Is Nigerian Comedy Getting Better or Worse?

In Nigeria’s evolving world of comedy, gauche exaggeration and unearned familiarity are often the defining marks of this generation of comedians, and for better or worse Nigerian comedy has to tell jokes that actually make its audience laugh.

Written by Emmanuel Esomnofu

Dec 12, 2024

Photo illustration by Ezinne Osueke / THE REPUBLIC. Ref: ItsHelenPaul / INSTAGRAM, Basketmouth / INSTAGRAM, Layi Wasabi / INSTAGRAM, elorasblog / INSTAGRAM

‘Being funny is serious business,’ read three billboards across Lagos in 1998, sponsored by Atunyota Alleluya Akpobome, commonly known by his stage name, Ali Baba. The comedian was, by then, the biggest figure in his profession and for obvious reasons; appearing on popular shows like Friday Night Live and the Charly Boy Show. From the late 1980s, when he did his first show at the pavilion of Bendel State University (now Ambrose Alli University) in Ekpoma, Delta State, there was no stopping Ali Baba. Suave jokes, high professionalism, a grasp of the workings of national life—he had it all. Today, revered as the ‘King of Comedy’, at least two generations of comedians since the 1990s have testified to Ali Baba’s influence.

Ali Baba is an important subject for understanding contemporary Nigerian stand-up comedy. A 2013 elaborate report from the National Institute for Cultural Orientation affirms that he ‘dimmed the impressive record of his precursors’ whom they noted to include John Chukwu, Tony St Iyke and Jude Away Away. Another precursor to Ali Baba the report mentioned was the Mazi Mperempe programme of the 1970s and 1980s, which aired on Radio Nigeria and the old Anambra State Television, Enugu.

However, this is not a history of Nigerian comedy—there are papers in service of that. This essay accounts, rather, for the stylistic success of the comedians who came after Ali Baba and whose reign of ubiquity in the 2000s reflected Nigerian culture as few other art forms have since done. This peculiarized history owes much to Nite of a Thousand Laughs, the Opa Williams show which revolutionized the country’s culture of stand-up comedy. Its maiden edition held on 1 October 1995 at the University of Lagos, and even though it wasn’t quite successful, Williams persisted with his idea to showcase comedy on a grand stage.

When Nite of a Thousand Laughs began to take off later that decade and into the next, it was because Williams had democratized the industry. Talents from across the country got access to an engaged audience, something that was only previously sparingly available. With this exposure came the need for even more craftsmanship, to which the Williams’ branding masterclass, coming later, provided inspiration, even as the most successful of the bunch honed their own distinct styles.

Williams, a principal believer in the idea, showed the comedians under his tutelage how to reflect authority by dressing well. Oftentimes this meant wearing Western outfits such as suits and blazer jackets, jeans and Italian shoes. Imagine fellow comedian, Bright Okpocha, popularly known as Basketmouth in the early 2000s and you get the picture. Basketmouth, like so many of his peers, embraced a multicultural perspective that added colour to their presenting act. By reflecting ease with cosmopolitan ways, their local-ness—primarily through Nigerian Pidgin—was something of an exotic extension of who they were, a fusion of some sort.

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