“The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah celebrated Fox News’ decision to cut ties with Bill O’Reilly by recounting some of his most racist moments, saying the former “O’Reilly Factor” host “was so racist it somehow became funny.”
“Here at ‘The Daily Show,’ we want to give O’Reilly the sendoff he deserves,” Noah said. “Because let’s be honest, he’s not going to get it on Fox, that’s for sure. Those guys are probably going pretend that nothing is wrong.”
Noah continued: “You may not know this, but Bill O’Reilly was the biggest figure in the history of cable news. At one point, nobody even came close… because they were afraid that he might sexually harass them.”
Noah then played a series of some of O’Reilly’s most infamous moments, including flipping out while working for “Inside Edition” and yelling, “F–k it! We’ll do it live!”
Where most saw “madness” in O’Reilly’s on-camera tantrum, Noah said disgraced founding Fox News CEO Roger Ailes saw “greatness” and hired him to become the face of the network.
Noah then played a variety of examples of O’Reilly making controversial comments, joking that he had a “special place in his heart for black people.”
Noah then said the special place was “prison,” before playing more examples of on-air racism by O’Reilly.
“Looking back on all of O’Reilly’s greatest hits, the one thing that’s hard to believe is that it took him this long to lose his job,” Noah said. “Maybe the reason Fox kept O’Reilly on for so long was that sometimes, he was so racist it somehow became funny.”
Noah then played another infamous clip, from when O’Reilly went to dinner at Sylvia’s restaurant in Harlem with Al Sharpton and seemed legitimately surprised that a black-owned restaurant had well-behaved customers.
“This is so racist I can’t even be mad about it. Because you realize, in Bill O’Reilly’s mind, going to a black restaurant was basically going to be like walking into the middle of the Rodney King riots,” Noah said.
“The Daily Show” host concluded: “So, it’s sad to say, but farewell, extremely old friend.”
Check out the video above.