Trevor Noah to ‘Star Wars’ boycotters: ‘Stop complaining, racists’
The trailer for the new “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was released on Monday night, and the response was ecstatic -- or, as Trevor Noah put it Tuesday on “The Daily Show,” “the entire planet erupted in a simultaneous nerdgasm.”
There was, however, a handful naysayers on Twitter who objected to the casting of a black actor, John Boyega, in a lead role and launched a boycott of the film’s “sinister multicultural agenda.”
Not surprisingly, Noah had little time for the cries of “white genocide.”
“Stop complaining, racists,” he said, as an image of the much-hated Jar Jar Binks appeared onscreen. “You had your ‘Star Wars’ movie already.”
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As Noah pointed out, the new “Star Wars” film from J.J. Abrams is hardly the first movie to anger fans over the race of fictional characters -- similar outcry followed the casting of nonwhite actors in “The Hunger Games” and “Fantastic Four.”
The host was eventually joined by “senior fantasy culture correspondent” Jordan Klepper, who helped put the boycott in perspective.
“We’re wasting too much time on this debate when we should be talking about the important stuff,” Klepper said, “like obscure fictional minutiae that nerds can argue about endlessly online.”
Klepper also reminded Noah of the power of science fiction, which serves as “an allegory for the people we can become, one that encompasses a multitude of voices and perspectives” -- that is, he joked, “just as long as they don’t make any superhero movies starring chicks.”
Follow @MeredithBlake on Twitter.
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