Comedian and host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah, has pushed back against his critics and refused to apologise after being publicly called out over a joke from 2013 about the appearance of Indigenous women.

Key points: Noah says comedians will always offend some people

Noah says comedians will always offend some people He says jokes are received differently in different cultures

He says jokes are received differently in different cultures He sidesteps calls for an apology but says he no longer tells the joke

Speaking on triple j's Drive program, the South African said it was "completely" understandable that Indigenous women in Australia would have found the comments, from a stand-up special, offensive.

Earlier this week, prominent Indigenous Australians chastised Noah, and called for boycotts of his August tour, after a video of the performance was shared online.

"All women of every race can be beautiful," Noah says in the clip, which has since been removed from YouTube.

Sorry, this audio has expired Trevor Noah talks about the controversy over his 2013 joke

"And I know some of you are sitting there now going, 'Oh Trevor, yeah, but I've never seen a beautiful Aborigine'.

"Yeah, but you know what you say? You say 'yet'. That's what you say; 'yet'. Because you haven't seen all of them, right?

"Plus it's not always about looks. Maybe Aborigine women do special things? Maybe they'll just like, jump on top of you?"

He then goes on to mimic the sound of a didgeridoo while miming oral sex.

Indigenous writer Dr Anita Heiss and former rugby league player Joe Williams were among those to criticise Noah, with the latter calling for an apology.

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Noah suggests some jokes don't work in different cultures

The comedian told triple j the joke was made in South Africa in a different cultural context, and that comedy does not always translate across borders.

Expanding on comments he made on Twitter last week, Noah said he stopped performing the joke after being told by someone he met in Australia that it was hurtful.

"That's why I am saying when you learn about something from someone who is a different culture, you understand how much gravity a joke can have in one place versus another place," he said.

"What I can say is 'thank you to the first person who educated me on the joke and how differently it can be seen in Australia'.

"There are certain things that maybe we talk about in South Africa that aren't seen as denigrating or aren't seen as extremely bad, but when you travel to a different place it changes. That's comedy everywhere, all over the world."

Asked if he would apologise for any hurt caused, Noah said: "Well, my question is, how many times will people ask for the same thing?

"This is a thing I realised ... as a comedian, you are going to make jokes that some people like and some people don't like.

"I always go back to intention. If you are trying to hurt people, then you would carry on doing the joke. If you are not trying to hurt people, then you don't do the joke ... you change the joke to work.

While Noah said he was "always glad" to look back on old material and say goodbye to jokes that might now be considered offensive, he also said that he "understands how outrage works".

"What I mean is people don't generally want to listen or understand from their side," he said.

"They go, 'no, we are angry', and regardless of how many times you speak about the thing, they still want to be angry."