrative deal with Rogan, because she objected to Rogan’s “language around race”. Arie also published a compilation of Rogan – who was under fire last week for coronavirus misinformation on his podcast, prompting musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to pull their catalogues from Spotify – saying the N-word on his podcast.
“If there’s ever a video of you saying the N-word that many times, you better pray one of two things: either you’re Black person, or you’re a dead man from history,” Noah said on Monday’s Daily Show.
On Saturday, Rogan issued a videotaped apology in which he called the compilation “the most regretful and shameful thing that I’ve ever had to talk about publicly” and said his past use of the word would make sense in context.
“Maybe you’re a professor teaching history, maybe you’re a news anchor reporting on a story about Joe Rogan, maybe you’re in a Quentin Tarantino movie and you have to use the N-word, because if you don’t, the movie has no dialogue,” said Noah of the context argument. “But for the most part, as a white person, you never need to use the N-word.”
“Here’s a life hack for white people: saying the actual N-word puts you in unnecessary trouble, especially if you’re not racist,” he added. “It doesn’t matter the context. Because Black people don’t have the time to sit down and sort out the racist who says the Nword 70 times with the non-racist who says the N-word 70 times. Black people are dealing with too much shit!”
“Just stop saying it or just be racist – it’s easier for everyone that way.”
Noah also addressed a separate clip in which Rogan described entering a cinema in a Black neighborhood as “we walked into Planet of the Apes. We walked into Africa, dude.”
In the apology, Rogan said he “did not, nor would I ever, say that Black people are apes, but it sure fuckin’ sounded like that.
“First of all, he said he would never say Black people are apes, but he said that. That’s literally what he said,” Noah responded. “You did say it, which is racist. And it’s not just racist. Let’s be honest – that’s like OG racism. That’s like the original, old-school racism. Like that’s on the Mount Rushmore of racism.”
But what Noah found “particularly illuminating” was Rogan’s claim that he wasn’t being racist with the story, just entertaining. “No, Joe, I think you were using racism to be entertaining,” Noah said. “I’m not saying you were trying to offend Black people, by the way, but you knew that offending Black people would get a laugh out of those white friends who you were with.”
Jimmy Kimmel
And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel reacted to an overdue rebuke of Donald Trump by his former running mate,
Mike Pence. “I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to overturn the election,” Pence told a conference hosted by the conservative Federalist Society in Florida on Friday. “President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election.”
“Strong words – ‘President Trump was wrong,’” Kimmel said. “You know he spent all day practicing that in front of a mirror as mother patted him gently on the britches.”
Pence also said “there’s no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”
“Well if that isn’t Stella getting her groove back, I don’t know what is,” Kimmel noted. “The vice-poodle has been unleashed. What a weird turn of events. I thought for sure Melania would dump Trump before Mike Pence did.”
And in other Trump news, the former president was reportedly “confused” that staff did not enjoy him replaying footage from the January 6 attack on the Capitol. “Good old Captain Bonespurs, he’s always loved watching others do the fighting,” Kimmel mocked. “Can you imagine how spectacularly pathetic you have to be to get pleasure from watching that? He probably made Don Jr and Eric wrestle each other for spaghetti every Friday night.”
Now out of office, Trump has been camped out at his Mar-a-Lago resort, which advertised a party this weekend with the former president as disc jockey. “DJ Don!” said Kimmel. “And I want you to imagine now what song this great lover of music might pick to get his guests up and going …”
Kimmel’s pick: YMCA, “his inexplicable campaign rally song. The man basically lives in a catering hall. Also, he dances like a Rock ’em Sock ’em robot.”