One Direction
One Direction, (L-R) Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Liam Payne, at the world premiere of their film, "One Direction: This Is Us," in London Aug. 20, 2013. Reuters

A skit on Jon Stewart’s series “The Daily Show” has angered fans of boy band One Direction after one of the show’s correspondents, Jessica Williams, included the group’s name in a comedy routine about terrorism Tuesday night. After discussing two fictional terrorists organizations, "al Kill Y-all" and "al Fah-ak Yu Up,” Williams, 24, announced that a new “super group” had been formed. The group, Williams said, included one member from “ISIS, al-Nussa, al Qaeda, Hamas, One Direction and the Zetas drug cartel.”

“They like to hijack planes Jon and take them to Cuba,” said Williams. “They’re really kicking it old school, Jon. Very vintage.”

Despite the series' satirical nature, fans of the "What Makes You Beautiful" performers have since turned to social media to slam the program. While Williams did not mention any specific member of the group in her act, fans appear to believe that 21-year-old singer Zayn Malik, a Muslim, was the individual targeted in the skit. Twitter hashtags such as #DailyShowGoneTooFar, #ZaynSavesNotKills and #ZaynDefenseSquad have trended on Twitter in response to the episode, Gawker is reporting.

“The Daily Show” claims the joke was not targeted at Malik. “Dear 1D fans: We didn’t know the band members’ names, religions, hobbies, etc. Just knew they were popular. But not THIS popular. #whoa,” Stewart's official Twitter page said Friday.

Williams and members of One Direction have yet to address the controversy.

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