September 17, 2022
Trevor Noah has recently slammed “internet racists” for trolling the Disney’s live-action version of The Little Mermaid over casting Black US singer Halle Bailey in the leading role.
On Thursday’s episode of The Daily Show, Noah showed a news footage which reported that the movie’s first teaser received 1.5 million dislikes on YouTube mainly because of the black actress playing the Ariel in a movie.
Noah expressed his annoyance over this online backlash, as he remarked, “Really, people? We’re doing this again?”
He went on to explain, “Once again, a bunch of internet racists are upset that a fictional character is being played by a Black person.”
Noah mentioned that Finding Nemo is also a Black story which is about “a fish who can’t find his dad”.
“Honestly, I don’t know what the big deal is. You guys realise that Nemo was black, too, right? That whole movie was about a fish who can’t find his dad. I can say that ’cause my dad left, and he’s white, so who’s racist now?” quipped the host.
Noah jokingly said, “This is so ridiculous. I mean of course The Little Mermaid is Black. Everyone whose name starts with ‘Little’ is Black.”
The host jested, “If you heard there’s a woman named Little Mermaid, you’d just assume she’s on a track with Cardi B.”
“I hope this scandal doesn’t overshadow the rest of the movie. The Little Mermaid is a beautiful story about a young woman changing her core identity to please a man,” he added.
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