We don’t celebrate our heroes enough in this country
so many of our heroes
we chastise them
we bring them down
it's jealousy, its hatred
heroes that we don’t acknowledge
Greats
after Nelson Mandela we always go
nobody else can live up to that, yeah but the small levels of greatness
you don’t even have to look far, for instance
our great sign language interpreter
Thamsanqa
Jantjies.
the man who made it all happen
he was there
at Nelson Mandela's memorial service
a service that the whole world was watching
and because of that the service was translated to everyone all over the world
translated into all languages including sign language
so Jantjies was there translating for those who didn’t understand
unfortunately he also didn’t understand sign language
which is a small problem, a problem that he didn’t let stop him people
where others see obstacles, he saw an opportunity
People go, "He's a conman!
how could he do something so deceitful!"
Yeah you got to go, how can he be so deceitful
that man Jantjies showed us something super, he's a roll model to the children
because he showed you shouldn’t listen
to what people say you can or cannot do
if you believe in yourself
and you work hard enough
anything is possible.
people told him his whole life
they are like, "Jantjies, you can't do sign language!"
he was like, "We'll see about that
bitches."
and he did it, he did sign language for the most powerful people in the world
every single one of them, Jantjies was on that stage
doing it and doing it well.
Nobody even suspected him, nobody
people where just like, he's doing his thing
People ask like where did he come from, did he sneak in?
he didn’t sneak in, he's been the official sign language interpreter
for the government for the last 5 years.
Yeah, official for the last 5 years
and apparently before this people have complained
but obviously the complaint fell on deaf ears
so nothing was done about it.
So he just carried on.
and now he was here, the biggest event of his life
signing for the world, signing, just making it up
in the zone, nobody suspected I suspected
I suspected, no I did I did
Let me tell you why no, let me tell you why
not because I know sign language
but because I know my President
and if there's one thing that's specific
it's when Jacob Zuma reads a speech
Jacob Zuma reads a speech
he's a very deliberate man
he's very calm, very measured
takes
his
time.
the rhythm is the most important thing
Jantjies didn’t match his rhythm
I knew there was something wrong
you remember this, Zuma was there
reading Mandela's Wikipedia page, right
and while he was reading
Jantjies was doing totally different, like the rhythm was wrong
Zuma was there like
and
thereafter
Nelson Mandela
(sign language)
went to Robin Island
(sign language)
for his imprison
(sign language)
em ment to
(sign language)
the rhythm didn’t match
right, Zuma was on page 1 that guy was on
like page 17 or something.
it didn’t match up at all
it's almost like Zuma was translating sign language for us
that's how slow it looked
"can, can, also, sorry, I haven’t practiced guys"
it didn’t match up, none of it
but Jantjies did it, he stayed there in the face of adversity and he fought
yeah, he did sign language for everyone
we have to ask ourselves questions as well as South Africans
we don’t ask enough questions
for instance, did nobody think to ask him
how he could speak every single language in the world
every leader came
from countries everywhere
they spoke in their language
Jantjies translated for everyone.
did nobody stop to ask, even for a second
the President of Brazil is standing up there
(Speaking Portuguese)
Jantjies was there (sign language)
Did no one say, hey Jantjies you can speak Portuguese?
"I'm in the zone baba, I'm in the zone."
"I'm in the zone."
did nobody think to ask?
he did sign language for everyone, the ambassador of China was up there
(speaking Chinese)
Jantjies was there on the side
(sign language)
No, no, no
he just made it up
he made everything up
and he did a great job at it, he did a great job
but then
like, like true South African
he just took it too far, he just
enough wasn’t enough, he just
you know, that's our problem in South Africa that's all it is
we don’t know when to stop, we take it to far.
the same thing happens with tenders, all these things
guys are stealing houses and everything , I go
guys I understand you want to steal, I understand that
I understand, but if you get a tender to build 10 houses
steal 1, build 9
at least 9 people have houses.
don’t steal all the houses
somebody's gonna notice
and then you can't steal more houses.
but no, we want it all in South Africa. We take it one step too far.
that's what Jantjies did
he had done it for everyone, he done a great job
the best fake sign language the world had ever seen.
he had gotten away with it too, until Barack Obama came up to speak
this was a speech that was going to be performed
by the most powerful man in the free world
90 million people watching that speech
this my friends is the point where
you pack up your little bag of tricks
and you call it a day.
not Jantjies.
if I was Jantjies that's where I would have called it quits
"Hey Jantjies, next one." Who is it?
"Barack Obama, the whole world is watching this one."
Hey no sorry guys, sorry
sorry, hey my fingers are cramping
I've lost my voice, sorry.
No, no not Jantjies.
You are like, Barack. "I'm there"
and he was
doing sign language for Barack Obama
and they found out that while he was doing the sign language
he kept on using the same signs over and over again right
the few real signs that he actually knew
and apparently all he knew was 4 things
4 things that he kept on doing repeatedly
they are, afterward real sign language interpreters
they found out he was doing this
alright, which means greetings.
greetings, he kept on doing that
another one he loved doing was
circle, yeah
yeah, circle
one of his favorites was
smoking, yeah
and every now and again, he'd go
(gibberish)
that's all he did, over and over again
can you imagine that
Nelson Madela's memorial
Barack Obama pouring his heart out
there he is, Barack Hussein Obama
and Jantjies.
Uh
As Americans
Nelson Madela's a man that showed
that uh
through peace
you can free not only the prisoner
but also the guard
Nelson Madela's a man
he's beyond a man, he's a legacy
a legacy I can never aspire to be
but we can all look towards
and a
for me Nelson Mandela
showed that sometimes in life you got to go the hard way
you've got to say the things that matter
and always remember to do what counts
I can never be Nelson Mandela
can you imagine how horrible it must have been
for every single deaf person watching that speech?
imagine what that must have been like as a deaf person
watching that at home, sitting there
it must have been the craziest thing they have ever seen in their lives
deaf people just watching like
"Hello
hello
what?
why is he talking about smoking?
talk about Nelson Mandela
stop talking about smoking, talk about Nelson
why is he talking about, what, hello
why is he
this is the worst speech ever, there's something wrong with his head
the man has a smoking problem, what the hell?
talk about Mandela, what is wrong with him?
this is the worst speech
I can't listen anymore, it's horrible!
its horrible, I don’t want to see it
I can't do this man."
that speech must have been ridiculous
by the way, that's only the second time
I've ever told a joke about deaf people ever
only the second time
I told one joke when I started out in comedy and then I stopped
because I believed you shouldn’t make jokes about disabled people
it's the wrong thing to do, it's wrong.
and I never did it again until one day my life changed
I got asked to do a show.
In Sun City, I was asked to do a show.
Sasol was organizing a going away party for the South African Paralympic team.
When they were going out to London.
And so they invited me. They said Trevor we would like for you to come and do a show.
To perform for Ama Kroko Kroko.
We’d like. Oh, you forgot?
Oh, you forgot that’s the name we gave our Paralympic team?
Not a nickname, that was our official name.
We had Ama-bokke-bokke,
Bafana Bafana and Ama Kroko Kroko.
We called our Paralympic athletes Ama Kroko Kroko.
Which means, the broken things.
A bunch of crocs.
That’s the worst thing you can call a disabled person, ever.
Ama Kroko Kroko.
that is what we called
You can’t be serious, Ama Kroko Kroko. That’s probably what Reeva said to Oscar that night
That’s the only thing I can think of.
“Don’t you call me Ama Kroko Kroko! Ahhhh!"
Ama Kroko Kroko.
So anyway, I have to do a show for Ama Kroko Kroko.
And because I am there I did no jokes about disabled people or anything that could be seen as offensive.
I did nothing like that.
And after the show I was meeting some of the guys, everything went well.
And one of the athletes came up to me, I’ll never forget this till the day I die. He came up to me.
He was partially deaf. And he introduced himself and he was a fan. A great fan.
He was like, “Hey! Trevor! Hey man, how are you?”
I said,” Hey buddy, how you doing? Good to meet you.”
He said, “Great to meet you, I am a big fan.”
I said, “Well, thank you. Thank you very much.”
He said, “Yea dude, I love your stuff. But you should have subtitles.”
“because sometimes I don’t get it.”
“because I am partially deaf.”
I said, “Oh, I didn’t even notice.”
“Yea, cool. I didn’t even notice, I just thought you had an accent. That’s cool.”
“Nice to meet you.”
He said, “Yea, cool man. I just have a quick question if you don’t mind.”
I said,” Yea, go ahead. Go ahead.”
He said, “How come you never make jokes about deaf people?”
I said, “I’m sorry, what?”
“I don’t tell jokes about deaf people.”
He said, “Yeah, how come you never make jokes about deaf people?”
I said, “What do you mean?”
He said, “you make jokes about everyone. Tall people, short people, black, white. Everyone.”
“but I have never heard you telling jokes about deaf people, why?”
“So you’ve never heard me.”
“tell a joke”
“about”
“deaf, deaf people.”
“Yeah”
“No man, not like that you stupid.”
“No man, you’re an idiot.”
I said, “No, I don’t know.”
“I don’t make jokes about deaf people.”
He said, “Why not?”
I said, “I can’t, I shouldn’t make jokes about deaf people”
“because If I did that, deaf people would be hurt and deaf people would be offended.”
“Why would we be hurt?”
“It’s not like we don’t know we are deaf.”
“I thought I was protecting you.”
“Protecting us from what? Laughing?”
“We also want jokes. Yeah, we know we are different”
“but we still want the same things.”
I said, “you know what is funny? You say I must make jokes, right?”
“but even if you are cool with it, you know who will complain?”
“people that can hear, they will complain on your behalf.”
“because that is what people do, they get offended for other people.”
“They will be the ones going, ”Trevor Noah is an asshole.”
“He made jokes about deaf people.”
He said, “So?”
“Why do you care?”
I said, “Because it hurts, it hurts.”
He said, “Dude, you are a comedian. Suck it up!”
“You know it’s easy for you to say.”
“No, you just make the jokes. It’s funny and people will laugh.”
“and then we move on.”
I’m like, “Yeah you know what? You say that, but then what do I do if they complain?”
He’s like, “Dude, if they complain, then they complain, okay?”
“You know what? Go do the jokes, go do the jokes.”
“and then, if they complain. Just do what I do.”
I was like, “What do you mean.” He’s like,
“Just don’t listen.”