After French Rebuke, Trevor Noah Defends World Cup Comments

After France won the World Cup over Croatia on Sunday, Trevor Noah of “The Daily Show” congratulated Africa for the victory. He joked: “Africa won the World Cup! Africa won the World Cup!”

He added that he knew the team was French, but “you don’t get that tan hanging out in the South of France.”

That brought a sharply critical letter from the French ambassador to the U.S., Gerard Araud, which Noah read to the studio audience during a break in Wednesday’s show. The ambassador insisted that France “does not refer to its citizens based on their race, religion or origin. To us there is no hyphenated identity.”

Check out the video above to hear Noah defend his joke.