Taika Waititi reads a hilarious letter about a speeding ticket 

"Driving to Auckland at mach one." This writer is a comedic genius.

Having been a NZ Police mobile traffic cam operator, I can say at the PIB office Xmas party, that this would have been read out & everyone would have laughed & laughed & laughed. Raised a glass to this character.

Imagine being the cop who opened the envelope and read this letter for the first time… 😂

The writer of this letter deserves every laugh and round of applause that they received.

The police infringement bureau sent the following response to Mr Lee on March 30: "After careful consideration of your comments and the circumstances surrounding the issue of the notice, it has been decided on this occasion to waive the offence. Accordingly, you are no longer required to pay the infringement fee." (NZ Herald)

Taika Waititi makes himself the perfect person to read this hilarious letter. His body language supports the cheeky tone.

"I wouldn't be at all disappointed if we decided to let this one go" Brilliant!

This letter is so well written! I hate Justin Lee for having such gifted and wicked sense of humor! _"... So I rang mum!"_ Had me burst out in laughter! So glad he took the time to find and translate the humor of the situation into something we now all can enjoy. Thanks Lee!! And thank you Taika Waitiki for doing an excellent job in translating the letter into spoken word performance matching the wit of the letter! Well done mate!

As an Aussie, I'm still stuck at the bit where a speeding fine only costs $120.

Taika Waititi did such a great job delivering this. 👏 His timing, body language & expressions were spot on. Mind you, Justin Lee gave him great material to work with, absolutely hilarious. I imagine he had a lot of fun writing it.

I received an automatic notice of a speeding offence on a motorway in Ireland. On the date in question I was , and my car was, out of the country. The police refused to acknowledge my claim until I produced a receipt for the airport car park in a different country. And a copy of my airline ticket, boarding pass and luggage tag. Of course there was no acknowledgement of the mistake, or, perish the thought, an apology. “But the computer said you were speeding” was the reply. “But computers only say what people tell them to say”, I replied. No comment…

Justin Lee . . . you're my kind of guy and Taika Waititi, you did a most excellent job of reading this letter. Thanks to both of you for the laughs!

I got an automated speeding ticket where the photo showed an old man in a BMW clocked at 113mph. The plate was nothing close to my plate number and my vehicle at the time was a Kia Rio that struggled to do 75mph. The ticket was dropped, but I still had to waste a day at the courthouse to get it corrected.

The only time in my life I've received a traffic fine was when I was resident in New Zealand, in the late 2000s (the decade). I was on a sightseeing trip, driving near the easternmost point of North Island, on my way back to Auckland. It was a gravel road. A curve to the right approached, and as my speed was excessive for the curve, I applied the brake. The gravel was so loose that the car lost all traction, so it slid into the ditch, flipped over, and came to a stop resting on its right-hand side, being propped up by a wooden fence post. I was shaken but uninjured, and exited the vehicle through the broken rear window. Motorists driving by alerted the fire department (unneeded) and the police. I explained the situation to the police officer. He was fairly understanding, yet did issue me a traffic fine. The reason written on the fine: "Failed to drive entirely within the lane."

I'm glad to hear Justin had an excellent weekend at the music festival in Mystery Creek near Hamilton.

That was fantastic! Both the letter and the delivery by Taika Waititi. LOL

In the mid nineties, I went to renew my teaching certificate. The new one read it was valid until 2099 instead of 1999. While still at the window, I remarked that I might be rather old by then and would they correct it? No, not unless I paid for a new one.

This was too good. That letter sounds as if it could have been written by Taika himself. ❤

I love a smart ass who puts forth a solid effort for the betterment of mankind.

“In view of the admitted speed we are now aware of, the fine has been increased tenfold, thank you for your honesty.”

Simple explanation: the Honda saloon had an Infinite Improbability Drive!

One of the funniest things I've ever heard/seen here _in the tubes_ . Mr Lee has a wicked sense of humour, and Taika's delivery does it justice, simply perfect 🙏

Finally, great humor that is not vulgar or insulting. It is so hard to find a good laugh these days and laughing is so good for you.

“So I rang mum” lmfao

What an amazing choice of the reader...he said it all...in absolutely the right way

Wow. Brilliant letter brilliantly read. I would dearly love to have been in the room when the first constable read this...

I love it when wordsmiths just let it all loose!

This was a real thing that happened here in New Zealand to a guy called Justin Lee and this is the result! From the New Zealand Herald: "The police infringement bureau sent the following response to Mr Lee on March 30: 'After careful consideration of your comments and the circumstances surrounding the issue of the notice, it has been decided on this occasion to waive the offence. Accordingly, you are no longer required to pay the infringement fee.'

I LOVE Taika Waititi, and right now I am loving Justin Lee too.

Just brilliant!!!!!!!!!! Well written Justin Lee and well read Taika!!!!

Honestly... I would have dismissed the ticket simply because I was so entertained by the letter

I listened to this twice in a row. It took me 15 minutes to stop laughing, so hard I was crying, to comment. I was just imagining a baby crawling out of the hospital and stealing a car at match 1 and a cop pulling him over and giving him a ticket.

So many brilliant 70s and 80s references, I hope the officer reading it for the first was the right age to appreciate all the layers. 😂

I 'fondly' remember those days... The first ever (I think) 'fixed location speed camera' got installed on Aklds North Shore. It employed X-Band radar and, in those days, it was not 'illegal' to have a radar jammer (to my knowledge), so I built my own. Unsurprisingly, I received a speed camera ticket shortly thereafter. I wrote back a letter that stated I would GLADLY pay the fine, providing they would support my application for an entry in the Guinness Book or Records. The ticket claimed I was travelling at 3959 km/h in a 50km/h speed zone, just shy of Mach 4, faster than an SR71 blackbird!!! I never paid the fine, nor did I receive a reply, but that camera always 'flashed' at me when I drove past. P.S. I'm not sure if it was my hardware or theirs, but I calculated that it SHOULD have been over 4000km/h. One of us needed better calibration. (I didn't have access to a Rubidium frequency standard back then)

The more impressive detail is - in the 1970s, car number plates were in the format AB1234, and they didn't change to ABC123 until 2001! They also changed colour, they used to be white letters on black backgrounds. Baby Carjacker's chances of hitting a matching numberplate would have been infinitesimally small. He should have bought a lotto ticket too!

This is genius. I hope to see more letters from this funny man.

A friend of mine got a ticket in the mail once for running a red light. They included a photo of him in the driver’s seat and one of his license plate. Instead of paying the ticket, he sent them back a picture of money. They sent him back a picture of handcuffs.

The only enjoyable thing about work is when stuff like happens, it's a true bonding experience for everyone in the office who gets to be there when it happens. In my job it happened when a lazy client chose to imput random numbers while declaring the goods he was importing and somehow ended up being the code for nuclear weapons.

Brilliant response brilliantly read by Taika Waititi! 😂

Oh, so beautifully done. Both the writer, and the reader. Awesome!

This reminds me of the time I had to get a signature on delivery of a speed fine. The date the "infringement" occurred was noted as six months into the future..

Superbly written and read. Excellent!

Noel Coward would be proud, both of Mr. Lee for his creativity, and Mr. Waititi for his delivery.

I’ve watched this about ten times, it’s brilliant.

Sometimes the RU-vid algorithm sends me channels that make sense based on my searches and sometimes I wind up with suggestions like this and I’m glad! This is priceless!😂

FINALLY! Letters live needed Taika❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I love this, but I can also say anything Taika Waititi does is fantastic. Full stop.

Give the writer a Prize and give the presenter an award. Brilliant delivery and so funny a letter. Kiwi's have a great sense of humour !!!

i have never laughed so hard in a while. Thank you Mr Justin Lee and Taika Waititi

"For your listening pleasure, I'm going to do a New Zealand accent." 😂😂

This is freaking epic. Thanks for this, I enjoyed it quite thoroughly.

My mum got a summons for not paying a speeding ticket. It was in a town that was about 1000km from anywhere she’d ever been. When she went to the cop shop to find out what was going on she found that the driver had her exact name, age, and description. (Spooky) It took the booking copper to fly down and physically confirm that it wasn’t my mum driving the car that night. The only difference between my mum and the speeding driver on record, was the addresses.

This writer is so incredible! Wow I wish I could write so wonderfully!

Great stuff....and a tremendous presentation by Mr. Waititi!

This is by far my favorite. I have seen it several times, and each time, I laugh hysterically. ❤❤❤

What on earth is this??? It just popped up in my feed and skidded before my peepers. LOL! I love it! 😆 I'm going to savor all the glorious letters and performances that are waiting for me! 👍🏻😉📫✉

I love this man ! So fun and creative !!

Wonderfully well written and read! Thank you.

Absolutely brilliant!!! Thank you!!!

I remember when Jasper carrot used to do this kinda thing. Amazing! There's no better humour than reality.

The upside down radar gun ruined me. Very glad to see the comments that this ticket was waived.

Excellent, creative, wonderful!

I love this channel so much. Thank you. 👏 😊

I love the opening words, "Mmm, reading, great..." and then goes on to demonstrate why reading is so fun!

What a brilliant reading! 👏👏👏👏👏

If you like this I would highly recommend Joe Lycett's speeding ticket stories and, well, all of his email stories really

Absolutely brilliant letter!

As always, this video made me think - especially about how to write characters. Thank you!

I love this channel 😂❤

This is my first time seeing anything by Taika Waititi. Now I have to go binge watch everything I can find.

Hysterical! Thanks for sharing.

Great way to start the morning!

Sounds very much in the spirit of a letter my father sent to the Canadian Forces housing maintenance department giving his reasoning that three applications of waterproofing silicone and a drain pipe through the bathroom wall are not sufficient to permanently hold the positioning of a bathroom sink against the force of six children brushing their teeth three times a day.

I'll bet they could both talk(charm) their way out of a legitimate ticket. So funny!

Ahh, very humourous. A very eloquent letter written on behalf of a concerned person with strange circumstances. 😝😝👏👏👏👏

Now the whole world knows where to go for the drags 😂hope to see you all down Weymouth in the near future 😉much love from New Zealand

Well done and totally Monty Pythonesque.

If you think Taika is rare...he's not really. There's one like him in EVERY Māori whānau!! True story. 🤭

Love the sound of a New Zealand accent, and Taika is always so charming

This is so hilarious funny!! 😅 I, been red it , a severals times and laughing again and again!😂😂❤And Tika, thank you! Your way to presents this letter is great 👍 Love from Anna in Sweden 🇸🇪

🥴 had to listen to this about 3 times.. couldn’t concentrate on the story through laughing 🤣🤣👍

You can't beat us Brits, Aussies and NZers for sheer dripping sarcasm.

Great start to my day as I have my coffee, thanks!

I once managed to talk my way out of a ticket for passing a toll gate without paying, as I was not from the area, did not know a toll road was on my route, and it had been, in fact, the middle of the night with NO one manning the numerous toll booths at the time. It was EERILY silent, to the point I was half convinced the zombie apocalypse had begun whilst I was en route. I even made a point of looking around conspicuously for someone, anyone, on the occasion in question, and asked them to verify using surveillance footage, a suggestion they may or may not have heeded, but I would like to think they actually did. My fine was reduced to the unpaid toll and the matter dropped.

Taika Waititi you are absolutely next level karawe fabulous! Watching this....... made me very happy, laugh and smile. The world is a better place, cause your in it Mauri Ora

Brilliant, so very funny. Taika Waititi, great stuff!!

I want an automated number plated mechanism right now please! Also would like a man like this in my life, to make me laugh! Thanks Cosmos 😂

I love the recap

My mother used to write letters like this. I would be totally unsurprised to hear one of her missives turn up here. LOL

I would have played the statute of limitations card. This ticket is for 1974 and its now 46 years later.

This is the best of these letters.

This was fantastic fun! Right up there with the great comic writers of the world. 😂

That was a great story and one he'll probably tell for the rest of his life.

When in doubt, always ring Mum...

Brilliant!!! Dear God, so brilliant!!

Best letter ever!

Ol' Korg cleans up pretty well. 😎

I’ve been sick for days and this made me laugh for the first time since becoming ill as I’m horribly terrified I have another septic shock episode (maybe just nerves but now I get scared). Thank you❤

Was there on this night. Everyone was fantastic 😂

Justin Lee is a legend