Race and Comedy

Dear Maggie,

I recently watched Trevor Noah’s Netflix comedy special, Trevor Noah: Afraid of the Dark and have decided to write about it on this blog for my Netflix and Quill class. I thought, after watching it, you would also enjoy this show. This stems from a multitude of aspects from Trevor Noah’s personality and humor to his take on current events. I personally enjoyed this show and think you would enjoy it just as much as I would.

I think you have probably heard of Trevor Noah before, but in case you haven’t he is a very interesting man. Noah is a man originally from South Africa, who has moved to America and is the current host of the Daily Show. Noah recently published an interesting autobiography about his experiences with apartheid South Africa labeled Born a Crime. In this book Trevor discusses how his existence was a crime when he was born due to his mother being black and his father being white. He then describes his upbringing and the troubles he had. One example of this is when he and his mother had to walk on the opposite side of the road than his father, due to the fact they couldn’t be seen together. After all this struggle Noah still has a fantastic sense of humor that shows in this special and in all of his works. He is a true inspiration and I think you’d enjoy all of his works.

Another reason I think you’d like Trevor Noah and, more specifically, this Netflix special is due to his political commentary. Your passion for politics is one of the characteristics I greatly appreciate. We both have an interest in this field. I think you’d greatly enjoy Noah’s take on politics from the conversations we have shared on politics. He makes great statements on Colonization and current events in this comedy special. While these are in the context of jokes they often have a political undertone that I find interesting and enlightening. His comments on race are especially interesting due to his perspective living in South Africa and America along with his frequent travels. He proves to be a moderate tone in a world that is becoming more and more polarized. One example in this show is his statement on Idris Elba playing James Bond. He states at first it could be seen as racist how people are arguing James Bond can’t be black, but he makes the statement that there are few people who are black in Great Britain, which is troubling for a spy. His humor fills all of these poignant statements on politics.

Overall I think you’d greatly enjoy the film and the works of Trevor Noah in general. He proves to be an intelligent, moderate commentator on politics. He also proves to be hilarious in all the forms of comedy he engages in from stand up, this this special, to his recorded Daily Daily Show episodes. I find him very interesting and think you would as well. I recently learned that his book is being made into a film. Depending on when is comes out maybe we could take a group from the church to go and see it.