Incongruous liaisons: Routes of humour, insult and political (in)correctness in Nigerian stand-up jokes

Abstract

Nigerian humourists have always told risible jokes within myriad pre-colonial satirical acts. Following on their heels in recent times, stand-up comedy has emerged as one of the most prevalent art forms in the country, providing entertainment through laughter-eliciting jokes. Accompanying this development also, is an increasing attitude of offence-taking which has seen post-mortem criticisms and castigation of comedians. Not much scholarly attention has been paid to this menacing backlash against ostensible "inappropriate jokes" and the fact that stand-up humour is primarily derived from causing offence. What happens is that joke performances take place within liminal moments, which allows for audience's suspension of offence and the performer's unwritten consent to stay within socially accepted bounds of good humour. Through performance analysis, this paper sets out to study how four randomly selected Nigerian comics-I Go Dye, Basket Mouth, Klint da Drunk and AY-deploy selfcensorship in averting offence within their joke routines. The essay finds that despite the specificities of stand-up arts, which place peculiar demands on artists' joking capabilities especially in its dependence on courting audiences' participation and familiarity, these comedians have devised specific means through which they circumvent the stringency of eliciting mirth through insult. Hence, their jokes and those of others who have learned their trade well, often elicits hilarity rather than offence.