Trevor Noah causes outrage on Twitter, not always a comedian's best friend

Following soon-to-be Daily Show host Trevor Noah's Twitter fallout, he may want to take some advice from these tweet-savvy Canadians, who know what it's like to be a comedian on social media. 

Noah was relatively unknown until Comedy Central announced he would take over for Jon Stewart, who is stepping down as Daily Show host later this year. After the news broke, people began crawling through his past, and he was raked over the coals after a handful of his old tweets that weren't funny surfaced. 

In fact, they were called anti-Semitic and hateful towards women. 

Here are a few examples:

Some comedians fiercely defended Noah and attacked his detractors. American comedian Patton Oswalt posted a 53-tweet rampage.  

"The guy made some off colour, irresponsible tweets. He was trying to be funny," said Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi. "How much are we responsible for the things we said on Twitter five or 10 years ago? I don't know."

But, in addition to being off-colour, the jokes were comically lazy, say some comedians in Canada who expect more from someone filling Stewart's shoes. Daily Show fans are mourning the end of his 16-year run behind the desk.

"Whoever stepped up was sure to get knocked down a few pegs," says comedian Stephen Eyes, host of Eyes on Comedy bar (in Toronto this weekend, for those looking for comedy without a character limit). "They just weren't funny – the kind of 'jokes' that need to be challenged.

"Jon Stewart was just the kind of man to lampoon these very thoughts, but this time they were coming from the future host. So who fights the good fight now?"

Trevor Noah isn't lazy; his tweets are 

"You shouldn't try to be edgy or clean, you should try to be funny. Edgy to be edgy is really easy. It's one of those things where it's like a 7-year-old can be edgy," says comedian Nile Seguin, who you can catch performing in Toronto.

Seguin says that by taking Noah to task for using cheap jokes, he "comes off looking like some ultra-uptight person who is against free expression and anything edgy, when in fact I'm actually just against lazy writing and bad jokes."

Twitter can be a place to try out jokes ....

"The people with the most success with Twitter are the most brazen, but also on point," says Nick Flanagan, a member of comedy collective Laugh Sabbath and the comic behind the album I'm Here All Weak. "It's a form of writing. It can be your first step in trying a joke out." 

... But they lose their tone

"If you're reading something online you're deciding the voice you're reading it in," Flanagan said. "For me, it's a self imposed pressure to Tweet. It's generally a bad idea," he said, referring to how jokes can be received online. 

"If you say race in a joke people shut down and say it's not funny," says comedian Aisha Alfa, performing Saturday in Toronto and at the upcoming Winnipeg Comedy Festival. "People don't think about other ways he [Noah] may have meant things. 

"On Twitter and Facebook you are reading it with no tone, no background and it can be read the wrong way. Comedians can slip up and have a bad day. People will find a way to be offended. You can't judge people on four tweets." 

Just like comedians, comedy can grow up 

"Something you said a long time ago, you're not the same person that you were five years ago," said Seguin. "Thank God I wasn't on Twitter five years ago."

Comedian Ariel Kagan, like Trevor Noah, is from South Africa. Kagan lives and performs in Toronto. He says Noah has worked so fiercely to get where he is that it is sad to see him reduced to a few bad tweets. 

Kagan calls Noah "an icon who all South Africans are immensely proud of. So for me, it's difficult to see him being questioned so hard because I know how hard he has worked."

According to Stephen Eyes, while Noah may have a lot of work to do to reach Jon Stewart's calibre, there are things in most comedians' past that they aren't proud of.

"People grow and a sense of humour hopefully with it," he says.  

Trevor Noah attended the Comedy Central Roast of Steve Hofmeyer at the Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City, in South Africa on Sept. 11, 2012, the year of many of his controversial tweets. (Dominic Barnardt/Gallo Images/Getty Images for MTV)

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Alison MacNeil transitions in Iceland's changing music scene

Alison MacNeil, a Canadian expat from Cape Breton Island, is changing her life and her music as Iceland changes around her.

MacNeil, a singer and guitarist, fronts Icelandic rock band Kimono. The band, which has a loyal following in Iceland and has toured in Europe, will release its fifth album later this year.

• Listen to Solomon Israel's documentary on Alison MacNeil on CBC Radio's The World This Weekend at 6 p.m. Saturday.

When she moved to Iceland 15 years ago, Alison MacNeil was Alex MacNeil, biologically male. She began her gender transition in Iceland, which passed a bill protecting the status of transgender people in 2012.

"Being in a band and being the singer and transitioning, that's been pretty heavy," MacNeil said in an interview with CBC's The World This Weekend. "In a way I've had to learn to sing all over again for the new material, but I also don't want to abandon everything that we've done in the past."

'Being in a band and being the singer and transitioning, that's been pretty heavy.'- Alison MacNeil

MacNeil, 37, said Kimono's music draws on the "outliers" of '70s, '80s, and '90s rock, "when people play their instruments a little bit differently and not just straightforward."

Specific influences include alternative players like Sonic Youth, experimental rockers like Fugazi and Polvo, and more famous acts like Led Zeppelin and The Smashing Pumpkins.

Bassist Gylfi Blöndal pairs mathematical precision with melodicism. Drummer Kjartan Bragi Bjarnason straddles a fine line between power and finesse, mostly keeping his talents in reserve for robust, frenzied moments.

MacNeil, whose uncle Kenzie MacNeil wrote the Cape Breton anthem The Island, glides through intricate guitar licks with ease and grace. Her powerful voice and haunting English lyrics complete Kimono's sound.

As MacNeil has changed, so too has Reykjavik. Only 120,000 people live in the coastal capital of Iceland, but the city is home to a flourishing music scene.

​The global recession of 2008 hit the country particularly hard. In recent years, Iceland's fast-growing tourism industry has helped lead its financial recovery. Downtown Reykjavik is awash in tourists, along with shops and restaurants catering to a foreign crowd.

"Right now it's very tourist-oriented," MacNeil said. "There's a lot of hotels cropping up everywhere … it's been very difficult to find places to play here."

Even if Reykjavik has lost some of its character, MacNeil said the city is host to an authentic music scene.

"It's just a lot of people playing music, a lot of people who are interested in doing something interesting, not just something that's commercially viable."

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Mad Men, Canter's Deli and its celebrity visitors in Los Angeles

Canter's Deli has been serving up its famous pastrami sandwiches and homemade pickles to hungry Los Angeles diners since 1931.

But fans of Mad Men will best remember the nostalgic 1950s diner as the setting for a key scene in the first episode of the show's final season.

Fans have been on tenterhooks since the first half of Season 7 wrapped last May, but the groundbreaking Sixties-set series returns to television Sunday with it's mid-season premiere.

In anticipation of Mad Men's return, CBC's Kim Brunhuber took a tour of the frozen-in-time establishment on Fairfax Ave., in which Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) tried to sell fellow New Yorker Don Draper (Jon Hamm) on the charms of life in L.A.

'I love the vibrations'

Manhattan ad men, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) have a bite at Canter's Deli while discussing the finer points of living in Los Angeles in this scene from Season 7 of Mad Men. The show's highly-anticipated mid-season premiere airs Sunday at 10 p.m. on AMC.

"The city is flat and ugly, and the air is brown...but I love the vibrations," said Pete wrapped in the dusty rose of Canter's plush vinyl booths. "The New Yorkers here, they brought everything we need [but]

the bagels here are terrible."

The landmark establishment has also appeared in HBO's Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and movies like Be Cool and Enemy of the State.

Celebrity visitors

It has also hosted a string of celebrity diners such as:

Leaving Las Vegas star Nicolas Cage reportedly proposed to actress Patricia Arquette at Canter's on the night they first met. Kiss frontman Gene Simmons has said he can't pass up Canter's bapka, and celebrity chef Rachael Ray has been known to stop in for a late night bite.

Mad Men's final mid-season premiere airs Sunday at 10 p.m. on AMC.

Fourth generation Canter's Deli co-owner, Alex Canter, tells Kim Brunhuber what it was like having Mad Men shoot at his family's restaurant in the video above.

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Joni Mitchell 'getting stronger' in hospital

Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is getting "stronger each day" after being transported to hospital earlier in the week, said a statement posted to her official website Friday night.

"Joni remains under observation in the hospital and is resting comfortably. We are encouraged by her progress and she continues to improve and get stronger each day," the statement said.

The singer, 71, was taken to hospital on Tuesday. According to initial reports she was found unconscious at her home in Los Angeles, but a friend of the musician's later told CBC News the singer was conscious and that she had suffered a "minor medical emergency."

18th September 1968: Canadian folk singer and songwriter Joni Mitchell, strumming her guitar outside The Revolution club in London. (Central Press/Getty Images)

Mitchell is one of Canada's most accomplished musicians, famous for songs like Big Yellow Taxi and River.

She has won eight Grammy awards, including a lifetime achievement award in 2002. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

The native of Fort Macleod, Alta., is also a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

She has a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto and a commemorative stamp, and is a companion of the Order of Canada.

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Furious 7 rides 'like a turbo boosted telenovela,' says CBC film critic

Furious 7 roars into theatres this weekend on a wave of anticipation and record-breaking pre-sale tickets.

Vin Diesel is back in action as Dominic Toretto. This time, he's leading his gang of fugitive street racers—including stars Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges—on a mission of revenge to catch another bald bad guy, played by British action star Jason Statham.

But first, the gang accepts a government mission, from a mysterious Mr. Nobody (played by Tango & Cash's Kurt Russell), who hires them to rescue a hacker held hostage by warlords. 

"With so many subplots, hidden marriages, secret pregnancies, secret agents and amnesia patients, Furious 7 feels at times like a turbo boosted telenovela," says CBC film critic Eli Glasner referring to popular Latin American soap operas.  

"And this amped-up story of family and friends," Glasner says, "is constantly hitting us over the head with its themes."

Like the Fast and Furious movies of the past, the movie delivers all the high-octane car chases, crashes and stunts fans have come to expect.

Late American actor Paul Walker appears in a scene from Universal Studio's Furious 7. Walker's 2013 death briefly halted filming of the action film, which hits theatres on Friday. (Universal Studio)

But director James Wan shows restraint in the way he handled the death of Paul Walker, who played FBI agent Brian O'Connor in the series.

The actor's tragic death in a 2013 car crash briefly shut down production of the movie.

Shooting eventually resumed with Walker's brothers acting as stand-ins and with "a little computer graphics magic," says Glasner, "Walker bows out with a fitting send off."

Furious 7 goes into wide release on Friday.

Watch Eli's full review in the video above.

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France bans super-skinny models in effort to curb eating disorders

France will ban excessively thin fashion models and expose modelling agents and the fashion houses that hire them to possible fines and even jail, under a new law passed on Friday.

France, with its fashion and luxury industries worth tens of billions of euros, joins Italy, Spain and Israel which all adopted laws against too-thin models on catwalks or in advertising campaigns in early 2013.

The measure is part of a wider crackdown on anorexia backed by President Francois Hollande's government. Lawmakers also approved a separate measure making it illegal to condone anorexia, a move targeting Internet sites that encourage dangerous weight loss.

"The activity of model is banned for any person whose Body Mass Index (BMI) is lower than levels proposed by health authorities and decreed by the ministers of health and labour," the bill said.

The lawmaker behind the bill previously said models would have to present a medical certificate showing a BMI of at least 18, about 55 kg for a height of 1.75 metres, before being hired for a job and for a few weeks afterwards.

The law, voted through the lower house of parliament early on Friday by Hollande's Socialist majority despite opposition by conservative parliamentarians, envisages imprisonment of up to six months and a fine of $82,000 US for any agency contravening it.

The second measure means that any website inciting a reader to "seek excessive thinness by encouraging eating restrictions for a prolonged period of time, resulting in risk of mortality or damage to health" will face up to a year in prison and fines up to $110,000 US.

Some 30,000-40,000 people in France suffer from anorexia, most of them teenagers, health experts estimate.

In 2007, Isabelle Caro, an anorexic 28-year-old former French fashion model, died after posing for a photographic campaign to raise awareness about the illness

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Robert Schuller, Hour of Power televangelist, dead at 88

The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, a California televangelist and author who beamed his upbeat messages on faith and redemption to millions of followers from his landmark Crystal Cathedral only to see his empire crumble in his waning years, has died. He was 88.

Schuller died Thursday at a care facility in Artesia, daughter Carol Schuller Milner said. He was diagnosed with terminal esophageal cancer in 2013.

Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton said they were saddened by the passing of a man who offered them "unfailing kindness and wise counsel" during Bill Clinton's presidency.

"From the people who filled the pews of the Crystal Cathedral to the millions who embraced his ministry on television and through his books, Robert Schuller was a beacon of faith, hope, and love," the Clintons said in a joint statement.

Once a ubiquitous presence on Sunday morning television, Schuller faded from view in recent years after watching his church collapse amid a disastrous leadership transition and sharp declines in viewership and donations that forced the ministry to file for bankruptcy.

The soaring, glass-paned Crystal Cathedral — the touchstone of Schuller's career — was sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange in 2011. Schuller lost a legal battle the following year to collect more than $5 million US from his former ministry over claims of copyright infringement and breach of contract.

Schuller, who preached in a flowing purple robe and outsized aviator glasses, led an evangelical Protestant ministry that was a product of modern technology. He and his late wife, Arvella, started a ministry in 1955 with $500 when he began preaching from the roof of a concession stand at a drive-in movie theater southeast of Los Angeles.

The church's motto — "Come as you are in the family car" — tapped into the burgeoning Southern California auto culture and the suburban boom of post-World War II America.

By 1961, the church had a brick-and-mortar home, and Schuller began broadcasting his Hour of Power in 1970.

In 1980, he built the glass-and-steel Crystal Cathedral in the Orange County city of Garden Grove to house his booming TV ministry, which was broadcast live each week from the 2,800-seat sanctuary. At its peak in the 1990s, the program had 20 million viewers in about 180 countries.

Schuller's message — that "possibility thinking" and love of God overcome hardships — was a uniquely American blend of Bible and psychology. It was inspired by late author Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking. Schuller also wrote more than 30 books, including several best-sellers.

Unlike other televangelists, Schuller's message lacked fire-and-brimstone condemnations or conservative political baggage.

"The classical error of historical Christianity is that we have never started with the value of the person," he wrote in his book "Self-Esteem: The New Reformation. "Rather, we have started from the `unworthiness of the sinner,' and that starting point has set the stage for the glorification of human shame in Christian theology."

Fundamentalists attacked him for statements they believed denied the need for personal repentance of sin.

Schuller's admirers included fellow evangelist Billy Graham and Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. His friendship with President Bill Clinton raised eyebrows among conservative Republicans.

Schuller also was among the first foreign religious figures invited to preach on Russian television.

In the start of a carefully choreographed leadership transition, Schuller's only son, then-51-year-old Robert A. Schuller, was installed as senior pastor in 2006. But he left amid a bitter family feud in 2008.

The tumult worsened a pre-existing decline in viewership and donations, and in 2010, Crystal Cathedral ministries filed for bankruptcy, citing debt of more than $43 million.

Bankruptcy filings indicated the ministry was paying significant tax-exempt housing allowances to Schuller family members and insiders. The allowances were legal, but they raised concerns among church creditors who had gone unpaid for months.

Robert Harold Schuller was born in Alton, Iowa, in 1926 and ordained in 1950. He was pastor of Ivanhoe Reformed Church in Chicago from 1950 to 1955 before moving to California.

Besides his son, Schuller and his wife had four daughters: Sheila, Jeanne, Carol and Gretchen. Wife Arvella Schuller died Feb. 11, 2014, after a brief illness.

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Trailer Park Boys' plea to #SaveSunnyvale goes viral

A video made by the Trailer Park Boys calling attention to a possible cut to Nova Scotia's Film Tax Credit is going viral.

The video, featuring Mike Smith, Robb Wells and John Paul Tremblay — playing their iconic characters Bubbles, Ricky and Julian — has been viewed on Facebook more than 250,000 times since it was posted Thursday.

In character, the boys muse about moving production of their show.

"Okay, so, we live in the Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Nova Scotia Canada and I just found out on the internet here that the Nova Scotia government might be cuttin' the tax program, the tax credit thing," said a visibly upset Bubbles.

"If they do that, then the camera people that come and film us, put us on the TV — they're not going to be able to come anymore. So there'll be no more shows, unless we move away."  

"I'm not moving, I've lived in Sunnyvale my whole life," Ricky said in the video.

"No Ricky, I'm not either. I've got my kitties – I cannot just pack up 116 kitties and move, but what are we going to do?" Bubbles asks.

In their appeal, the boys ask fans to contact Diana Whalen, finance minister for the province, hoping to gain enough support to prevent the cut.

"Don't be mean, don't be rude, swearing at them and stuff, just say 'I live in whatever country here you're in and I know all about Nova Scotia, Canada because of those guys and I watch the show. Please don't let it go away.' Maybe they'll listen," said Bubbles.

Earlier this week, Whalen openly mused about cutting the tax credit. According to Whalen, it costs the government $25 million and she says most of the companies that receive the credit do not owe taxes in Nova Scotia.

Her decision will be revealed in the next provincial budget that's due on Thursday.

• GRAPHIC LANGUAGE WARNING: This video contains language that may offend some

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Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese director, dead at 106

The celebrated movie director was believed to be the world's oldest filmmaker

The Associated Press Posted: Apr 02, 2015 9:37 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 02, 2015 9:37 AM ET

Authorities say Manoel de Oliveira, a celebrated Portuguese movie director believed to be the world's oldest filmmaker, has died. He was 106.

The city council of Porto, where Oliveira was born and lived, announced his death Thursday on its website. It did not provide further details.

Oliveira's career began with a silent documentary about Porto, Portugal's second-largest city, in 1931. He made his first feature-length movie in 1942 but his output was sporadic until he was 76, when he began directing roughly a film every year.

He made more than 30 feature films and dozens of short films and documentaries.

He was over 100 years old when his last feature, Gebo and The Shadow, came out in 2012.

Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.

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Texas trooper cited for Snoop Dogg photo, must attend counseling

Billy Spears was working security at SXSW when Snoop Dogg asked for a photo

The Associated Press Posted: Apr 02, 2015 8:54 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 02, 2015 8:54 AM ET

A Texas state trooper has been reprimanded for posing for a photo with Snoop Dogg at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, because the rapper has several convictions for drug possession.

Billy Spears was working security at the March event when Snoop Dogg asked to take a picture with him. The artist posted the image to Instagram with the comment, "Me n my deputy dogg."

Department of Public Safety and Transportation officials saw the posting and cited Spears for deficiencies that require counseling by a supervisor.

Spears' attorney says his client didn't know about the rapper's criminal record. Spears can't appeal the citation because it isn't a formal disciplinary action.

A department spokesman says the agency doesn't discuss or release specifics of personnel issues unless they result in disciplinary action.

Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.

Submission Policy

Note: The CBC does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comments, you acknowledge that CBC has the right to reproduce, broadcast and publicize those comments or any part thereof in any manner whatsoever. Please note that comments are moderated and published according to our submission guidelines.

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