Comedy Central recently announced that South African comic Trevor Noah will be filling the empty chair that Jon Stewart will leave on “The Daily Show”’ later this year. This is monumental because Noah, unlike other comedy big wigs like Amy Schumer, Kristen Schaal, Sarah Silverman who were also postured for the job, Noah was practically unheard of in the United States.

And unlike the scores of college students who have scrubbed their online selves free of questionable material in preparation for the job hunt, Noah missed a few spots. When the announcement of his succession was made, people took to Twitter to see what they could skewer him with before he even cracked his first joke as host.

What they found was not good. Racist, misogynistic and anti-Semitic tweets could all be found lurking as early as 2009 and as recently as last year and it set off an Internet hate tornado unlike any before. A tornado that maybe wasn’t deserved, but needed to happen.

Noah had posted jokes about white women, fat women, Jewish women, Jewish men and Jewish kids. Perhaps the most jaw-dropping — at least for me — was the flippant remark he made about South African Olympian Caster Semenya’s gender identity, wishing women everywhere a happy Women’s Day, “Even you, Caster,” he tacked on. Slate published its 2014 “Year of Outrage” chronicling what people on the Internet were pissed about every day of the year. Let’s just say, in 2015, I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets a whole week.

Most people were offended by the material, and some were offended by the jokes — as in, how unfunny they are. Many people called for Noah’s resignation. On the other side, in a staggering display of missing-the-point, Patton Oswalt along with a hoard of comedians defended Noah saying that comedy needs to be “edgy,” that the offensive is too irresistibly funny.

The Internet ate it up and sites that had condemned Noah the day before seemed to have a drastic change of heart. But here’s the thing. Neither side is right. Should Noah have to give up his “Daily Show” spot? No. Thanks to Twitter and other sites where people post every thought that zips through their head, we have a well-stocked catalogue of people’s lowest moments.

The Washington Post’s Caitlin Dewey gives us a good lens through which to look at this issue. “A lot of people have made bad jokes in their 20s. The only difference now is that those jokes are memorialized forever on the Internet — and readily ripped out of their chronological context, and away from their intended audience, as contemporary proof of their sender’s bias or stupidity or ill intent.”

But it’s important that we remember that that’s what they are: low moments. I don’t like the approach that so many comedians take, where people’s humanity is disposable for the sake of cheap laughs. What that ideology really serves is to quietly qualify: misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism — the list goes on.

That’s why I’m happy Noah is getting so much attention, because after this Twitter nightmare, I bet he wants to make sure it never happens again. And if these kinds of jokes do end up on “The Daily Show” once Stewart leaves, I’ll have no trouble waiting until Sunday to watch John Oliver on my friend’s mom’s HBOGo.

Eric King is a sophomore magazine journalism major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @erickingdavid.

Published on April 7, 2015 at 12:31 am