Trevor Noah is teaming up with Savanna and TBWA\Hunt Lascaris to bring Bafunny Bafunny to life, a new platform celebrating South African comedy and creating opportunities for the next generation of local comedians.
South African culture
The collaboration brings together one of the world’s most recognised comedians, a brand that has championed comedy for decades and the creative minds behind the idea. But rather than creating another celebrity campaign, the shared ambition was to build something rooted in South African culture, a platform that celebrates local comedy in a way only South Africans would recognise.
"South Africa has never had a shortage of funny people. We've just always needed more places for them to be seen. That's what the Bafunny Bafunny Tour is about. What I love is seeing a brand that's genuinely committed to comedy, working with a creative team, that's prepared to match that ambition. That's usually when the interesting stuff happens.” Says Ryan Harduth, Trevor Noah management & creative director.
The idea behind Bafunny Bafunny starts with a distinctly South African instinct: getting behind the people who represent us. TBWA\Hunt Lascaris saw an opportunity to bring that same energy to comedy, celebrating local comedians with the kind of excitement usually reserved for the country’s biggest cultural and sporting moments.
That thinking shaped Bafunny Bafunny, a platform designed to give South African comedy its own sense of occasion while putting the spotlight on the talent driving the industry forward.
“There’s never a dull moment when you’re working with TBWA\Hunt Lascaris. One minute you’re talking about backing South African comedy, and the next you’re building an idea with Trevor Noah that has the potential to become part of South African culture. That’s what I love most about this partnership, they’re never afraid to make an idea a little bigger. This project has been a great reminder that when you tap into something South Africans genuinely care about, people don’t just watch from the sidelines, they get behind it, own it and help make it something special.” says Mathew Walton, marketing manager at Savanna Premium Cider.
Turning that vision into reality meant breaking away from the traditional celebrity campaign playbook.
Instead of handing Trevor Noah a finished script, the creative team at TBWA\Hunt Lascaris invited him and his team into the process from the very beginning. The campaign was shaped in a collaborative writers’ room, where ideas were challenged, refined and often improved through improvisation.
The production itself was just as ambitious.
With only eight hours available with Noah, the team filmed all three hero commercials in a single day. Most scenes were completed in just two takes, leaving little room for second-guessing. Many of the campaign’s sharpest moments came not from the script, but from spontaneous exchanges and ad-libs between the comedians.
“It’s not every day you get to sit in a writers’ room with Trevor Noah, but that’s exactly what my team and I did. We came in with a strong strategic idea, but the magic happened when everyone started building on each other’s thinking. Some of the funniest moments weren’t written, they happened naturally on set. Shooting three films in just eight hours meant we had to trust the process, trust each other and trust the comedy. I think that’s what makes the work feel authentic.” says Steph van Niekerk, executive creative director at TBWA\Hunt Lascaris.
As Bafunny Bafunny rolls out in the lead-up to the South African Festival of Comedy, the ambition is for the platform to become more than a campaign.
The hope is that it inspires South Africans to celebrate homegrown comedy, discover new voices and continue backing an industry that has long been one of the country’s richest sources of storytelling, satire and cultural reflection.
Bafunny Bafunny is currently in its first year, with additional comedian signings and festival announcements to follow. The South African Festival of Comedy gets underway in Pretoria on 5 September 2026, before travelling to Cape Town on 26 September 2026, with more surprises to be revealed along the way.
Credits
Client: Heineken/Savanna
- Andrea Quaye - Marketing director
Agency: TBWA\SA
Chief creative officer
Executive creative officer
Creative directors
- Kevin Radebe, Nwabisa Tholom
Copywriters
- Nwabisa Tholom, Kopano Letsiri
Art director
- Kevin Radebe, Tshifhiwa Mashige
Designer
Account management
- Debbie Laing - Business director
- Reshmi Bhala – Business unit director
- Siza Masombuka - Group account director
- Itumaleng Mokae – Account director
Agency producer
- Nonhlanhla Khanye- Senior TV producer
Agency PR – TBWA\SA
- Alison Gerber
- Leamohetsoe Khotle
Project manager
Social
- Michelle Steenkamp – Head of social
- Refiloe Matlare – Social media manager
Strategy - Vision
- Kendal Zoghby – Executive strategy director
- Maxine Selmer-Olsen - Strategy director
Film production - Bioscope Films
Recording studio - Sterling Sound
PR Agency - On Point PR
- Fatima Ouanssaidi – PR managing director
- Shiraz Reddy - PR account director
- Nicole Ogle - PR strategist
- Jolene Roelofse - Influencer business unit director
- Anathi Sampula - Influencer manager
Events Agency - Urban Striker
- Carissa Rapolthy – Event managing director
- Kimmy Banks – Experiential creative director
- Jennifer Carstens – Senior experiential project manager
- Katie Owens - Senior experiential project manager
- Leigh Inkson - Senior experiential project manager
Media Agency - Red Star
- Shaun Strydom - Media business unit director
- Ingrid Morgan-Wilson - Media account director
- Ashleigh Sayle – Media strategy director
