The Daily Show’s social media feed issued a clarification Monday evening after a joke about abortion went sideways and earned the late night comedy program a heap of scorn from media.
“Friends, we’re certainly not promoting abortions. Just excited about #SCOTUS reaffirming right to choose,” said the show’s Twitter feed.
The clarification came after the feed joked about abortion following the Supreme Court ruling 5-3 that Texas’ recently enacted abortion regulations unconstitutionally limited a woman’s access to abortion under Roe v. Wade.
“Celebrate the #SCOTUS ruling! Go knock someone up in Texas!” the Daily Show said in a Tweet Monday afternoon. Reporters and pundits were not amused by the social media feed’s joke, which did seem to promote abortions, despite its comment later on.
This is… this is very terrible. https://t.co/iD2bAWlQrL
— Dana Schwartz (@DanaSchwartzzz) June 27, 2016
“The Daily Show with Andrew Dice Clay,” I guess. (Good social media people are hard to find.) https://t.co/PfojFCY9Zn
— Mike Ryan (@mikeryan) June 27, 2016
I mean, we all have screenshots by now — but how isn’t this deleted yet? https://t.co/sDbCvCWggY
— Brett S. Verg-ARIE ? (@BrettSVergara) June 27, 2016
That is…not the point of this case. https://t.co/RSjrih1nH6
— Alexandra Svokos (@asvokos) June 27, 2016
So crass. Missing the point. https://t.co/eKGGtjJw2j
— Christy Havranek (@diopter) June 27, 2016
Can we have Jon Stewart back now 0_o https://t.co/juAXSLsphf
— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) June 27, 2016
This is a bad tweet https://t.co/94xuAOwHHO
— Bonnie Stiernberg (@aahrealbonsters) June 27, 2016
So this happened. SERIOUSLY. https://t.co/uCjYoqhIs7
— Juleyka (@JuleykaLantigua) June 27, 2016
Jon Stewart is rolling over in his grave. https://t.co/fJ0yBsdqgu
— Jeremy Repanich (@racefortheprize) June 27, 2016
Is the Daily Show a parody news parody show? https://t.co/egbhTmyjWg
— Josh Greenman (@joshgreenman) June 27, 2016
This is not the first time that the “Daily Show” and relatively new host, Trevor Noah, have drawn fire from media. The South African comedian was criticized in March 2015 after journalist discovered a series of his “controversial” tweets, including one that read, “‘Oh yeah the weekend. People are gonna get drunk & think that I’m sexy’ – fat chicks everywhere.”
Huffington Post associate editor Alanna Vagianos said at the time, “So [Trevor Noah’s] a bit of a misogynist,” adding a sarcastic “well done” aimed at Comedy Central.
Vox.com, which had declared earlier that Noah would “transform the Daily Show,” revisited the issue, and published an article suggesting the comedian was “on the wrong side” when it came to toeing the fine line between “funny and offensive.”
Mic News’ Julianne Ross, who also hailed the hire when it was first announced, said, “not here for this sexist, objectifying, fat-shaming bulls**t. [T]his is why we need more female hosts, please.”
