Author, comedian and ‘The Daily Show’ host Trevor Noah participated in a Q&A with seniors for Princeton's virtual 2021 Class Day ceremony. Class Day co-chairs Morgan Smith '21, Kamya Yadav '21 and Michael Wang '21 not only spoke to Noah about comedy and the pandemic's lessons but also inducted Noah as an honorary member of the Class of 2021.

On May 15, Emmy Award-winning talk show host and comedian Trevor Noah spoke to Princeton University graduates for Class Day, an annual event organized by senior class members that takes place one day before the commencement ceremony.

In a Q&A session with Class Day co-chairs Michael Wang, Morgan Smith and Kamya Yadav, Noah spoke about his journey to becoming a comedian as well as the lessons he’s learned about risk-taking throughout his career.

“Number one, not all risks are worth taking,” he told the students, while emphasizing that some risk will require you to think about the impact your decision could have on not only you, but those around you.

For example, Noah explained that as a comedian, if he’s trying to tell a joke that may come off the wrong way, then he will spend more time cleaning up what he likes to call “the target of the joke” in order to “minimize the risk.”

“What I do know is comedy, not just professional comedy but even between human beings, interpersonal comedy, is all contextual,” he says. “You can say something Morgan to your friends that a stranger could never say to you because you have the context of your friendship.”

In today’s social media age, Noah urged students to understand how easy it is for the context of a conversation to get lost, making it even more important to be mindful of how their words or actions might impact others.

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