Trevor Noah- He Came, He Saw, He Laughed at Us

Attending comedian Trevor Noah's That's Racist show was an experience. His two shows were sold out months before the actual show. The tickets for the New Government Complex show were the most sought after with people willing to pay triple their recommended price. Trevoh Noah has built quite a formidable reputation of making people laugh at themselves.

The Golden Tickets

I do not think that I have ever laughed as hard as I did at the Trevor show. It all began with the Zambian curtain raisers in Kapalu Mutenda and HK. They were funny in their own right and definitely comedians to watch in Zambia, however, they were only appetisers for the main man. Immediately, Trevor Noah hit the stage there was no stopping the onslaught of laughter that was to befall us. I do not think I have ever laughed that hard to the point at which my lungs hurt. I apologise to the people seated next to me.

 The brilliant part about Trevor is his ability to come up with jokes based on the culture of the people. In this case, he was having a field day at laughing at us. I mean he found things that we take as every day normal such as selling puppies at the traffic lights and made a joke about it.

"So what do you guys do? You are driving on the road and when you see the puppy then you go 'Oh that is what I forgot to buy on the grocery list a puppy'..." he joked. It is paraphrased. If you haven't laughed I understand. My niece who did not attend the show asked me to tell her the jokes if it was so funny. But the truth is, it is hard to repeat Trevor Noah jokes, they do not sound as funny if someone else tells them. His delivery is unique and it is part of the joke too. It is the way he builds to the punch line, the pace of the joke and then add the accent. You just can't replicate those things.

Comedian Trevor Noah "That's Racist"

 I know some people were probably offended by his use of stereotypes to poke fun at us. For example, why black people are not fans of water, white people do unnecessary stuff like jumping from space or coloureds are known for their short tempers. I mean truth be told whether we like it or not, the reason hundreds of us laughed so hard was because we could relate to many of the things he was talking about. In my opinion, one of the most effective ways of breaking down issues of stereotypes and racism is to laugh about them. And laugh about them we did.

So Trevor Noah laughed at us and made us laugh at ourselves too. We laughed about how too friendly Zambians are, how the escalators seem to mersmerise some, how chaotic our driving is, how we name roads after cities i.e. Addis Ababa Road, Cairo Road and how we answer questions with questions. I mean that is so true and should I be upset about it? Hell no, that is what makes Zambia so unique and we should be proud of it. It is just who we are. I am sure Trevor got a bucket load of jokes from being in Zambia for his other shows and the rest of the world will be laughing at us. We don't care because we will be laughing at others too. Hey, it is all a joke.