Trevor Noah Trolled the Oscars With a Fake Proverb

This (almost) makes up for Green Book winning.

Green Book won Best Picture at yesterday's Oscars ceremony, generating dozens of extremely valid think-pieces about the Academy's failure to demonstrate progress by rewarding a retrograde film about race relations.

BlacKkKlansman director Spike Lee attempted to storm out of the Dolby Theatre at the announcement of the Best Picture prize, while his co-producer, Jordan Peele, was spotted refusing to clap.

Lee took the Academy to task in a brilliantly salty manner backstage too.

The reaction of Chadwick Boseman, star of Black Panther, was also hilariously memed at the moment of Green Book's coronation, and his expression spoke for many.

chadwick boseman when green book won LMAO #Oscars pic.twitter.com/B5oprdkK4Z

— Salina (@sadolphy) February 25, 2019

However, perhaps we can all take solace in Trevor Noah's trolling of the audience, when he introduced nominee Black Panther with what he claimed to be a Xhosa proverb.

The South African comedian, speaking in his mother's native tongue, translated the proverb as, "In times like these, we are stronger when we fight together than when we try to fight apart."

He—rightly—presumed few in the auditorium would speak Xhosa (after all, the Academy make-up remains overwhelmingly white, despite recent strides, hence the selection of the caucasian-privileging Green Book over rival nominees).

Viewers in South Africa, however, identified the quote as actually meaning, "White people don't know I'm lying".

Green Book may have won the big Oscar, but Noah, Lee and Boseman really did get the last laugh.

Header Image: ABC