Daily Show Calls Out Racist Fox News Segment

at
Share This Post

screen-shot-2016-10-07-at-3-15-06-pm

Trevor Noah and “The Daily Show” retaliated to an infamous “O’Reilly Factor” segment exploiting the whole gamut of Asian stereotypes. Under the loose premise of sending a reporter to Chinatown because China was mentioned twelve times in the presidential debate, Fox News’ Jesse Watters’ interviews with bemused, elderly non-English speakers were intercut with practically ancient references (Chris Farley made an appearance). “Daily Show” correspondent Ronny Chieng walked audiences through exactly how broad of a douchebag brush Watters painted all Asians with.

The Fox news show may have thought they were mimicking their liberal counterparts with their segment. To focus specifically on those interviews with seemingly confused, yet polite, older folks, you can try to compare it to liberal-produced interviews with Trump supporters.
The “O’Reilly Factor” plays cricket sound effects to play up their interviewee’s absence of a response to the question. Deriving humor from an interviewee’s silence or bungled response could perhaps have been considered fair game in juxtaposition to interviews portraying Trump supporters as incoherent and uninformed. The glaring difference is that those people speak English, so not only can they answer the reporter’s questions, but they’ve actually consented to being on camera.

“The Daily Show” isn’t unmarked by past allegations of racism, but that track record doesn’t negate their participation in a dialogue about race and the media. Under the old regime, there was Jon Stewart using what ex-writer Wyatt Cenac considered a “Kingfisher” voice and Stewart’s alleged defensiveness at Cenac voicing this opinion. With Noah, there was a long history of tweets from the comedian that offended multiple groups and started a trend of vetting new television stars via their self-curated online presence. Depending on the individual, you could argue some of those tweets were as tasteless as this “O’Reilly” segment. However, this very personal familiarity with allegations of racism only makes “The Daily Show” a more valid player in the cultural dialogue about race. It’s a back and forth and the only potential benefit from someone saying something that hurts others is that they’ll learn from what they’ve said and not repeat their mistake. “The Daily Show” is an exemplar symbol of not repeating mistakes.

Read more comedy news.

The following two tabs change content below.

Rachel Crowe

The most notable lies Rachel Crowe has ever told were that she has 10 children (no twins), she’s running a marathon retracing the path her ancestors took to evade the IRS and that she found childcare for 10 on a Saturday night. She’s also a stand-up comedian and dog walker living in Los Angeles. Follow Rachel on Twitter @Racheddar or on Instagram @thelma_and_disease. Or don’t, but at least appreciate those fresh hot puns.
Rachel Crowe

Rachel Crowe

The most notable lies Rachel Crowe has ever told were that she has 10 children (no twins), she’s running a marathon retracing the path her ancestors took to evade the IRS and that she found childcare for 10 on a Saturday night. She’s also a stand-up comedian and dog walker living in Los Angeles. Follow Rachel on Twitter @Racheddar or on Instagram @thelma_and_disease. Or don’t, but at least appreciate those fresh hot puns.