Trevor Noah on Zambian Escalators…

For a number of months now Trevor Noah’s video in which he talks about escalators in Zambia has been the talk of many Zambians. A lot of Zambians have directed their disgust toward the South African stand-up comedian accusing him for among other things painting a picture of Zambians as a backward people.

In the short clip which has been widely circulated on many phones, tablets and all sorts of gadgets, Trevor suggests that the first ever public escalator in Zambia was built in August (2013), thus many Zambians are so fascinated with them that they go to the shopping malls not only for shopping but the experience of ‘riding’ the escalators too. According to Mr.Noah, children in Zambia are not excited by the mention of an afternoon out shopping at the mall but they get excited when a parent mentions that ‘riding’ the escalator will be part of the deal.

So much scorn has been directed at Trevor Noah with many suggesting that he went too far in an effort to make a living by making people laugh. Others even suggested that the comments should have been met by serious remonstrations like the furor that attracted Zambia’s vice-president Guy Scott for suggesting that South Africans are an ungrateful lot of backward people.

Others even suggested that by Noah painting a false and highly inaccurate picture of Zambia to the ‘world’, he is directly making it difficult for tourists to come to Zambia thereby denying us the much needed foreign currency.

  

My views… my thoughts

My question is; who takes comedy as gospel? Granted, Trevor is an international artist who travels the globe, but who takes his words as truth? Let alone even just taking what he says at his shows as his personal opinions. If this was the case then we would conclude that Trevor is a racist, who hates Indians, he was happy with the Marikana mine shooting where more than 34 striking mine workers were killed etc.

Trevor Noah is to me a very intelligent businessman who has used events around him to make comedy which has enabled him make an opulent living. The very first time I watched Trevor on a TV show, in my mind I set him aside from the several stand-up comedians I had listened to before. He was fresh, his jokes were ‘clean’ and above all I think I related more to his jokes. His jokes were closer to home. After many years of listening to American stand-up comedians I got to a point where I believed stand-up comedy in the US was nothing but a load of expletive laden librettos.

In as much as there are one or two materials worth a loud laugh in American stand-up comics, the bulk of it is really polemic execrations. I have listened to Chris Rock, Russell Peters, Jeff Dunham, Dave Chapelle, Dane Cook, Cedrick the entertainer, Bennie Marc and even Eddie Murphy. All of these and many more including Steve Martin and Bill Cosby will make anyone laugh any day, but like a certain colleague of mine often scolds me regarding English jokes, at times I just never found where the joke was. While I struggle to find where the joke actually is in some comedians, others are just too vulgar I can’t sit down in front of the TV and watch with my family.

Then along came Trevor Noah a South African of mixed race but he called himself colored. In some places on the earth, colored may be a racial statement. Trevor joked about politicians; those who condemned everything just because they are opposition, those who stood on podiums to make empty rhetorical statements, those who threatened citizens just because they are in power and yes Julius Malema, Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma. He made jokes about stereotype issues regarding race differences; Indian culture and their love for chilli, black South African culture, even Mexican and American culture.

Trevor has even made jokes on albinism, but is intelligent enough to try not to be offensive as any joke targeted at other people is always executed in the passive tone as a third party. He makes a point to bring it out because it is being said out there, make a joke about it and then in the end mention that is ridiculous (one of the words he uses quite a lot). He is immensely gifted at immersing himself into the lifestyle, beliefs, culture and generally everyday life of others and finding something humorous in it. The fact that in some places serviettes are called napkin was material for him to prepare a script for a show. How many times have you walked in a supermarket and seen a shelf labeled ‘napkins’, and serviettes are displayed there?

In the case of the Zambian escalator jokes, put in typical Trevor Noah fashion, he  mentions to his audience not to picture Zambia as a dusty village as it was a ‘beautiful country with stunning malls, beautiful hotels, roads and developing just like South Africa,  but just never had escalators’. Of course he exaggerated some statements, but that is what comedy is all about. We all laughed when he told jokes where his subjects were South Africans but found offence when we were the subject. He even made fun of the President Jacob Zuma’s rape trial and the nude art painting to the extent where he toyed on jokes regarding SA’s president’s sexuality and sexual maneuvers.

That to me is all what stand-up comedy must be. Find humour in everyday events. He doesn't need to be a clown to be a comic. Even though he blew out of proportion the dates when Zambia had its first escalators, the truth is you will find a lot of children(some adults too) at the malls going up on an escalator then immediately going down one the other end and then up and that continues. Of course as far back as I can remember there were escalators in ZCBC shops back in the 1980’s but then for one reason or another they disappeared only to re-emerge around 2009 or there about.   

Regardless of when the first ever escalator was built in Zambia, it matters less to Trevor as a comic, as soon as he saw a few people seemingly fascinated by one it was enough ammunition for him. The first escalators may have been present in Zambia since the 18^th century, 1964 or 1980 but to see a few people so enthralled by it was to him enough material for a show. For all he thought, they could have been built in August!

Comedy actually rides on exaggerations. I have listened to Bob Nkoshya a couple of times make fun of the Lozi tribe. I have never at any time, as a Mulozi child, ever felt offended by any of Bob’s insinuations taken as jokes. One of the Silozi jokes I’ve heard from Mr Nkoshya is that; Lozi’s are a very economical people, which manifests even in the naming of children where a child will be given the same first name which is also the last name. There is no shortage of names but just plain economical. Names of things are extremely shot such as; ndu for house, mba for stomach, ngo for nose etc. This according to Bob is different to Ici bemba for instance where there are longer names as; Ing’anda, Ifumo, Umuona respectively. Bob goes further to suggest that a lady dating a mulozi must bear in mind that the man will display trait of being ‘economical’ which will also be evident in his spending on her. In other words greedy or stingy.

I do not think any mulozi has taken offense to Bob getting the facts of some of the naming or wording patterns and made a joke of it and sugar coat with more insinuations. It is what comedy is all about. A comic sees something odd, amplifies the situation with all sorts of insinuations and they go to the bank smiling.

However, comedians must take responsibility of their utterances to avoid injuring people; it is also everyone’s responsibility to draw the line between comedy and statements of fact. I have played the Trevor Noah clip over and over and each time could only find humor in it. It is by no means a reason for any tourist to shun coming to Zambia, in fact most people would be motivated to come to Zambia to among other things see how Zambians get fascinated by escalators. Then they will realize it may not be entirely true but they will also see a couple of people ‘riding’ the escalators more times than necessary and they will laugh all the way back to their country. Like the saying goes, ‘any publicity is good publicity’. 

So what? It is just comedy.