Only South Africans Understood Trevor Noah's Hilarious Black Panther Oscars Joke

The Oscars are over but the buzz that the 91st Academy Awards created is refusing to die down. And the latest bit of Oscar gold doing the rounds of the Internet is a clever joke by comedian Trevor Noah that apparently no one at first understood.

The reason? He said the line in Xhosa, a native language spoken in South Africa. It happened when Noah appeared on stage to announce the nominations for Best Picture and while introducing Black Panther, joked that he knew Chadwick Boseman, the actor who played T'Challa in the film. "Growing up as a young boy in Wakanda, I would see T’Challa flying over our village, and he would remind me of a great Xhosa phrase — ‘Abelungu abazi ubu ndiyaxoka'".

He explained the meaning of the phrase in English. "It means, ‘In times like these, we are stronger when we fight together than when we try to fight apart’". The hall cheered as the words boomed through the audience.

However, what many didn't realise was that the joke was totally on them. As a clip of Noah's speech went viral on social media, those who could speak Xhosha realised that Noah had trolled many in the audience with the 'great Xhosa phrase' that he uttered.

Despite what Noah said, South Africans on the internet pointed out that what Noah had said actually translated to "White people don’t know I’m lying."

The clever joke was instantly picked up my smart netizens on Twitter who tagged is as one of the best moments of the Oscars this year.