Trevor Noah describes Charlie Kirk’s murder as a “funny thing that happened”

Trevor Noah has described the murder of Charlie Kirk as a “funny thing that happened”. The comedian made the comments as part of a stand-up performance where he also reflected on performing at the Saudi Arabia Comedy Festival and the apparent hypocrisy of Americans criticising the lack of free speech in the country when there are increasingly common examples of curbs on free speech in the United States.

Mocking those who had called for the murder not to be joked about, Noah said, “You can't say there is nothing funny about it… As a comedian I am sure there is something funny about it. The guy was shot whilst defending guns. I am not even writing that as a joke; as a human you have to admit that is an incongruous funny thing that happened.”

Noah continued by reflecting on the importance of free speech in relation to comedy and how the lack of gun control in the United States was the problem, rather than those mocking Charlie Kirk’s death. He said, “It is weird that the guy wrote jokes on the bullets. That is terrible and funny when you have time to think about it.”

Trevor Noah is a comedian best known for hosting The Daily Show on Comedy Central from 2015 to 2022. Originally from South Africa, Noah has lived in the United States for the past ten years.

He left The Daily Show largely to focus on his stand-up career, travelling the world to perform at different venues.

Noah was born in 1984 in Johannesburg to a black South African mother and a white Swiss-German father during apartheid. Since his parents were of different ethnicities, their relationship was illegal. His upbringing under those laws formed the basis for his memoir Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (2016). Drawing on these themes, much of his comedy focuses on race and politics.

In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death, tributes were paid across the United States with tens of thousands attending his funeral. However, there were also instances of celebratory mockery at the death of the conservative figure, which in some cases led to people losing their jobs. Kirk’s death has reignited debate across the country about gun control and free speech, both of which are protected within the 27 amendments to the United States Constitution.

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

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