Over the summer, Instagram personality and professional joke thief Fat Jew was lambasted for his blatant thievery of comedy. Now the new host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah, is under fire for seemingly pilfering a Dave Chappelle bit for his own standup routine.
During a 20-minute standup set at Politicon in Los Angeles last Saturday, Noah referred to himself as a “racism connoisseur.”
“Before I came to America, I thought I knew all kinds of racism, I’ve always considered myself something of a racism connoisseur. I appreciate the finer racism. Not to say I appreciate all racism, but a finer racism.”
Which if that sounds familiar it is because the great Dave Chappelle referred to himself as a “racism connoisseur” nearly 20 years ago. Flashback to Chappelle’s HBO special from January 1998:
“Traveling has made me a racism connoisseur, if you will. You know, it’s different region to region. Anyone ever been down South? So you guys know what I’m talking about. The racism down there is just fucking (bon appetit gesture) — it’s perfect.”
For fuck’s sake Trevor, at the very least change the words a little so it’s not completely obvious that you ripped off a famous Chappelle bit. Maybe “racism savant” or “racism maven,” but definitely not “racism connoisseur.”
But there are more similarities, including when talking about blatant racism that they would be greeted with the “N-word.”
This is not the first accusation that Trevor Noah is a joke thief. Back in April, world-famous comedian Russell Peters claimed that Noah stole jokes from him and other comics.
“He’s also a thief, but that’s irrelevant. He’s stolen material from David Kau, he’s stolen material from myself,” said Peters. “You don’t borrow in this business. If you’re a comedian, that’s like stealing somebody’s underwear and putting them on. That doesn’t make any sense. Why would you do that?”
However, Peters later claimed his remarks were a “prank.”
So what says you? Is this just a case of parallel thinking or blatant joke stealing?
The similar Chappelle bit starts at the 1:00 mark.
[THR]