How Jim Carrey Helped Trevor Noah Realize He Was Depressed

After receiving the Comedy Person of the Year Award at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal on Friday, Noah gave his comedic mentor a shout-out during his acceptance speech.

"You can't win at comedy. Every comedian knows you're going to have your good days, you're going to have your bad days, but you don't win," Noah said. "Winning is getting to the end without committing suicide, and Jim Carrey was one of the first comedians that described the beast that many of us face in this room, and that's depression."

The late-night host said he didn't realize depression was a real thing. "I just thought I liked sleeping for weeks on end sometimes," he said.

It wasn't until Noah read Carrey's story back in 2004 that he noticed some surprising similarities.

"I thank you because, you know, I found a way to fight it," Noah said to Carrey, who also attended the event. "I found a way to build a community and that's what this place is -- it's a community of people trying to do something."

Carrey originally opened up about his battles with depression during a "60 Minutes" interview with CBS over a decade ago, where he admitted he had taken Prozac for a long time.

It wasn't until March of 2016 that Noah publicly addressed his mental health issues.

"You know what's funny about [depression], though, is people go, 'If you're depressed, you can't smile. If you're depressed, you can't tell jokes,' but as comedians, that's like the one thing most comedians share is that monkey on the back of depression," Noah said on "The Daily Show" while interviewing comedian Neal Brennan.