# What do you think of Trevor Noah's inside joke at the Oscars? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 25, 2019, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214 "2019-02-25T23:47:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/21 "2019-02-26T19:17:48Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > While this is technically true, and makes for some nice humour, it’s \*also \*true that this was only the case for the first year of Noah’s life. Can you please elaborate? He was born in 1984, and apartheid ended in South Africa in 1994. Did the law against interracial marriage end before apartheid ended? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/22 "2019-02-26T20:45:47Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Whitey here, and I thought it was hilarious. Same. As for the stuff before, in no way does it sound like his joke is, “White people think Wakanda is real.” It comes across as just a silly riff with maybe a little best-life fantasizing thrown in. How fragile would a person have to be to take a dig like this personally? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/23 "2019-02-26T21:00:45Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Same. > > As for the stuff before, in no way does it sound like his joke is, “White people think Wakanda is real.” It comes across as just a silly riff with maybe a little best-life fantasizing thrown in. > > How fragile would a person have to be to take a dig like this personally? I’m not sure. What would the equivalent dig be, in reverse? If a white guy up on stage breaks into a foreign language long enough to say — _what,_ exactly? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/24 "2019-02-26T21:07:00Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Can you please elaborate? He was born in 1984, and apartheid ended in South Africa in 1994. Did the law against interracial marriage end before apartheid ended? Yes,[in 1985](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immorality_and_Prohibition_of_Mixed_Marriages_Amendment_Act,_1985) ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/25 "2019-02-26T21:53:00Z")
I laughed my butt off. As did Madame Pepperwinkle and all the other members of my family. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/26 "2019-02-26T22:12:05Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Same. > > As for the stuff before, in no way does it sound like his joke is, “White people think Wakanda is real.” It comes across as just a silly riff with maybe a little best-life fantasizing thrown in. It’s mindboggling the mental gymnastics some people perform. That was literally the damn jpunchline. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/27 "2019-02-26T22:46:06Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Yes,[in 1985](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immorality_and_Prohibition_of_Mixed_Marriages_Amendment_Act,_1985) In his book, Noah gives many later examples of problems due to his mixed parentage. For example, he says his father could not walk with him and his mother, but had to walk on the other side of the street. If he is walking this would be after he turned one. Whatever the legal situation in South Africa at various times in his life, the huge giant overwhelming point is that he of all people is allowed to take shots at whitey if he feels like it. And whitey should keep their mouth shut about it. But I think he’s funny. And I said so [six years ago](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16526562&postcount=34), long before The Daily Show, after seeing him at the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival. > [@](#): > > Trevor Noah - I hate to push him because he’s going back to South Africa after spending two years touring the U.S. He’s the anti-[Bo] Burnam, a quiet gentleman who is all personality and connects with the audience throughout an act that is otherwise just as precisely honed. (His best local line was that Montreal calls itself bilingual, but is really French with English subtitles. Perfect.) The whole hour is essentially one long story about his boyhood under apartheid and how he came to the U.S. so that he would have an identity: as black. The show’s called “Born a Crime” because he has a black mother and white father and interracial babies had no legal identity. And he does it all from a perspective of how happy his childhood was. The audience, more racially-diverse than at any other show, loved him, rightfully so. If the suits ever figure out what to do with him, he will be a gigantic global star, Will Smith before everybody started hating him. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/28 "2019-02-26T22:57:37Z")
I tend to be sensitive that digs to whites (males especially) are fair game, but if you flip them around to a minority there would be huge offense. In this case flip it around to a white quoting a Latin saying that actually translates to “Black people don’t know I’m lying”. And of course, like Noah’s “joke” actually 99.99% of the planet wouldn’t understand it. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/29 "2019-02-26T22:59:00Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > It’s mindboggling the mental gymnastics some people perform. That was literally the damn jpunchline. Those were two different jokes, dude. Did you seriously not realize that? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/30 "2019-02-26T23:12:32Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I’m not sure. What would the equivalent dig be, in reverse? If a white guy up on stage breaks into a foreign language long enough to say — _what,_ exactly? [Here’s the equivalent in reverse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw_mRaIHb-M). ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/31 "2019-02-26T23:16:48Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > And digs at whitey are bad, why? Especially coming from a person whose very existence was a crime in his country and had to be hidden from whites lest they arrest his mother? So “digs” at entire races are ok sometimes, depending entirely on which race is being “dug”? Isn’t that exactly what racism is? mmm ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/32 "2019-02-26T23:29:20Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Those were two different jokes, dude. Did you seriously not realize that? No, they weren’t. Please don’t ever try to explain comedy above second grade level. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/33 "2019-02-26T23:39:42Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > No, they weren’t. Please don’t ever try to explain comedy above second grade level. Believe me, I will stop trying to explain comedy to you. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2019, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/34 "2019-02-27T00:36:43Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > So “digs” at entire races are ok sometimes, depending entirely on which race is being “dug”? > > Isn’t that exactly what racism is? Yeah, racism is taking a dig at apartheid. Keep digging that hole. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2019, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/35 "2019-02-27T01:03:06Z")
It was a fun little joke. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2019, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/36 "2019-02-27T01:22:44Z")
I think the fact that people are freaking out over it makes it even funnier. Do people never even watch “The Daily Show”? ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2019, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/37 "2019-02-27T02:14:56Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > In his book, Noah gives many later examples of problems due to his mixed parentage. For example, he says his father could not walk with him and his mother, but had to walk on the other side of the street. If he is walking this would be after he turned one. > > Whatever the legal situation in South Africa at various times in his life, the huge giant overwhelming point is that he of all people is allowed to take shots at whitey if he feels like it. And whitey should keep their mouth shut about it. You do realize you’re lecturing a South African, right? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2019, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/38 "2019-02-27T03:09:40Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > You do realize you’re lecturing a South African, right? Yes, I’m aware of that. Why should that interfere with a slam against apartheid? Or an accurate account of a book he may not have read? And the context is my speaking as an American commenting on Noah’s joke on an American broadcast to an American audience, which was dissed by an American poster. That poster needed to have recognized Noah’s context, just as you should have recognized mine. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2019, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/39 "2019-02-27T03:11:12Z")
Why are we even talking about Apartheid? ---
**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2019, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214/40 "2019-02-27T03:22:40Z")
Personally, having had people ask me to say something (anything) in another language I am fluent in, the joke was especially funny. If tales of my early childhood are correct, I once said something like “you two are dumb” to a pair of girls who had no idea what I was saying and thought it was the cutest thing:D. //i\ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-trevor-noahs-inside-joke-at-the-oscars/830214.md?page=3)