One Direction was the highlight of a joke made about terrorists on The Daily Show on Tuesday night, and fans of the popular group have reacted quickly to defend them.
E! Online reported the show’s correspondent, Jessica Williams, made a joke about terrorist groups in the Middle East. She joked that a new super terrorist group had formed, and it had “one member each from ISIS, Al Nusra, Al Qaeda, Hamas, One Direction, and the Zetas drug cartel.”
One Direction fans were horrified and offended by the joke, especially because one member of the group, Zayn Malik, is a practicing Muslim. The fans expressed outrage, and felt Malik was being unfairly singled out of the boy band as a terrorist because of his religious faith.
Many One Direction fans have taken to Twitter, Instagram, and other social networking websites to express their disbelief at the joke, even going as far as saying the set of The Daily Show should be burned to the ground, according to E! Online .
Supporters of One Direction are using hashtags such as #TheDailyShowHasGoneTooFar , #ZaynDefenseSquad, and #ZaynSavesNotKills, according to the Chicago Tribune .
The heated fans are calling on each other to flood the internet with support for Zayn and One Direction, even suggesting Zayn Malik should sue the show because of the insensitive joke.
Directioners SHOW @zaynmalik your love! #TheDailyShowGoneTooFar #ZaynSueTheDailyShow #ZaynIsTheMostAmazingHumanBeing #ZaynSavesNotKills !!!!
— NJx786 (@NJx786) September 26, 2014
The Daily Show responded quickly with a tweet, saying the show was not aware of any details of the members of One Direction and had no idea how popular the group is among so many people.
Dear 1D fans: We didn’t know the band members’ names, religions, hobbies, etc. Just knew they were popular. But not THIS popular. #whoa — The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) September 26, 2014
Others were quick to see the irony in the violent protests from a few One Direction fans and were somewhat alarmed, while many defended The Daily Show and its frequent use of satire. Those who frequently watch the show claim The Daily Show targets popular groups for a laugh and really does not deserve the threats it has received from many disgruntled One Direction fans.
As of yet, no members of One Direction have responded to the joke or have released a statement as a group about the incident which has left so many of its fans insulted and on guard for their favorite musical group.