Erasmus Prize 2023 awarded to Trevor Noah

Noah made his breakthrough with his stand-up comedy at a young age. His solo shows, among them The Daywalker (2009), Crazy Normal (2011), That's Racist (2012) and It's My Culture (2013), quickly became hugely popular in South Africa and beyond. After his early success, he proved himself to be an inspiration to budding talents and a curator of comedy shows in Africa. The emergence of a new generation of socially committed Black comedians in South Africa who explore racism and the legacy of colonialism was soon labelled the 'Trevor Noah effect'.

Since 2011 Noah has been living in the United States, where his talent for challenging the establishment didn't go unnoticed. From 2015 on, he spent seven years presenting The Daily Show, the most popular satirical television programme in the world. Noah's time at The Daily Show coincided with the rise of fake news, the presidency of Donald Trump, the Covid-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter after the murder of George Floyd. With his astute reflections on such issues, he garnered a young, diverse and global audience and, in the process, infused a highly polarized media landscape with a breath of fresh air. Only once before in its 65-year history has a humourist won the Erasmus Prize: Charlie Chaplin received the award from His Highness Prince Bernhard in 1965. The quote "The function of comedy is to sharpen our sensitivity to the perversions of justice within the society in which we live," is famously attributed to Chaplin, and that observation applies equally to Noah and his work.

The Erasmus Prize is awarded annually to a person or institution that has made an exceptional contribution to the humanities, the social sciences or the arts. His Majesty the King is Patron of the Foundation. The Erasmus Prize consists of a prize of €150,000. The prize will be presented in the autumn of 2023.

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