Column: Trevor Noah’s Oscar joke trolling whites in a native tongue originated with Sitting Bull
By now, it is widely known that Daily Show hoston the Oscars audience Sunday night by mistranslating a phrase in the South African Xhosa language to make it seem like a traditional platitude, rather than an expression of disdain.
What most people probably don’t know, however, is that not only was he not the first foreign-born celebrity to stage this sort of stunt, but the most renowned example was executed by the great Sioux chief Sitting Bull — in 1883, before a high-profile audience that reputedly included former President Ulysses S. Grant.First, let’s give Noah his due.
The audience on hand at the Dolby Theatre applauded obligingly, not understanding that the Xhosa phrase actually means, “White people don’t know I’m lying.”of USC observing that the tradition of foreign-born movie stars slipping hidden messages into their dialogue is an old one. But the stunt may actually have originated with Sitting Bull, who used it to commit one of the most subtle acts of defiance in American history.
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