I have just finished watching Trevor Noah’s new Netflix special, Joy in the Trenches, and one question he kept coming back to has not left me since.
Where would you be when history calls?
There were moments where I was in absolute stitches. Noah has a gift for making you laugh so hard that the truth sneaks in before you have time to put your guard up.
What makes him particularly interesting is who he is. A man of mixed heritage, born in apartheid South Africa, where his very existence was once illegal. He sees the racial divide from both sides at once, and that perspective gives his comedy a sharpness that straight political commentary rarely manages.
But here is what really got me thinking. Alongside the laughter, there is a serious undercurrent running through the special. He is essentially saying: look at what is happening in the world right now. Does it feel familiar? Because it should.
I was reminded of the work of scholar Esther Lezra, who wrote The Colonial Art of Demonizing Others. Her argument is straightforward but uncomfortable: the systems used to marginalise and oppress people were not accidental. They were deliberate. And they did not disappear. They shape the language we use, the stories we tell, and the assumptions we make about who deserves power, right up to the present day.
Noah is making the same point, just with better timing.
Comedy has always been one of the few spaces where we can look at difficult truths without turning away. Slavery, colonialism, the ongoing question of whose humanity gets counted: these are heavy subjects. But laughter creates just enough room to let the truth breathe.
The message from both Noah and Lezra is the same: without understanding how we got here, we will keep ending up here.
So, where would you be when history calls?
Joy in the Trenches is on Netflix now. Worth an evening of your time.
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