Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

2021-02-01 2 min read Sincheenz

Comedy is a tough job. You have to get your message across and make people laugh at the same time. The way you deliver it is important. If you can make people think, highlight the ridiculousness of it all and leave them with an afterthought, you’re doing comedy right. Trevor Noah is a great storyteller and a brilliant comedian.

What he and his mother went through is unimaginable. From facing the cruelty of apartheid to defying a system that was designed to break them, their story is a testament to strength and how to overcome hardship. But even in the darkest moments, Trevor finds humour – not to dismiss the pain, but to highlight the absurdity of injustice. He doesn’t just tell you what happened; he makes you feel it, laugh at it, and question why such struggles exist at all.

Here is one of the many stories that stuck with me. He has a friend named Hitler, who was named after the dictator due to a cultural misunderstanding. It seemed like a fitting Western name for a boy. The horror and shock on people’s faces when this boy is called out while performing a dance routine at a Jewish school clearly shows the clash of cultures and lack of awareness of global history. I can relate to this, as I have heard people casually refer to someone who is very strict as “Hitler” or even consider it a compliment when telling someone they are like him, in India. I also learned a lot about the apartheid world from reading the book, which I wasn’t aware of before.

A great book. I did the audio version where Trevor Noah narrates himself.