Have you heard the one about the fake sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service? Of course you have. Everyone has.
As the entire world now knows, the man who was chosen to sign some major speeches at Mandela’s memorial service in Soweto earlier this week was actually doing what was subsequently described as “childish hand gestures”, rather than real sign language.
In a, what we presume was genuine, attempt to understand exactly what these “childish hand gestures” actually meant, late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel enlisted the help of Justin, a (supposedly) professional sign language interpreter for the past five years.
According to the host’s YouTube channel:
Many prominent leaders from around the world went to Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in South Africa and, as is often the case at big events like this, they had a sign language interpreter there to translate for the hearing impaired. The only problem was that the movements the translator was making with his hands made no sense and many people became suspicious of him. So we brought in a real sign language interpreter to tell us what this guy was actually signing.
Here’s JOE’s favourite insightful quote from the analysis: “Inside, joining in this week’s cigarette, inside to prove, and on and on, to support, I would please to say from me to you, talking to you so far.”
Deep man, real deep.
Or, as Justin says, complete and utter gibberish. Judge for yourself:
For all we know though, this ‘professional interpreter’ could be big fat phoney too. Kimmel does, after all, have a reputation for being a bit of a wind-up merchant…
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