Bongani Ndlovu Showbiz Correspondent
ZIMBABWEAN comedians have applauded the selection of South Africa’s leading comedian — Trevor Noah — as the successor to John Stewart on The Daily Show — describing the development as a positive move that would shift focus to African comedy.Noah, 31, was on Monday announced as the new host of The Daily Show — an American late-night talk and news satire television programme which airs from Monday to Thursday on Comedy Central, replacing Stewart who will step down later this year.

The network’s selection of Noah comes less than two months after Stewart, 52, revealed that he was leaving the show after a highly successful 16-year run that transformed the show into an authoritative, satirical comedy on current events.

Carl Joshua Ncube, arguably the biggest comedy export from Zimbabwe, said they were proud of Noah’s latest achievement.

“Trevor is a trailblazer and we always want our careers to move in the same direction as his. It’s amazing that Americans picked an African to head one of their popular programmes. The focus internationally now is going to be on comedy from Southern Africa and that will open doors for us,” he said.

Ncube said more needed to be done in Zimbabwe so that comedians can become international brands like Noah.

“Government and corporate support is needed in Zimbabwe. Trevor comes from a country where there’s financial support from government and corporates for comedy.”

Another comedian, Clive Chigubu, who is attending an Easter Theatre Festival in Malawi, said Noah earned the American job as he had made a name for himself.

“Trevor deserves to be on that show. He made a name for himself as a comedian that comes from Africa when he performed there two months ago.

“It’s very important to master the international standards of comedy so that we become brands that can make it worldwide,” Chigubu said.

Umahlekisa Comedy Club director Ntando Van Moyo said Noah’s appointment would hopefully pave the way for other African comedians to make it on syndicated television in America.

“I’m sure Trevor’s appointment will pave way for fellow African comedians. This will help us become international brands like Trevor,” he said.

Van Moyo added that Noah’s achievement proved that hard work and perseverance pays off.

Noah is confident that he will do a great job when he takes over from Stewart.

“No-one can replace Jon Stewart. But together with the amazing team at The Daily Show, we’ll continue to make this the best damn news show”.

But, Noah may want to do some damage control before taking up the new job as he is facing a backlash over his Twitter history.

After his appointment as the new The Daily Show host, Twitter was awash with accusations of Noah being anti-Semitic and sexist over his past jokes.

The comedian, who has previously appeared on The Daily Show as an international correspondent, has been acting and doing stand-up comedy for years. It appears that as Americans began acquainting themselves with Noah, they also discovered a few jokes that were quickly deemed “anti-Semitic” and “sexist.”

“Messi gets the ball and the Real players try to foul him, but Messi doesn’t go down easy, just like Jewish chicks.

“Oh yeah, the weekend. People are gonna get drunk & think that I’m sexy!” — Fat chicks everywhere,” read some of Trevor Noah’s tweets.

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