After Hillary Clinton sparked backlash for appearing onstage with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in a skit that involved a racially-tinged joke about “C.P time,” “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah joked Tuesday night that Clinton clearly just doesn’t want to win the White House.
“Oh, I get it,” Noah said with a fake laugh. “You see, the joke is Bill de Blasio saying he’s late like black people always are and Hillary saying she doesn’t want to be President.”
“Why would you do this, Hillary?” he continued. “This should be so easy. Just don’t say the things that will lose you the votes. You know you’re not a good joke teller.”
Noah also took aim at people arguing the bit can’t be racist because “Hamilton” actor Leslie Odom Jr., who is black, was involved in the skit, and de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, is also black.
“They’re probably not racist, they just got too comfortable,” Noah said. “Race jokes are kind of like orcas. Powerful and entertaining, but you put them on display in the wrong environment, and people are going to get hurt, and the joke might die.”
The host also noted Clinton’s involvement comes at a particularly inopportune time for her campaign. The Saturday appearance came days after Bill Clinton clashed with Black Lives Matter protesters who pushed him on his 1994 crime bill and his wife’s years-old “superpredator” remarks.
“That’s like if the governor of Michigan was going around Flint telling water jokes,” Noah said.
The joke was made as part of a skit involving de Blasio and Odom Jr. at the annual Inner Circle event in New York. Clinton on Wednesday distanced herself from the joke, saying, “it was Mayor de Blasio’s skit.” In a Tuesday interview, de Blasio said people were “missing the point” and the skit was clearly “scripted.”
Watch a clip of Noah riffing on the skit:
