Hailed as the fresh face of an institution and an antidote to the usual line up of older, white men on late night talk shows, Trevor Noah, 31, was announced as Jon Stewart's replacement on The Daily Show on Monday.

The Daily Show has long been both a source of satire and news beloved by progressives in the US and internationally, and the question of who would replace Stewart has been the subject of intense speculation. The announcement of Noah, a South African comedian who was relatively unknown in the US and had appeared in just three short guest spots on The Daily Show before, was met with much surprise.

Within a day though, and before his hosting stint even begun, Noah was facing a storm of controversy after a number offensive jokes re-surfaced.

Some of the tweets, which Fairfax Media has chosen not to re-publish, appear to make light of violence against women, mock overweight women, while another features a crude sexual joke about Jewish women.  "Fat chicks," "Thai hookers," lesbian porn and women's sports are among the topics of the Tweets, mostly posted in 2011, before his rise to international fame.

The discovery of the Tweets - made after some users trawled through his Twitter history and retweeted them again - prompted a swift and shocked reaction online.

In sadder news, Trevor Noah: unfunny, misogynist, fat shamer. So long, @TheDailyShow, thanks for all the fish. — Caroline Sharp (@csharp7) March 31, 2015

Old Tweets Are Getting #TrevorNoah In Trouble http://t.co/6r79XjzGhf Hard to imagine anyone else surviving such hateful, bigoted remarks. — Col. Morris Davis (@ColMorrisDavis) March 31, 2015

Jews, "untermenschen", "fat chicks" & "girls with big asses" - subjects of @Trevornoah's low-brow humour. Jon Stewart's replacement, folks! — Ariana Gic Perry (@ArianaGicPerry) March 31, 2015

. @Trevornoah clearly isn't funny. Was he hired to be offensive? Should we boycott @ComedyCentral? h/t @magicsilicon http://t.co/iuJAc7Abnv" — David B. Cohen (@DavidBCohen1) March 31, 2015

Seriously, this is the most beautiful two-day juxtaposition ever: pic.twitter.com/btCy4V2cMx — Jeff B@AoSHQDD (@EsotericCD) March 31, 2015

On Tuesday afternoon in the US, Comedy Central, which broadcasts The Daily Show, released a statement standing by the new host as "provocative" and that judging him on the basis of a few Tweets was "unfair".

"Like many comedians, Trevor Noah pushes boundaries; he is provocative and spares no one, himself included," the statement said.

"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."

Noah himself responded to the controversy on Tuesday, first Tweeting: "Twitter does not have enough characters to respond to all the characters on Twitter."

He soon deleted this Tweet. Several hours later he posted a different response, saying the jokes weren't a "true reflection" of him as a comedian.

To reduce my views to a handful of jokes that didn't land is not a true reflection of my character, nor my evolution as a comedian. — Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) March 31, 2015

The quick condemnation of Noah by many only hours after he was being welcome as a new host has seen others jump to his defence, or question whether such scrutiny is applied to all famous comics.

I'm not saying his old tweets are ok but I hope you are crawling through the tweets of a range of comedians. The results will be interesting — roxane gay (@rgay) March 31, 2015

I hate that the fake outrage against Trevor Noah is making me like him more. I'M NOT READY FOR THAT. — Andrew Hibbard (@andrewhibbard) March 31, 2015

Because I'm wading into all the hot topic items today, I'll just say I think the problem with Trevor Noah is that his jokes are bad & lazy. — Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) March 31, 2015

with Josephine Tovey