For the last 11 years, Joseph Opio has been shrouded in the background as a comedy writer at The Daily Show having been tapped by Trevor Noah, the former presenter of Comedy Central’s late-night talk and satirical news television program.
Save for when he has performed standup comedy at the Kennedy Center, Comedy Cellar and other theatres across America and Canada, the Ugandan-born entertainer had succeeded in having the pen (or rather keyboard) do the talking for him while he kept in the shadows.
Then came the 2026 World Cup. Over the course of the 104 games which featured 48 teams, hosted across the U.S, Mexico and Canada, Opio joined a cast of pundits on a broadcast series dubbed World Cup Watch Party hosted by Trevor Noah.
Produced by Day Zero Productions (Trevor Noah’s entertainment company) and hosted on YouTube, the show took a format of a chill setting where Noah shared a couch with “friends, elite footballers and top digital creators” as they watched live football while providing commentary and conversation.
“The only thing that’s more exciting than watching every World Cup match is watching it with my best friends and new friends — and even my enemies who choose to support the wrong teams,” said Noah in announcing the show. “No suits, no stiff analysis, just full-on fans watching the greatest show on earth. Ole!”
During the show, Noah, Opio, Zoe Clark (American soccer analyst) and Eugene Khoza (South African comedian and actor), all staples on the couch, indulged in live reactions, unfiltered conversations, comical takes and predictions, surrounding the tournament.
The concept is the latest in a growing list of alternate broadcasts to be adopted around big live sporting events. Amazon Prime Video, ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery have all experimented with such programming, in which athletes, comedians and influencers talk about the action around a live game — as well as a surfeit of non-traditional topics.
Whereas there are no prizes for guessing why Noah thought Opio was a perfect fit to join the show as a regular – Opio played football until his late teens, he is passionate about the game, he dabbled in sports journalism at New Vision where landed a sub-editing job at 17 while still a student – it is how the Ugandan comedian chose to seize this moment that was unconventional.
Presumably cognizant that Uganda’s efforts at qualifying for the World Cup have never yielded, Opio made sure to sneak his motherland into the most heated global conversation, for whoever cared to listen. And listen they did. Not only did he ensure whenever it mattered, he emphasized he is from Uganda, he went further to induct Noah, Eugene, Zoe, guests and the virtual audience in the Luganda language.
One such opportunity presented itself during the Round of 32 game between South Africa and Canada, when Bafana Bafana defender Khuliso Mudau pulled off a sensational sequence by nutmegging two Canadian players in a single play. A nutmeg is a sports trick where where a player passes the ball through an opponent’s legs and runs past them to catch it.
“By the way chat, in South Africa, that’s what we call Spike Two. When you nutmeg somebody,” Noah told the online audience, before throwing the same question to Opio.
“Us [in Uganda] we say ‘Omukubye amagi’,” Opio replied, referring to a Luganda slang for ‘impregnating’ somebody. “People go like keep your legs together”.
As Brazil took on Norway, Opio taught the crew another phrase – ‘Oyozeza noyanika mu ttaka’ loosely translated as washing your clothes clean only to lay them on dirty ground to dry.
Canadian actor and comedian, Mike Myers, joined the set as France took on Senegal. In the game’s added time, Kylian Mbappé took away any late hope for Senegal by scoring a sensational long-range goal in the 90th+6th minute. In reaction to this, Opio said such a goal (one that kills all hope) is referred to as ‘Va ku mbuzi’ in Luganda.
“When we were young, the winning team would get either a goat or a cow. So when the score is 2-1, you’re still trying to touch the goat. When they score the third goal, they say… ‘va ku mbuzi’. ‘Remove your hand from the goat (prize)’,” Opio explained.
And it seemed like Noah was falling in love with Luganda.
“I like how every football move is like something about life,” Noah commented.
Teaching Trevor Noah Luganda, Part 2: "Ayozeza nayanika mutaka — You have washed clothes. And then hung them in the dirt!" pic.twitter.com/UBOLIyJ663
— JOSEPH OPIO (@LOLUganda) July 25, 2026
During the Argentina vs Switzerland game, Opio passed on shouts to Ugandans on the chat telling them ‘Mukikola mutya ba blood?’ explaining to Noah “That’s street talk for ‘How do you do it, gang?’”
The World Cup watch party kept a dynamic feel to it. Sometimes, the audience got a sneak peek into the culinary treats that Noah, Zoe, Opio and Eugene were partaking in. While Germany took on Ivory Coast, the menu included a serving of fried dough which Opio made sure everybody knew goes by the name ‘mandazi’ or ‘ekitumbuwa’ in Uganda.
But banter and linguistics was not all Opio brought to the table. The YouTube series turned out to be a timely opportunity for the winner of the 2024 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Writing—Long Form (for The World According to Football, a five-part documentary written by Opio and narrated by Trevor Noah) to come out of his shell as a football aficionado.
His analysis and commentary proved there is more to him beyond standup, the over 1,500 episodes he has so far written for The Daily Show and two spin-off TV specials: Remotely Educational and The Yearly Show 2017.
Born in Uganda, Opio who earned a law degree and worked for Deloitte decided to pivot to comedy in 2012 when he began hosting the satirical news program LOL on now defunct Urban TV. His first break came during a visit to South Africa to attend a reception for the Late Night Show comedy. Inspired by Trevor Noah’s relocation to the U.S., he left South Africa and returned to Uganda and later moved to New York. In November 2014, Opio met Noah at the Comedy Cellar in New York, a popular venue for comedians trying to get into the business.
“Trevor and I met on the New York comedy circuit. We bumped into each other performing at the Comedy Cellar. And we hit it off immediately. Mainly because we shared so much in common: We both love football. We both love comedy. And we were two Africans grinding away in pursuit of our American Dream. I remember the first night we met, we sat and talked from 8PM to 5AM. Or as some therapists might call it, ‘trauma bonding’,” Opio told PLUGGED in an interview in 2024.
Out of the 15 knockout games he predicted during the recent World Cup, he got 11 of them right.
“I have never known this guy until this WC and I must say his comedy mixing with his ball knowledge is top notch. The guy knows football,” @vitalplates100 commented on YouTube.
Another comment, from @SurafelTsegaye-e8f reads “Joe is without a doubt better than 90% of the pundits out there and it’s not even his job”.
“Trevor you need a weekly episode for football chat with Joe. EPL, Champions League, El Classico… Just anything to keep Joe on our screens”, wrote @incaseyoumissedit801.
The feedback points to a resounding consensus – that Joe’s knowledge of football is unquestionable, and many in fact have since referred to him as Joestradamus, a slang variation of Nostradamus, referring to a person who claims to predict the future or acts as a wise prophet.
Uganda’s national team may have lost their shot at the 2026 FIFA World Cup a 2–1 defeat to Algeria, but through Joseph Opio and the Ghetto Kids, the country did not only show up, it left a mark.
Predicting 11 out of 15 knockout games right ain't so bad #Joestradamus pic.twitter.com/FB5GBh2e8D
— JOSEPH OPIO (@LOLUganda) July 4, 2026
