‘I did make jokes after my mother was shot’: Trevor Noah responds to backlash after Kashmir joke

Daily Show host Trevor Noah has explained his controversial joke about a possible war between India and Pakistan, saying comedy is how he dealt with even personally traumatic experiences.

Noah caused controversy online with an episode of the show, in which he described a potential war between India and Pakistan as a “most entertaining” Bollywood-style event, complete with singing and dancing numbers on the battlefield. The remark referred to an ongoing flare-up between the two nuclear-armed nations, which involved a direct air engagement of their warplanes for the first time since the 1971 war.

Some people were angered by the joke, saying it trivialized the grave situation and played on stereotypes in an insulting way. On Saturday, Noah responded to one such critical comment, which said he wouldn’t be joking this way about personal trauma, like the assault on his mother by his abusive stepfather.

The comedian responded to the contrary, saying he joked about this dramatic episode of his life in stand-up shows as a way of coping with the trauma. He added his joke “amazingly” seemed to get more attention online than the conflict itself.

Noah is certainly no stranger to angering people with jokes about acts of violence. Last year, he received a backlash for an old routine about the 2012 Marikana massacre, in which he seemingly defended the South African government’s crackdown on a miner strike, which resulted in almost 50 deaths.

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