Abstract
In interactions, the culture of the participants influences their contributions and interpretations. Stand-up comedians articulate contemporary culture by making mutually manifest cultural beliefs and representations within the performance space, and teach the audience how to use them. This paper investigated how Nigerian stand-up comedians employ cultural assumptions and representations in their performances. Using relevance theory for analysis and seven routines from seven Nigerian stand-up comedians as the data, this study explored how Nigerian stand-up comedians bring shared cultural knowledge into their performances. Nigerian stand-up comedians joke with culture by manipulating shared cultural representations, distorting collective knowledge, manipulating stereotypes and projecting personal beliefs. By joking with cultural beliefs and representations within the performance space, Nigerian stand-up comedians mediate and negotiate what “contemporary culture” should be.
About the authors
Adesina B. Sunday has BA, MA and PhD in English from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He is a lecturer in the Department of English, University of Ibadan, where he teaches courses in phonology, syntax and discourse analysis. His articles have appeared in learned journals, like Journal of Pragmatics, English Today and Skaase Journal of Theoretical Linguistics.
Ibukun Filani has BA in Linguistics from the University of Ilorin and MA and PhD in English from the University of Ibadan. He lectures in the Department of English, Augustine University, Ilara-Epe, Lagos State, Nigeria. His primary research interest is humor.
Appendix
A Short notes on the comedians
Princess: She is a female comedian who makes her joke out of her physical appearance. She is a Creative Arts graduate of the University of Lagos. Her real name is Damilola Adekoya. She also acts movies.
Gordons: Gordons’ real name is Godwin Komone. He is a very versatile comedian who denigrates his parentage and upbringing in his routines.
I Go Dye: His real name is Francis Agoda. He grew up in Warri, a town in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria. His stage name, I Go Dye, was derived from his surname –Agoda, which was pronounced by his secondary school teachers as I-go-die. He, however, chose to pun on the word die for his stage name
Basketmouth: The comedian grew up in Lagos where he started his professional comedy career. His real name is Bright Okpocha. Basketmouth is one of the foremost comedians in Nigeria. Many of his jokes are gender-related and sex-related.
Hellen Paul: A female comedian, she graduated with a degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Lagos in 2010. Apart from being a comedienne, she is also an actress. She is also known as Tatafo because she uses a mimicked voice of a child as her narrative voice.
AY: AY is one of the leading comedians in Nigeria. Apart from stand-up comedy, he has to his credit a movie –30 Days in Atlanta. In 2010, he was appointed the UN Peace Ambassador. He graduated with a degree in Theatre Arts in 2003 from the Delta State University, Abraka.
Lepacious Bose: She is a qualified lawyer who opted to be a comedienne. She is quite overweight and she usually jokes about her body size. Lepacious Bose’s real name is Bosede Olufunke Ogunboye.
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