Of all the jokes that happened during last night’s Academy Awards, it turns out that the funniest one was hidden from most viewers — except those who speak the South African language Xhosa. While presenting Best Picture nominee Black Panther, Daily Show host and South Africa native Trevor Noah got a lot of laughs for his Mel Gibson joke (“Mel Gibson came up to me like ‘Wakanda forever.’ He said another word after that, but the Wakanda part was niceâ€), but there was a better joke hiding from the audience. It happened near the end of his speech, when Noah said a phrase in Xhosa he said translates to “In times like this we are stronger when we fight together than when we try to fight apart.â€
Except that’s not what the phrase translates to — not even close. As BBC and multiple South African news outlets were quick to point out, what Noah actually said was, “White people don’t know I’m lying.†(A rep for Noah confirmed the translation.)
Considering this happened during the same ceremony that awarded the “We solved racism!†movie as Best Picture, Noah’s sly joke — told only for the South African audience who would understand it — was a pretty genius move.