WOMAN: How is Gogo?
How's-- Oh, how's Gogo! My gran. Oh, she's wonderful.
Wonderful--as she would say, "Oh, I'm wonderful."
-(laughter) -That's-- Oh, my gran is a dream.
She is now 96 years old.
(applause) -Yeah, 96.
Still, still one of the funniest people in my family.
Still sharp. Still has the best memory-- better than mine.
Better than my mom's-- Like, we'll talk to her, and then
she'll have to remind us of things.
Genuinely, she's got, like... I don't even understand how
her memory is as good as it is. But she's adorable.
And she's, like, tiny, you know? And she's like,
(gran accent) "Ooh, yes, Trevah."
You know? And th-the other day, I-I popped home to see her.
It was a surprise, though. And, um, sh-she like, said, like,
a feeling, you know? It was, it was like a weird thing.
Well, 'cause my mom-- (stammers)
My mom didn't even know I was coming. And so I landed in
South Africa, and I said to my mom, I was like,
"Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?" And she's like,
"Why?" And I was like, "Oh, because I'm here."
And she's like, "Wait, you're in South Africa?" And I was like,
"Yeah." And she's like, "Your gran was right."
I was like, "What do you mean?"
She's like, "Your gran kept saying 'I have a feeling.'
I'm feeling Trevor. I'm feeling Trevor.'" and my mom was like,
-"Oh, she's losing it. All right." -(laughter)
My mom was like, "The day has arrived. This is it. This is..."
And then-- so, then, my mom was like,
"Don't-- I won't tell her you're coming. It'll be a surprise."
And so then I walked in and then my gran--
-and this was so funny for us as a family--
because then I walked in, and then I was like, "Hello, Gogo."
And then she was like, "Trevah!" And I was like, "Hi, Gogo."
And then she was like, "Oh, I'm losing it."
(laughter and applause)
It was so funny.
First things first. Whenever you come into
an African person's house, you greet.
So the first thing I'm going to do is greet.
Gogo?
-MAN: Let her come out. -Gogo?
-(Gogo speaking indistinctly) -Hello, Gogo.
(speaking foreign language)
(Noah laughs)
How are you, Gogo? Can-can we come in?
I've got... I've got some camera people, Gogo.
Are we fine to come in?
If you say no, it's fine. I don't mind.
Okay, okay.
Gogo, um, I want to...
-I want to welcome you to my show. -Mm-hmm.
And I want to introduce you to some of my friends
-and my viewers. -Mm.
I brought them to South Africa
to show them what it's like.
So, they said because I'm coming,
they want to meet you.
How old are you now, 91?
When you get to 91, now you count months.
Okay.
-Yeah. Monday. Yeah. -Yeah. 26th was on Monday.
So I'm-a start phoning you on the 26th of every month
-and tell you, "Happy month." -(laughs) Yeah.
I must do that.
Yeah, until happy month February.
Then we celebrate our birthdays together.
NOAH: I remember. Mm.
Mm.
(laughing)
Hanging out with my grandmother on The Daily Show
was just, like, a-a freak thing that happened
because my gran, on the day, was just like...
She-she didn't even think of it as TV.
She was just like... I was... I was in Soweto
for the Global Citizen Festival, and then I was like,
"Maybe we should go to my grandmother's house."
And the TV crew was like, "Can we come with you?"
And I was like, "I'll ask."
And I asked my gran, and I was like,
"Hey, can-can... There's a TV crew with me.
They want to come in."
And then she was like, "Wh-What is that for?"
And she's like, "Are these your friends?"
I was like, "Yeah?"
She's like, "Oh, yeah, your friends can come in."
And then, like, they walked in.
Then my gran was like, "Oh, your friends are white."
(laughter)
If you look at South Africa now
as a 91-year-old woman,
can you feel the difference between being free
and when were you not free?
-Uh-huh. -Mm.
What is the biggest difference for you?
NOAH: Ah.
-Madiba. -Ah.
What was the first thing you remember
about Nelson Mandela?
Wow.
Because people had not seen a Black man who was an attorney.
Wow.
Mm. Mm.
For young people, it's very hard for them to understand
-how scary it was to be a Black person... -(whistling)
...living in South Africa during that time.
But everybody was scared of the police.
Ah.
"Mm..."
(shouts in foreign language)
-"Dress up. Let's go." -Yeah.
When you see white guys like this,
do they remind you of those police?
That's what you remind my grandmother of.
I hope you're happy,
bringing memories of Flying Squad into my house.
There are some people who say...
now, because some people don't have jobs
and because it's tough in South Africa,
it would be better to go back to apartheid.
Why not?
NOAH: Uh-huh.
Ooh. (whistling)
(speaks foreign language)
"Do you know what it's like to dig for potatoes
with your hands?"
Ah.
(speaks foreign language)
Wow.
-You're digging for potatoes with your hands. -Mm.
And if somebody dies from exhaustion next to you,
you dig a hole, you put them in that hole,
-and then you carry on digging those potatoes. -Phew.
What-what was my contribution?
How was-was I fighting apartheid?
Not knowing?
But...
Ah.
But I told them that I was an apartheid hero, Gogo.
-I wasn't? -(laughing)
Do you know I'm a manager of white people, Gogo?
I'm-I'm telling you, Gogo.
There are white people who work for me.
(laughter)
NOAH: You must remember
because of so many of the struggle leaders in South Africa
were either imprisoned or exiled,
the movement in South Africa was held together,
in large part, by women in the country.
And so, it's weird for me, cause I understand,
you travel the world, you understand
that everywhere feminism is different,
and the idea of women is different.
But I grew up in a world that was very matriarchal,
and where women were the most dangerous freedom fighters
-that existed. -(cheering)
-(applause and cheering) -Oh, it's true. You read up on...
You read up on Winnie Mandela.
Like, Nelson Mandela was an icon,
but the police in the country were afraid of Winnie Mandela.
You know, they were...
And we had a phrase in South Africa that was--
we still use it today-- which was--
(speaking native language)
Which means, "You strike a woman, you strike a rock."
-And that's what I grew up learning. -(applause, cheering)
That's a...
Was kudos, man.
It was fire.
Anyone who says, "Just work hard, and things will work out,"
those people are forgetting a major component known as luck.
A lot of people work hard, and they're still broke.
In fact, a lot of the time, the broker you are,
the harder you probably work. Yeah.
My grandmother worked ten times harder than me,
but I'm balling circles around that woman.
Yeah. You hear that, Gogo?
You can't touch me. You can't touch me.
And by the way, happy birthday, Gogo.
She just turned 95. Yeah.
NOAH: In my grandmother's house,
we didn't have a tap in the house.
We had one tap shared amongst four houses,
and that seemed, like, cool compared to my cousins,
because in the villages,
they had one tap which was, like, a mile away.
So, I'd go to my cousins' to visit them for the, um,
for the holidays, and then I would, like...
My cousin would wake me up at, like, 5:00 a.m.
I'd be like, "Dude, what are you doing?"
He's like, "We got to go get water."
And I'm like, "What?"
Then you get the wheelbarrow, and then you go...
And it's fun when you're on the way there
'cause you're like, "This is fun."
You got your wheelbarrow. You're rolling.
And then you filled up...
You forget that you have to fill them up with water.
These giant, giant, giant drums of water.
And then you bring them back, and you're like, (bleep).
Like, the whole time, you're just like,
"I don't need water. I don't need water. I don't..."
And then... And, like, one day, I took...
'Cause my cousin was shredded, like, just because of that.
Every single day was him just lifting a barrel.
Just, like, 400 pounds on a wheelbarrow.
Just pushing that every single day.
And then one day, I remember, I was like, "I can do this."
And I took it, and then I was like,
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!"
And then all the water, gone. Just, like, all of it.
Yeah. And then I was like, "Well...
Well, you shouldn't have let me take the wheelbarrow."
♪ ♪
We're here at my grandmother's house.
Welcome to it.
This is where I grew up.
This wall was a lot taller when I was younger.
But, uh, let's see if she's here.
So, this is where I grew up.
This was the driveway.
♪ ♪
We kick it off with the driveway.
This is where we used to want to park our cars.
We didn't have any cars, but we still built driveways
because that's what life is all about: ambition.
(cheering)
I'll show you some of the security features
that I installed in the house.
We've got what's known
-as an intruder defense mechanism system of glass. -Wow!
Every single one of these bottles,
I drank what was inside.
Balling.
This is where the magic happens.
(air horn blaring)
Anybody can have a toilet inside the house,
but it takes a real baller
to have a toilet outside the house.
Now, if you guys will excuse me,
I'm about to make some magic happen.
MTV Cribs.
Your boy.
Oh, wait, there's no toilet paper. Hold on.
♪ ♪
-I was a very good-looking baby, I'm sure. -(whistling)
Yeah?
But mostly good-looking.
Yeah. I'm sure, Gogo.
And?
School.
I left my school bag behind?
-"Mm." -But, Gogo,
the bag-- if the bag is heavy,
-you must leave the bag behind. -Mm.
Did you know that...
-Yeah. -Why?
-Gogo, did you know that in India now... -Mm.
...they're now saying that kids mustn't get bags
because it's making their back skew?
Oh...
So I was ahead of my time, Gogo.
-Yeah. -I was in the future.
My gran says, she said, "Ooh." She says, "Nombuyiselo.
"Ooh, Trevor is so naughty.
He's so naughty. Ooh."
And my mom says, "Oh, you must beat him then.
"What do you mean? If he's naught--
"Yeah, you must-- you must beat him.
"That's what he's-- that's what he's for.
You must hit him."
And... and my gran was like,
"No, no, Nombuyiselo, I can't hit him.
"I can't hit Trevor. You... I can't hit him.
"With Black children, I know how to hit them.
"I know I hit them and then I know what's going to happen.
"With Trevor, I've seen, when you hit him,
he becomes blue and green and red and yellow."
-She says, "I don't know what's happening." -(laughs)
She's like, "Ooh, I don't want to kill a white child."
My own grandmother,
afraid of administering discipline
because she feared
that she would be breaking the law in-in our--
in our house.
She didn't want to hurt a white child.
NOAH: Ah.
Why did I give you a tough time, Gogo?
So, if I was playing in the street,
the police would have arrested me?
So, they thought I was white.
"Oh! Oh, no!"
The kids ran away from me?
But why did they run aw...? What?
-So, for them... for them, this was white? -Are allowed to...
Wow.
-I feel so special now, Gogo. -Huh?
To know that there was a time that I was white.
(both laugh)
NOAH: How old was I when this was happening, Gogo?
-NOAH: Three years old? -Mm-hmm.
When I was here with you,
what did you do when I was naughty?
(Noah laughs)
Who was naughtier, Gogo? Me or my mom?
Oh.
You know how Mom is.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Must always go up. -Yeah.
NOAH: And her and I, man, oh, we have such a beautiful love
and a bond for each other, you know, just have this thing.
-Um, ever since she hit me. Yeah. -(laughter)
(Gogo slapping her backside)
NOAH: How's my grandmother doing?
Oh, she's fantastic, man.
Ninety... 91 years old and ten months.
Um... Yeah, she ma...
She makes me count the years and-and months, as well, now.
-It's a new thing. She's in... -WOMAN: Does she cook for you?
Does she cook for me? No, she's too old.
Oh, no, no, no. She-she even said to me...
I was like, "What do you do, Gogo?"
She's like, "Oh, me?"
She's like, "I just enjoy being alive."
(laughter and applause)
And then a-all she does is she, uh... We're ready?
Yeah, all she does is she-she chills at home.
Like, she's got, like, her, like, her squad of grannies,
and they all just come and hang out.
And she... It's like... It's like...
It's like a weird team of, like, superheroes
where they've all got their specialties,
and then hers is that her memory is bulletproof.
So all her friends ask her
about things they've forgotten about in life.
But I'm, like... Like, she's got a better memory
than me, my mom, everyone.
She can tell you what year a thing happened,
what month, everything.
And, so, her friends come over, and they'll be...
And they'll ask, like, random questions.
They'll be like, "Nomalizo."
They're like, "Where-where did I meet my husband?"
(laughter)
And then she'll be like, "Oh, you met him..."
And then she'll, like, tell stories and...
It's amazing to watch. Yeah.
And, so, all she does, all day, she just...
She loves writing. That's what she does.
And I asked her why, and she said...
She says, "To be 91
"and know how to still read and write,
oh, I'm so blessed."
So, that's all she does. Yeah.
My grandmother says it the best. She says,
"You know what, Trevor, in life,
"there are butterflies and there are flowers.
"The butterfly's job is to fly around
"and come back and tell the flower what it's seen.
You are a butterfly. Your mother is a flower."
-You and your grandmother. -Oh, yeah. She was great.
-Yeah. -She was really fun. She still doesn't get
what we were doing 'cause she doesn't watch The Daily Show.
Does she know what you do? Have you sent her tapes or anything?
No. No, but... And, you know, what's great
is that she doesn't care. That's what I love.
So, my gran just goes, "He's Trevor.
-That's why I like him." -Uh-huh.
So, I don't want her love of me to be determined
by what I do or don't do in-in my work world.
I interviewed my grandmother for The Daily Show,
and she, like, does not know what I do,
how I do it, why I do it.
She... People tell her, and she's just like...
When they say, "We saw your son...
your grandson on The Daily Show,"
she thinks they mean, like, somewhere.
Like, they saw me somewhere.
And she'll be like, "Oh, my friend saw you at daily show."
-And I'm like, "On-on The Daily Show." -Mm-hmm.
And she's like, "Yeah, whatever."
Gogo, have you ever-- have you ever watched The Daily Show?
(speaking foreign language)
-(laughing) -(continues speaking foreign language)
So I cannot.
(speaking foreign language)
-Ah. -It's just there for fun.
My gran said
she doesn't watch my show
because sometimes the electricity cuts out.
Which is a very plausible excuse
and a nice way to let your grandson down.
(laughing)
(speaks foreign language)
-Mm. -Mm.
No, I-I hear you, Gogo.
This is-- I didn't expect that answer.
It's a-- it's a good answer, Gogo.
So I must make sure that you have a generator
so you can watch my show.
-Okay. -(speaks foreign language)
-Who fits the generator? -Ah.
Okay, so I must get someone to fit the generator also.
Okay.
(speaking in foreign language)
Oh, and then I must also fix the...
the-the cable. Okay.
-I... -Mm. I feel like I've been tricked into...
doing a lot of things for you to watch my TV show, Gogo.
(laughing)
(speaking foreign language)
Oh, wow.
So I can't convince you to come and see...
that I manage white people?
NOAH: Oh.
Thank you for having us, Gogo.
And thank you for letting me bring these cameras.
And thank you for sharing these stories with my friends.
And thank you for being amazing.
I've brought too many friends, Go.
You guys must leave now.
-You guys must go. -Wh...
Bye-bye.
I still believe the Bible story
and I'll tell you why--
because my grandmother might watch this episode.
Hi, Gogo.
And then this... this is... this is my number one lady.
-(laughs softly) -This is my number one.
-This is my gran. -Shorty and tall-y.
-Yes, yes. Yeah, as you can see, -Yes.
...I got my height from her.
-(Frances laughs) -(laughter) -This is my gran, Frances Noah.
(indistinct chatter)
-How old are you now, Gogo? -82.
82 years old. She still works.
She still... she still catches all those taxis that you see.
She doesn't want to retire. She wants to work.
-She just scrubs the floor. -She still cleans.
-Yeah. -This is my gran. Rock and roll.
-I can rock and roll. -Eighty... 82 years old.
-82 years old, and... -82 years old.
(laughter)
(speaking native language)
(Noah laughs)
-Yeah. -You're my gran.
She just said, "He was naughty."
(laughter)
Yup, yup, hidings. Hidings I got.
This is cool.
It's outside. I'll show it to you.
Is it... is it safe?
-It's... (laughs) -(laughter)
-It's gonna be fine. -Ah.
No. It'll be fine. They can't steal it, Gogo.
-Are you sure? -Mm. They can't.
There's no magic. They can't steal it.
-Ha! -(Noah laughs)
You'll be surprised.
No, they won't, and people are watching it.
-There's so many people there. -So many people!
-Ah, Trevor. -(laughter)
NOAH: Gogo, you worry too much.
Did I sleep in this one?
I don't even remember which one.
I just remember getting hidings in here.
This is... this is the bedroom. This is, like, it, everything,
and you had to make do, and you would live...
Maybe two of you or three of you could live in here,
you know, if family needed you to.
This is where... this is where it all was.
So, there were, like, eight of us,
eight or nine of us that used to live...
-Eight, nine, sometimes ten, depending on who was... -Mm.
-So we'd sleep here a lot. -Yeah.
Like, you'd sleep on the couches, and...
-FRANCES: Kids, yeah. -NOAH: Kids. We used to sleep
on the floor here.
On the couch and on the floor.
It was really normal. It was just, like,
you know, that's what we did.
And everyone was so happy.
So, yeah, so this is it. That's...
As small as it is, ten people living here.
I mean, this was it.
Brings back such memories, I think I might cry. Wow.
GOGO (laughs): Don't cry.
No, I won't cry 'cause the camera's on,
-and I'm just gonna look, like, you know? -(Frances laughs)
(sucks in through teeth) Yeah.
Oh, wow. That's... Look.
"In everything, give thanks."
Gogo, let me be off.
Please, you'll walk me out
so that they don't think I just walked in by myself.
-(laughs) -Let them see you with your grandson.
-With my grandson, huh? -Mm, so that they say that...
-I've got to be on there? Yes. -Yeah.
(laughs) It doesn't matter which side.
Doesn't matter which side you are on.
(clapping, singing a cappella in native language)