Trevor's Many Accents

Trevor explains how the people in his life inspired him to mimic a variety of accents, what went wrong when he learned to speak German and the downside of his limited Spanish vocabulary.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Comedy Central, how do I do to
the accents? I'll be honest with you, like I never
thought I was good at it or anything, but I
think it's because I grew up like that. I have
a mixed family. Like everyone in my family has a
different accent, you know, so my dad, my dad's family,
my mom, my mom's family, everyone has like like a
hybrid because everyone moved around a lot, so whenever you

(00:23):
go to a different house, it's just easier to speak
to them in their accent then to try, you know.
Because it was weird as well because I went to
a private school, like myself and my my cousins were
all lucky to go to like at the time, they
called them Model C schools in South Africa, so it
was like the first generation of black and white kids
at the same schools. So we have different accents to
our parents. And then like your parents were happy to

(00:45):
send you there. That was the funny thing. It's like
your parents would be like, you must go to that
school and you must learn to speak good English, and
then you go to the school and you learn the English,
and then you come home and then like your parents
would be sitting with them watching TV or something, and
then like your your your dad would be like put volume,
put volume, and you'd be like, do you mean increase
the volume? Be like, hey, increuse or decrease your life.

(01:08):
Don't act much here? Put volume. You don't come here
with that English. And it's like, yeah, but that's what
you told her. So then it became easier to just
like speak the you know what I mean, speak in
the accent of the people. It changes, like you might
find you do the same thing. Do you live in
New York or do you live in Haiti or you
live in Haiti? Okay, if you live in New York.
I know, I've got friends from Haiti who do like
in New York they sound like half Haiti half New York.

(01:31):
And then when they go to Haiti, I can't understand
a word that they're saying. Like like if if I
FaceTime a friend of mine who's in Haiti when he's
in New York and be like, yeah, man, you know,
you know when I hear a little bit of Haiti
and then when he's in Haiti and I'll face time
with him and I'll be like, Yo, what's up, Vince?
How you doing? And be like why you? Whyre you?
Why are you? Why are you? I said, I want you?
Why are you? Said that? You know, and I'm like
what everyone everyone? So I think that's where I got

(01:53):
it from. I just you know, yeah, just having mixed people,
you just speak to them in the acts. It becomes
easier otherwise, you know, like my grandmother, I'm not gonna
repeat the same thing six times. I'm just gonna speak
to my grant in her accents and then she's just
like yeah, and then my grant. I think that's why
I'm actually my grandmother's favorite grandchild, because all the other
grandkids speak to her in like the accents they learned

(02:13):
at school, and then with me, she's just like goods,
he's never forgotten his roots. What is my favorite accent
to do? It depends on the day. I'm not gonna lie,
it depends on the day. Sometimes I'll choose an accent
for the day if I'm on vacation, genuinely, I'll just
walk around and I'll like just be on vacation some days,
like like I'll just be like, oh, I'm Austrailian for
the day, and I'll just walk around and it'll just

(02:35):
be Australia. You know, the great thing about in Australian
accent is that you always sound happy because always what
it doesn't matter what it is, but always gots up
and it's like really exciting. You know. This is not
that thing like even even Australian gave you bad news,
it always sounds good. It's like Hi, Mike, your mom's dead.
It's just so yeah. One of my favorite things to

(03:01):
do though, is sometimes because I don't really impersonate general accents,
impersonate people. So the Australian that I do is a
friend of mine from Australia. And then like the like
if I do like a Nigerian accent is a friend
of mine from Nigeria. And because I can't because people
all have different accents, do you know what I mean?
So I don't know what an Indian accent is. I
know what my Indian friends sounds like, so I just
impersonated his accents. And then like Trinidad, I just know

(03:22):
my friend from Trinidad, this is his accent, so just
I just do his accent. And then I remember, like
one day did the Trini accent and then people from
Trinidad they were like they're like that's not how people
in Trinity talk about And then I was like, yo,
you talk to him, that's how he sounds. And then
they shout on him because he's on like Instagram and stuff,
and they're like, dude, what happens to your accent while
you're talking? Like there's like, guys, I haven't lived in America.
I've lived in America for a long time, and like,

(03:44):
it's not my fault. I didn't try to change my accent.
They're like, you're leading Trevor Noor wrong. You're not speaking
awhere with the most So I'm just like I just
do people. That's all I'm doing. Well else to who
else we have from? Where? Yes, Egypt o nice? That's cool,
cool and exotic? Yes, how things going over there? Just

(04:07):
blink if it's good, and blink twice if it's bad.
I won't say your name, I won't put you on camera.
You can go back. Your president doesn't have to know
you were here. Things are good in Egypt. When you

(04:31):
when you watch Donald Trump, does he remind you a
little bit of Egyptian leaders? Yeah, a lot. Yeah, it's
just like just without the Arabic just like second, they're
also what all they are friends. Yeah, yeah he is.
You can see that cool if because like I feel
like Trump would be exactly the same, even if he
spoke Arabic. It would be like the same thing. We're

(04:52):
like helloo, yellow clock, but the calallalla. So I tried
to start learning German because my dad is swissed German, right,

(05:14):
and so I was like, I want to learn his
language because I never learned it growing up. And then
someone was like, why don't you learn Swiss? And then
I heard Swiss and I was like no, um, I
want rather learned German. And so I learned German because
I thought it would bring us closer together, right, because
I lost contact with my dad for like ten years.
And so then when I met him again, I was
like I want to learn German and impress him or whatever.

(05:35):
And I met him and then like I started speaking
to him in German and he was like, well, what
are you doing. I was like, I'm speaking German. He's like, no,
it's better if you speak English. No, no, this is no,
this is this is He's like, it's better if you
don't speak German at all. It's fine. Um. But then
now I could speak a bit of German. So I
was excited to go to Germany and stuff and practices.
Then you know, I had a lot of fun until
I found out that my the way I spoke German

(05:58):
sounded a little bit like Hitler, Yeah, which no one
told me on this side of the world because we
don't know how he really spoke or anything. But I
would be in Germany and apparently the way I would
hit certain inflections would freak people out. And it's like,
think of it like Barack Obama's voice. Like if someone
learned English in America and they got here and they
were like, I just wanna have You'd be like, yeah,

(06:20):
you're doing the Barack Obama thing and they'll be like,
what are you talking about? You know what I mean?
So I would do that, like I'll go in places
and then I was like order food and like someone
would be there to be like, couldn't talk virtuality having
and then I'll be like if she in climbing happing,
be your side with the shinkin and the people like
people would look at me. And then when we left,

(06:42):
my friend was like, I was like, why would they look?
Did I say it? We're like wrong the wrong words.
She's like no, you sound a little bit like like Hitler. Yeah.
And she was like and the people are really frightening
about that, and you know, and I was like, so
I spoiled their day and she was like, yeah, you did,
you know? And I was like, well, that brings me
lots of shading FOI there. Spain was fun as well

(07:05):
as well as I was trying to learn Spanish. And
the weird thing about learning Spanish is I found out
in Spain that my Spanish is flawless. The problem is
I only speak like seven words of Spanish, but those
seven words are flawless, which doesn't help me in Like,
so I'll start conversations with people, like in the morning,
someone will see me and they'll be like, oh lah,

(07:25):
and then I'll be like, oh that's and they'll be
like oh too, and I'll be like, oh god, I
got way the end and they'll be like, oh this
is cool, you know. And I'll meet people and they'll
be like I'll be like oh go go oh yeah, yeah,
you know, and I'm getting sur vibe. And I'll be
with the people. I'll be asking people's stuff, I'll be
giving directions and then I just run out because I
only learn as much as I can learn, but you

(07:45):
don't know when you're gonna run out. Do you get
what I'm saying? So so I would be like, I'll
be like, don't always start and then the people are
like oh like and then I would be I'll be like, okay,
I know that, and I'll give direction. Then someone would
ask me where's the cathedral. Then I know how to
start the direction, so I'll be like, oh, in doc
and then people are like cool. And then the person
goes the CD and then I'm like, oh sorry, no

(08:10):
no ab laugh me no no ab laugh. And then
the worst thing is like even the way I'm saying,
because I'd be like no, no, no, no, i've lexp
no I've lest band, which is weird because you should
say me no abla in the worst way you can,
which I didn't realize because I should have been like,
oh me no abla Espana, but instead I was like, oh, no,
I les no, I've less, which is basically like the

(08:32):
equivalent of meeting like someone and they came up to
you and they're like, I'm sorry, I don't speak any English.
I apologize no, I speak no English whatsoever. I must apologize,
not a word of English. I'm so sorry. Did I
hear somebody? Was there a French person who has had
a fiancee? Is that very cool? Man? Congratulations? It was nice.

(08:55):
It was weird because I was listening to you when
when you're speaking, and I was like, it's weird because
fiance is French, isn't it? Because I know this sounds weird,
But in my head you said, oh yeah, no, and
this is my fiance And then I was like, what's
the French for fiance? Is that a little bit weird
to you that in English you have to say some
French words every now and again, right, because like that

(09:16):
that's the thing, like we do that. We'll be like
we'll be like fiance, you know, like like think about
we do that like touche. We just say that to
each other in conversation as people. Someone would say something,
you say something that you're like touche. But like, I
don't think French people do you guys do that with
English or like French people just hanging out with each
other and it's like literally lit and you touch me,

(09:39):
you do that? You don't, right, this is weird. It's
totally weird to me. We just use other languages in
our language. That's really strange. That's exciting. Man. So second,
French friends are not French, and like you said that
woul past and French friend, they're not French, Trevor, I

(10:03):
have to tell you all of these secrets. The French
friends are not fresh, but do you eat them in France?
So why are you complaining? That's why you guys? Also
like where are these French friends from? They say they're
from front de Jaan, Pierrero these years. No they're not

(10:24):
Michel your friends. No, they're not your friends. Who are
their fresh from? They said they are French friends, but
no fresh person knows where they're from. Oh, man, what
made you move from France? Where you said? Seventeen years
you've lived in Detroit. What made you move? Second? Atlanta?
Sorry Atlanta? What you just walked? Oh ship? Did you

(10:50):
say work? Oh? Sorry your accent because you said no,
I did walk? And then I was like god damn.
I was like, wow, that's one hell of a journey,
my friend. Just like one day I was working, I
was working by the ft tower and I said that
I've seen this before, I've seen all of this before.
I'm going to walk a little further, and then I
walked and I walked, and I walked some more. And

(11:11):
then a few years later I was like Atlanta and
then I was tired, so I stayed there's no reason
to go back. Oh wow, that's fine. And then you
fell in love with Atlanta and you stayed. No what happened?

(11:38):
Oh oh, man, so you go to Atlanta, the recession happens.
So now you're stuck in Atlanta. That is so dope.
I feel like I should make a TV show about you. Man.
It's like a fun story. It's like I ended up
in Atlanta and now this is my lefe. How did

(11:58):
you make money? I became rapper in the ETL. I
became the only French trap rapper. So the middle wokey
where you guys from over there? From where? Or Trinidad

(12:23):
and Tobago. All you guys said that Trinidad and Tobago,
you know, But like I love about people in Trinity,
Like is the like the sing song vibe when you
guys speak. You got that thing I told you the
other day, Like I can't picture anyone from Trinidad being
a mean person, just like you can't picture like you
can't go to war people from Trinidad, you can't. No

(12:45):
one would be afraid of you. You know, we're going
to invade your country. All of you are about to
feel the pain. Like it just doesn't work as an accent.
It's like it's you can only be an island country
because of that, Like if Liam Neeson was from Trinidad,
you wouldn't have gotten like your kids. Like Liam Neson,
we were on the phone and be like, I have

(13:06):
a particular set of skills. I don't think you understand
right now if you don't bring back my daughter. Why
you're laughing Stop laughing while I'm talking to you. Stop laughing.
I was thinking, like I think part of the problem
in America is that on one people think of nine
one one is being instant response. And because like when

(13:29):
I was growing up in South Africa, one of my
favorite TV shows I used to watch with my mom
was a show called Rescue nine one one right with
William Shatner, And it was like a show where they
go like nine one one do you have an emergency
and be like, Hi, I'm in my house, and so
they will and then like nine one one would get there.
And I remember even when we were watching and stide.
We'll be like wow, nine one one, nine one one,
and this is in Africa, I mean like nine one one,
and we never thought of our numbers because they started

(13:49):
they tried to think. In South Africa called ten triple
one because they try to be like, yeah, we've also
got a think people like ten triple one and it
was like no, and because they try to go with
that feeling. But we never thought of it as instant
response because if you would call our like call senses,
it wouldn't be as efficient. And so like in America,
I think people are used to the fact that something
will get done now. So I was thinking what you
should do is just to like dull it for a bit.

(14:10):
You should bring the South African operators here just so
that people stop thinking nine on one is like an
instant solution because like South African, like they'll ask you questions,
like in America, just go someone's getting rubbed, like we're
on our way, like I heard with nine on one.
Even if you call them and then hang up, they'll
come to check what happened, which is I mean, I
get it, but I also like that's crazy. Whereas in

(14:31):
South Africa, like if you like if they called. If
you have an African operators doing nine one, like you'd
call he'd be like, hello, there's a man at the
park and they'd be like hello, can I help you.
They'd be like, yeah, there's a man at the park
and I'd be like and like, yeah, he looks really suspicious,
but like okay, God, talk to him, ask him what
he's doing, ask him his name, what he's doing there,

(14:56):
Like I'm scared of talking to him, but like okay,
walk go away. Then go away. Like they would just
be like you go like it's just people here, just
like the cops are go No, the cops are not
coming for everything. Like hey, you can call nine No
one because your cat is in a tree. That is
some craziest ship in Africa that you'd just be like yeah.
You'd be like, you know my cats in the tree.
They'd be like okay, yeah, I'd be like I need

(15:18):
what would let my cats stuck in the tree. They'll
be like yeah, so what must we do? And you
help it? They'd be like, then how will your cat
len let the cats suffer? It will never do that.
Gain Thank you for calling, Please stay on so you
can read this car. Thank you very much. I want
to share this little story with you. I um, I

(15:38):
got into a little bit of trouble with the French government.
I know the French government. UM So what happened was,
let's start at the beginning. France won the World Cup
and so and so on the show. I we we

(16:00):
celebrated that, and I have this joke where I said, um,
I said Africa won the World Cup. Yeah, And I
was shocked at how angry a lot of French people got,
like genuine a lot of French people who were angry,

(16:20):
and they were like, Trevor, how can you say this
where we say these things and you know this is horrible?
And I was like, okay, I get it, Like not
everyone likes every joke that you tell, and I get that,
but this was interesting. I got a letter from the ambassador,
the ambassador of France and and I'll read it. It
was it was about that joke, and he says, I'll
try to read it. How I hope he wrote it,

(16:41):
which was he says, Sir, I watched with great attention
your July seventeenth show when you spoke of the victory
of the French team at the eighteen FIFA World Cup
Russia Final, which took place less Sunday. I heard your
words about an African victory. Nothing could be less true. Now,
first of all, I think it could have been less

(17:02):
I could have said they're Scandinavian. That's that would have
been less true. That would have been less true, says
as many of the players have already stated themselves. Their
parents may have come from another country, but the great
majority of them, all but two out of twenty three,
were born in France. They were educated in France, they
learned to play soccer in France. Their French citizens, they're

(17:25):
proud of their country France. The rich and various backgrounds
of these players is a reflection of Francis diversity France
is indeed, now that line that was interesting, The rich
and various backgrounds of these players is a reflection of
Francis diversity. Now, I'm not trying to be an asshole,
but I think it's more reflection of France's colonialism. Uh,

(17:51):
because it's not like it's just like random play, Like
they all have something in common. Like all of those players,
if you trace their lineage, you're like, how did you
guys become French? Like how did you have how did
your family start speaking French? Oh? Okay, all right, I'm
letna say here. Um, he says, France is indeed a
cosmopolitan country, but every citizen is part of the French
identity and together they belong to the nation of France.

(18:13):
Unlike in the United States of America, France does not
refer to its citizens based on their race, religion, or origin.
To us, there is no heafinated identity. Roots are an identity.
Roots are an individual reality. By calling them an African team,
it seems you are denying their frenchness. This even ingest

(18:35):
legitimizes the ideology which claims whiteness is the only definition
of being French. So now here's the thing. A right,
first things First, I understand what he's saying because I
read up on this. Afterwards, Right, I take criticism. I'll
listen to what somebody says to me. You know, I
genuinely believe you should. And what what it turns out is,

(18:56):
in France, a lot of like Nazis in in that
country use the fact that these players of African descent
to ship on their frenchness, you know, So they go,
You're not French, You're from Africa. Go back to where
you came from. You're not French. They use that as
as you know, as a line of attack. Now, my
thing is, my opinion is coming from South Africa, coming

(19:19):
from Africa, and even watching the World Cup in the
United States of America, black people all over the world
were celebrating the African nous of the French players, right,
not in a negative way, but rather in a positive way,
going look at these Africans who can become French. You
know what I mean, it's it's a celebration of that achievement.

(19:39):
And so this is what I find I find weird
in these arguments is that people go, they're not African,
they're French. Then I'm like, why can't they be both?
All right? Why? Why is that duality only afforded to
a se like a group of people. Why can they

(20:01):
not be African? So? What what what they're arguing here
is in order to be French you have to erase
everything that is African, because what do they what do
they mean when they say that our culture with this?
It's like, so, so you cannot be French and African
at the same time, which which I've vehemently disagree with.
I go if you've seen those players, I love them,
Paul Pogba, Anglo Conte, I've watched all of them. Like,

(20:24):
I love those players, and I love how African they
are and how French they are. Don't take their frenchness away,
but I also don't think you need to take their
Africanness away, you know. And that's that is what I
love about America. American is not a perfect country, but
what I love about this place is that people can
still celebrate their identity in their American nous. You can
go to a St. Patrick's Day parade in America celebrating
that you are Irish. You can go to Puerto Rican

(20:46):
Day parade in America, still celebrating the fact that Puerto
Rican and American. At the same time. You can celebrate
June Teams as a black person and be like, yo,
I'm African American, which is the duality of the two worlds.
But here they're going, no, you are only French. And
here's here's why it vexes me to be honest. This

(21:07):
is what I find interesting, is like when I read
stories from Africa and when I watch what politicians say,
especially in France, about African migrants when they are unemployed,
when they may commit a crime, or when they are
considered unsavory. It's the African immigrants when their children go

(21:30):
on to provide a World Cup victory for France, we
should only refer to them as France. And we even
saw it with that African man who climbed the building
to rescue the baby. Do you remember that we watched
him climbed the building, he rescued the child, and then
they gave him French citizenship. They said, you are now French.

(21:52):
So now I'm going so is he now no longer African?
Is that what you're saying? So when he was on
the ground, he was African, and then he climbed up,
and as soon as he rescued the baby, now he's French.
So if he dropped the baby, the African dropped the baby.

(22:14):
It's like, I don't believe that you need And here's
like I say, again with respect, I understand what the
ambassadors saying. I'm not joining the attack. And I know,
don't get me wrong, I know there's the there's like
you know, we live in a world where like nuance
is something that is in short supply, and so you
will find you know, in America, for instance, the ult

(22:36):
rights saying that's what we've been saying. They're not French,
and we're saying it's like, but if Trevor says it,
it's not racist. But if we say this, racis like yeah, yeah,
I'll say yeah, you know why, because I believe context
is everything. There are certain things you can say to
somebody that like when I say to my friends, what's
going on my nigga, and if a white person came
and said the same thing, Yeah, there's a big difference.
When I'm saying the African I'm not saying it as

(22:58):
a way to exclude them from their friendness, but I'm
rather using it to include them in my African nous.
I'm saying, I see you my French brother of African descent.
Do you know what I'm saying, That's what I'm trying
to say. When somebody else says that the other way,
you can use the same line in different ways. People
like so it's different. Yeah, it's different. It can be different.
It's like somebody's saying, oh, so if you play with

(23:18):
your naked child, that's a problem, but it for that
I do it. I'm a pedophile. Yeah, yeah, there's a
big difference. There's a huge difference. So I will continue
to praise them for being African because I believe that
they are of Africa, their parents are from Africa, and

(23:39):
they can be French at the same time. And if
French people are saying they cannot be both, and I
think they have a problem and not me. The Daily
Show with Trevor Noa ears editions. Subscribe to The Daily
Show on YouTube for exclusive content, and stream Fool episodes
anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central

(24:03):
podcast