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 Jantjie.

The man who made it all happened.

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! He's bloody! 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 role 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 were 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, and 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 and 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)

"...and 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, all, 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.

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.

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 a 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 too far.

The same thing happens with tenders, all of 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.

They were 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.

Afterward, real sign language interpreters they found out he was doing this, right?

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.

"As Americans, Nelson Madela's a man that showed that 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.

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?

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, "Trevo, 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 Amabokoboko, 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 and 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, "Yeah 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. Yeah, cool. I didn't even notice, I just thought you had an accent. That's cool. Nice to meet you."

He said, "Yeah, that's cool, man. I just have a quick question if you don't mind.”

I said, "Yeah, 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 tell 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 didn't know. I don't make jokes about deaf people."

He said, "Yeah, why not?"

I said, "Beacause I can't do. 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? From laughing?”

"We also want jokes. Yeah, we know we are different, but we still want the same things."

I said, "Yeahm but 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!"

"It's easy for you to say."

"No, you just make the jokes. If the jokes is funny, 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."