Gender, ethnic and class as humour strategies in stand-up comedy of Bovi, Kenny Blaq, Akpororo and Basket Mouth
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In: Comedy Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2023, p. 20-35.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender, ethnic and class as humour strategies in stand-up comedy of Bovi, Kenny Blaq, Akpororo and Basket Mouth
AU - Osisanwo, Ayo
AU - Ilesanmi, Omolade
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Humour in Nigerian stand-up comedy is used as a weapon against the strong and the weak in society. Existing studies have examined the use of humour using the theories of pragmatics but have not specifically examined how gender, ethnic and class are reflected in stand-up comedies. Therefore, this study examines the humour strategies in selected Nigerian stand-up comedies with a view to identifying how gender, ethnic and class are reflected in the comedies. Attardo and Raskin’s general theory of verbal humour was adopted as framework. The data for the study were purposively collected from stand-up comedy performances of Bovi, Akpororo, Basket Mouth and Kenny Blaq on the YouTube channel. The comedians reflect gender, class and ethnic while narrating the events that surround the participants in the joke. These comedians primarily used Nigerian Pidgin in narrating the activity-in-the-joke. In the data collected for the study, the selected Nigerian stand-up comedians (SNSCs) operated on two main contexts: context-of-the-joke and context-in-the-joke. The SNSCs adopted different humour strategies such as comparison, distortion of shared knowledge, projection of collective belief and denigration. The SNSCs employ the strategies in their performances to expose certain facts about the issues surrounding man in the society, point out ills and to show their creativity.
AB - Humour in Nigerian stand-up comedy is used as a weapon against the strong and the weak in society. Existing studies have examined the use of humour using the theories of pragmatics but have not specifically examined how gender, ethnic and class are reflected in stand-up comedies. Therefore, this study examines the humour strategies in selected Nigerian stand-up comedies with a view to identifying how gender, ethnic and class are reflected in the comedies. Attardo and Raskin’s general theory of verbal humour was adopted as framework. The data for the study were purposively collected from stand-up comedy performances of Bovi, Akpororo, Basket Mouth and Kenny Blaq on the YouTube channel. The comedians reflect gender, class and ethnic while narrating the events that surround the participants in the joke. These comedians primarily used Nigerian Pidgin in narrating the activity-in-the-joke. In the data collected for the study, the selected Nigerian stand-up comedians (SNSCs) operated on two main contexts: context-of-the-joke and context-in-the-joke. The SNSCs adopted different humour strategies such as comparison, distortion of shared knowledge, projection of collective belief and denigration. The SNSCs employ the strategies in their performances to expose certain facts about the issues surrounding man in the society, point out ills and to show their creativity.
KW - class
KW - ethnic
KW - gender
KW - Humour strategies
KW - Nigerian Pidgin
KW - Nigerian stand-up comedian
KW - Literature studies
KW - Gender and Diversity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85142895411&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/2040610X.2023.2149207
DO - 10.1080/2040610X.2023.2149207
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:85142895411
VL - 14
SP - 20
EP - 35
JO - Comedy Studies
JF - Comedy Studies
SN - 2040-610X
IS - 1
ER -