Every South African has met a real-life Gerry!
South Africa (02 March 2026) – A clip from a Canadian comedy show called Mr D has gone viral, and South Africans understand the joke better than anyone!
The series follows Gerry Duncan, a former hockey player who somehow lands a private school teaching job despite knowing absolutely nothing about teaching. Or the subjects. Or really anything.
‘He navigates school life like a man who has never once Googled anything and still thinks he’s the smartest person in the room.’ shares Laugh With Deno, who shared the video.
In the clip, which has clocked over 480,000 views on Instagram, Duncan’s colleagues announce a trip to South Africa.
He doesn’t quite catch that.
‘But which country in South Africa?’
The country of Cape Town… we cackled.
But also, the show’s writers weren’t wrong. A genuinely alarming number of people still think South Africa is a region, a direction, or possibly just a vibe. Not a whole country.
We get it, we really do. We’re sitting at the bottom of a continent called Africa, which leads people to assume we’re just the lower portion of it, rather than an actual country with borders and a government and a real obsession with rugby.
So we’ll clear it up for all the Gerry Duncans of the world…
South Africa is one country. Nine provinces. And some of those provinces also happen to be globally recognised travel hotspots. There’s Kruger National Park if you’re looking for a world-class safari. There’s Durban, recently named one of the world’s best travel destinations – yes, our Durbs. There’s also the Garden Route, the Drakensberg, the Winelands. And of course, the world-famous Cape Town.
On the other hand of the confusion, Southern Africa is a whole region. Emphasis on ‘Southern’…
There are five countries in Southern Africa, one of which is us. So South Africa is in Southern Africa but is not all of Southern Africa. And then, within South Africa’s borders sit two fully independent countries. Lesotho is entirely surrounded by us. Eswatini shares our border. You can drive through South Africa, cross into another country, and still be completely surrounded by South Africa.
Ja, maybe it is a bit confusing.
Oh, and as the cherry on top, our one country has 12 official languages. Twelve. So laugh at ‘which country in South Africa.’ We did.
Anyway. We’re a country. A brilliant, chaotic, beautiful, complicated country. Gerry Duncan would know that if he’d ever Googled anything.
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