Comedy Central is defending its decision to hire Trevor Noah as Jon Stewart's replacement for The Daily Show, after old tweets of his -- which many are calling sexist and anti-Semitic -- surfaced on the web earlier today (March 31), resulting in a fair amount of public outcry.

According to the LA Times, the network released a statement backing Noah as Stewart's successor. The statement reads, "Like many comedians, Trevor Noah pushes boundaries; he is provocative and spares no one, himself included. To judge him or his comedy based on a handful of jokes is unfair. Trevor is a talented comedian with a bright future at Comedy Central.”

While many of the tweets dug up by the general public and circulated via countless media outlets were from nearly six years ago, a few of them were tweeted as recently as May 2014. For many fans of the Daily Show the content of Noah's jokes is disconcerting, and has many people wondering how his brand of humor will translate into the satirical news program.

The Anti-Defamation League also released a statement, imploring Noah to stick to satire and not veer off into offensive material. Their statement says (via the LA Times), "We hope he will not cross the line from legitimate satire into offensiveness with jokes calling up anti-Semitic stereotypes and misogyny. And we hope that he and Comedy Central will make a conscious effort to ensure The Daily Show remains funny and irreverent without trafficking in bigoted jokes at the expense of Jews, other minorities and women."

Noah also responded to the backlash on Twitter. You can check out his tweet below.

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