The Death of Stand-Up comedy in Nigeria

 

The early to mid-2000s saw the emergence of Stand-Up comedy in Nigeria as one of the major forms of entertainment. The likes of Ali Baba, Basketmouth, Bovi, AY Makun, Teju Babyface, Klint Da Drunk, Seyi Law, I Go Dye, Okey Bakassi, and many others. TV stations like the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and Silverbird Television (STV) aired shows like the Teju Babyface show, Nite of a thousand laughs, AY live, and Stand-Up Nigeria, a show produced by Bunmi Davies.

Since the emergence of Social media, comedy has taken a new form with the introduction of online skits.

The founding fathers of the online skits made use of Instagram to get their comedy skits public so that they would gain lots of fans and followers. Prominent names include Emma Oh My God, Baba Adan, Klinton Cod, Emmanuella and Mark Angel, Twyse, Maraji, and some others. Recently, a new crop of online comedians have risen up, such as Debo Adedayo “Mr Macaroni”, Maryam Apaokagi “Taooma”, Broda Shaggi, MC Lively, Sydney Talker and Lasisi Elenu, to mention a few.

These comedians have now started to use their social media fame to make money through various endorsement deals.

Different companies in different industries have used the fame of these comedians to gain new customers and clients.

 

Various companies employed these people to make their services known; services such as NetBet live betting on Sports, investment plans with agricultural companies, cryptocurrency trading options, money merchant services and many others have been made popular by these comedians.

Online skits are quite different from the traditional stand-up comedy as they require a lot more digital skills than stand-up comedy. Online comedy skits also seem to be more profitable than the stand-up comedy with the comedians able to secure huge endorsement deals with companies to promote their products or services, something that was not afforded to stand-up comedians. Stand-up comedians made most of their money by selling tickets to their live shows.

To compete with these new school comedians, many of these traditional stand-up comedians took up music, acting, and even skit creation. A good example is AY Makun, who has featured in multiple blockbuster Nollywood movies such as Merry Men 1 and 2, 30 days in Atlanta and 10 days in Sun City, among others. Basketmouth released a music album in 2020 titled “Yabasi” which received wide acclaim, and he also has a comedy series “Papa Benji”. Basketmouth also has several movie and soap opera appearances, like in “My Flatmates” where he is the major character. Ali Baba has also made several movie appearances such as in Toying Abraham’s “Alakada” and in “The Wedding Party”. Many of these comedians still hold the odd stand-up show or two, but most of their work now is done using social media.

Comedy in Nigeria has been transformed into a very profitable profession by social media, and many young Nigerians are entering into it every day. The days when Stand-up comedy was the gold standard seem to be far behind us.