Phony Interpreter From Nelson Mandela's Memorial Lands Gig With Startup

The phony sign language interpreter from Nelson Mandela's memorial service now stars in an ad for the Israeli streaming app Livelens.

In the spot above, Thamsanqa Jantjie apologizes for "what I did" and shows that he'll redeem himself by entertaining viewers as a pitchman who's showered with money. He then introduces the app, which enables users to live-stream footage to friends.

"Remember, the most interesting things happen live," he says in the wacky footage, which includes his head seemingly transposed on a shirtless man riding a horse.

Jantjie, if you'll recall, was hospitalized in Johannesburg after declaring mental illness led to his signing debacle. But according to BetaBeat, he was able to leave the ward for a day to complete the shoot by telling administrators he had to attend a family ceremony. He always wanted to be an actor, he said to the site.

But why would a new product want a spokesman who created an international embarrassment?

"We needed something surprising," Sefi Shaked of Livelens said, according to the New York Daily News. “We wanted to choose a presenter who is the worst presenter for a live app possible; you know, the person who did the worst screw up on live TV — ever."