"You’re onstage, like, ‘Let me tell you why people should have guns.’ Wa-pow!"

"You’re onstage, like, ‘Let me tell you why people should have guns.’ Wa-pow!"

Former Daily Show host Trevor Noah is facing backlash after joking about the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk during a recent stand-up performance. Kirk was shot and killed on Sept. 10 while speaking with students at Utah Valley University.

“The guy was shot while defending guns,” Noah told the audience. “Do you understand how, I’m not even writing that as a joke, as a human, you have to admit that is an incongruous, funny thing that happens. You’re onstage, like, ‘Let me tell you why people should have guns.’ Wa-pow!”

Noah’s remarks came during a broader monologue in which he praised Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Comedy Festival for “moving in the right direction” on civil liberties, noting that the Saudi event featured a mixed audience of men and women. He then pivoted to the topic of Kirk’s assassination, saying other comedians had warned him not to touch the subject.

“Meanwhile, here, comedians are sh*tting themselves,” Noah said. “‘Don’t say anything about Charlie Kirk.’ ‘I wasn’t going to say anything about him.’ ‘Yeah, but don’t say anything about Charlie.’ … ‘Oh, now you tested me,’” he continued. “As a comedian, I can find something funny about anything.”

Noah defended his comments as part of a larger conversation about free speech and comedy. “There’s nothing inherently funny about death,” he said, “but this idea that you can’t even joke about something, that’s ridiculous. It’s literally what comedians do.”

He likened the situation to historical humor about the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. “This is the same country where people make jokes about Lincoln being shot,” he argued, saying audiences shouldn’t be “terrorized” into silence about controversial topics. Comedians were not doing stand up and laughing about Lincoln's death just a month after he was killed.

Noah’s decision to praise Saudi Arabia, a country with strict censorship laws and a poor human rights record, while mocking an American political assassination drew immediate criticism. Commentators accused the comedian of double standards, noting that his “free speech” defense rang hollow given Saudi Arabia’s history of silencing dissenters.

In the wake of Kirk’s death, several left-wing media personalities have also faced scrutiny for their reactions. Jimmy Kimmel Live was briefly suspended after Kimmel falsely suggested Kirk’s assassin was a MAGA supporter. According to Fox News, fellow comedian Dave Chappelle, while performing at the same Riyadh festival said, “Right now in America, they say that if you talk about Charlie Kirk, you’ll get canceled. I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m going to find out,” Chappelle joked, adding, “It’s easier to talk here than it is in America.”

He quipped that if the US government ever forced him to censor himself, his signal to fans would be the unlikely phrase: “I stand with Israel.”