The comedy war

There is a war raging on Twitter now, people. Our dear comedians have taken their craft away from the stage onto the Twitter space. It was last week when I returned home from work and my cousin, Toyin, showed me something on her Blackberry that had been making her laugh. It was a joke a friend shared with her. “I have found my Soulmate,” the message read. “I didn’t know the stupid hair cream was lying under my bed.” After reading, I had a good laugh. I had earlier read the joke on Twitter while I was in the office. And I had laughed out really loud. This has been the trend lately on Twitter where Nigerian comedians and comediennes share jokes freely on the social network. I find Helen Paul’s jokes and Seyi Law’s jokes very interesting. I could recall my experience at a fashion show I once attended. The high point of the evening for me was Helen Paul’s comic performance, which was really hilarious. It got us all cracking our ribs with laughter. She was natural with her jokes; she never struggled to let them out. That was really the first time I would see her perform live and I think her childish voice and mannerism were truly original. The duo of Kate Henshaw-Nuttal and Denrele Edun were good as they tried to spice up every segment of the programme without leaving a dull moment. However, the fun was nearly marred by the poor performance of the girls. It was sad they could not answer correctly most of the questions posed to them by the compere, Denrele and Kate, as part of the elimination process to the final stage. It was a narrow escape for those of them who got the three questions right. When asked who the author of Things Fall Apart was, one of them said pointblank she did not know! It was funny she was ignorant of the author of a world-acclaimed novel like Things Fall Apart. Another girl could not mention three countries in Southern Africa. It was funny Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe were names that did not cross her mind. Same was the case for a girl who could not name two countries in East Africa. The compere brought the question home at a point when they asked a contestant to name three southern states in Nigeria and their governors. The contestant could not answer it correctly. She even called Sam Egwu, governor of Delta State! The girl’s performance was the butt of jokes for a long time to come. Even now on Twitter there have been many jokes on beauty pageants and all what-nots. It is amazing that a silent but revolutionary group of comedians are building up on Twitter. In fact, at times they ask for a retweet and recommend comedians to follow for Twitter addicts to enjoy more jokes. This has kept me wondering why these comedians are giving away so freely their source of income. How do they keep body and soul together? Are they just following the adage that a taste of the pudding is in the eating? Whatever the case is, more money will come whenever they organise shows and their fans on Twitter will throng such shows. Comedians on Twitter have come to stay and I am enjoying them!