Video shows US comedian's satire on Burmese military's involvement in politics, not on Pakistani army

Published on September 23, 2024 at 11:29
2 min read
By AFP Pakistan

An old clip of a skit by South African comedian Trevor Noah mocking the involvement of Myanmar's military in politics has been shared alongside a false claim that it was directed at the Pakistani military. The video was taken from an episode of The Daily Show which made a commentary on the results of the 2015 elections in Myanmar.

"Trevor Noah also knows how much the military is involved in politics in Pakistan," read an Urdu-language X post on September 11. It has been shared over 700 times.

The 17-second clip shows Noah sitting, while a man in military uniform handed him a paper to read while pointing a dummy gun at him.

"A true democracy. The people need a strong guiding hand from the military which is always welcome within the realm of our great nation. Now smile and end the show," Noah said while the fake gun was pointed at him.

Screenshot of the false post, taken on September 19

Former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has faced a sweeping crackdown led by the army since he was jailed in August last year on a series of charges he said were politically motivated and designed to keep him from power (archived link).

But the clampdown failed to diminish Khan's popularity and candidates backed by the former prime minister won the most seats in the 2024 polls marred by allegations of widespread rigging.

The claim was also shared on X and Facebook.

However, the skit actually mocked the Burmese military's involvement in politics and did not comment on Pakistan.

'Myanmar Daily Show'

Reverse image searches of the keyframes on Google led to a video titled "The Myanmar Daily Show: The Daily Show" uploaded on the verified YouTube account of the US comedy news show on November 14, 2015 (archived link).

The clip was uploaded after Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide election victory in a poll held on the previous day, propelling the country's pro-democracy movement to power after a 25-year struggle against authoritarian rule (archived link).

"In a Burmese edition of The Daily Show, Trevor examines Myanmar's election of pro-democracy Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi into parliament," the video's description read.

The clip in the false post matched the 4:47 mark of the video, where Noah satirised Myanmar's electoral system of giving the army a 25 percent bloc of seats regardless of polling result before he was seemingly forced at gunpoint to change his view and praised the arrangement instead.

Noah did not mention the Pakistani military in the segment.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the false post (left) and The Daily Show clip (right):

Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) with The Daily Show footage (right)

AFP has debunked other false claims about the Pakistani military here and here.

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