Trevor Noah was ready to rip into Kanye West for his latest controversies on Tuesday’s episode of “The Daily Show,” but he didn’t “even know where to begin.”
West’s actions in recent weeks provided plenty of material: West wore a “White Lives Matter” shirt, matching with conservative personality Candace Owens, at Paris Fashion Week; sat down for a rambling two-hour interview with Tucker Carlson; and shared posts on social media containing antisemitic language. However, Noah latched onto the latter.
“Over the weekend, Kanye drifted right off the deep end,” Noah said on Tuesday. “Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, is now blocked from using Instagram and Twitter because of racist and antisemitic messages that he posted.”
As part of his “Amazing Racism” segment — in which he also highlighted former L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez‘s racist remarks during a 2021 meeting — Noah criticized West for the messages he shared on Instagram and Twitter.
West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, was first banned on Instagram after he shared a screenshot of a text he sent fellow rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs. In the message, he claimed that Combs was being controlled by Jewish people. West sent the text after Combs questioned his “White Lives Matter” shirt.
The “Runaway” rapper then took his comments to Twitter, threatening to “go death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” The post ignited backlash and resulted in a lock of West’s account.
“I know it’s not the main issue here, I know that. But it’s Defcon 3, all right, not Death con 3,” Noah joked on Tuesday. “Death con sounds like a trade show where they unveil all the latest coffins or something.”
Noah also poked fun at how West started his since-deleted tweet.
“It’s funny that he starts his threat with ‘I’m a bit sleepy tonight.’ What is that? Does antisemitism make you tired?” the late-night host asked. “Is that why MAGA people love [the] MyPillow guy?”
Noah continued, “I feel bad for American right-wingers because they’re getting Kanye now.
“They missed ‘College Dropout,’ ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,’ ‘Graduation.’ They missed all of that,” he said. “They’re getting this Kanye. It’s like getting to date the high school prom king, but decades after high school.”
As “depressing” as he said this week’s news of Ye’s racist and antisemitic remarks may be, Noah ended his segment trying to find a silver lining.
“If everyone is being racist against everyone, then that means that no matter what color we are, racism is at least one thing we all have in common, and what a beautiful thought that is,” he said.
Noah’s segment on the rapper came hours after Vice’s Motherboard shared unreleased footage from West’s conversation with Carlson. In the leaked videos, West’s antisemitic remarks included that he’d rather his kids learn about Hanukkah instead of Kwanzaa because the former holiday would come with some “financial engineering,” and that Black people judging one another on their “whiteness” was akin to “a Jewish person judging another Jewish person on how good they danced.”
In the unaired footage, West also alleged that Planned Parenthood was created by Margaret Sanger and the KKK to control the “Jew population.”
What did make it into the live interview were West’s comments about Lizzo’s “clinically unhealthy” weight, ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s relationship with the Clinton family and his political ambitions.
“I will eventually be president in my lifetime,” West told Carlson.
Times staff writers Christi Carras and Kenan Draughorne contributed to this report.
