Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
Promotional art for Lost in Translation
Cover image credit:

Source

Lost in Translation

Trevor Noah

Comedy Central · 2015 · 64 min

An outsider's tour of American panic and policing.

Watch it free on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Trevor Noah spends the opening minutes of this hour marveling at the wordless noises American crowds make when they get excited, pointing out that a standard cheer is only a few pitches away from a police siren. It is a smooth pivot into the anxieties of being a Black South African newly arrived in the United States, trying to figure out how to survive a routine traffic stop. This tension between global bafflement and American reality forms the core of his performance at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C. Taped in the summer of 2015 and released that November, the special caught Noah at a career-defining moment, coming just months after he succeeded Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show. Comedy Central positioned the hour as a major introduction for American viewers still getting to know their new late-night host. Noah leans heavily into this transition, detailing his experience traveling to the United States from Africa during the height of the Ebola panic, and mocking the semantic differences between domestic mass shooters and international terrorists. While some critics noted that his observations on American life hit familiar targets, his charisma and mimicry helped translate tense political topics into relaxed, accessible storytelling.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Being pulled over by a white police officer for the first time in America while driving a nice car.

    Contrasts his polite and handsome public persona with sheer panic, escalating to playing dead inside his car.

  2. Experiencing airport screening and traveling into the United States during the Ebola crisis.

    Highlights the absurdity of the airline protocols and humorously laments not being deemed 'African enough' to contract the disease.

  3. The audience celebration 'woo-hoo!' versus linguistic sound cues.

    Notes that shouting 'woo-hoo!' sounds too much like a police siren for Black Americans to safely embrace it.

  4. Flying on Middle Eastern airlines to avoid terrorism.

    Acts out a character scene between an aspiring suicide bomber and an everyday Muslim passenger.

  5. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Charming and genteel racism encountered in the American South. closer

    Imitates Southern accents blending in harmonic musical unison ('like a Mumford & Sons concert') that concludes abruptly with a friendly racial slur.

  6. Navigating police violence and media smear campaigns against Black shooting victims.

    Proposes the rule 'I don't know how not to die' and mocks how news coverage dug up Walter Scott's 1987 assault conviction to justify a shooting in 2015.

How it plays

Tone
Charming, satirical, observational, witty, and socially conscious.
On stage
Debonair, charming, and unthreatening outsider with an unforced confidence, open smile, and bewildered disdain.
Pace
Energetically pleasing and self-assured delivery, intercut with calculated pauses to absorb audience approval.
About
American racial tensions and police brutality, Media framing of Black victims, The Ebola epidemic and profiling, Terrorism and language, Genteel Southern racism versus South African apartheid racism

What the critics said

Critics praised Noah's natural charm, vocal dexterity, and refreshing outsider viewpoint on American race relations, though some reviews observed that his eager-to-please persona occasionally softened the bite of his writing and storytelling authority.

In the room: A warm, receptive Washington D.C. crowd that greeted him with extended entrance ovations, steady laughter, and frequent applause for his political insights.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: letterboxd.com, vulture.com, moviefone.com, mymoviefinder.com, chortle.co.uk, avclub.com, thecomicscomic.com, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, netflix.com, bostonglobe.com.

Backstory

Filmed against the backdrop of heightened racial tensions in America following police killings of unarmed Black men (such as Ferguson and Walter Scott), international terrorism events like the Charlie Hebdo shooting, the West African Ebola panic, and online scrutiny over Noah's past tweets.

Details

Released
Taped
The Lincoln Theatre, Washington
Runtime
64 min
Where
Comedy Central
Director
David Paul Meyer
Topics
Before
African American (2013)
After
Afraid of the Dark (2017)

More from Trevor Noah

If you liked this