The Semiotics of Laughter In Two Nigerian Apolitical Movie-Comedies

Abstract

This paper examines the iconic, indexical and symbolic signs which provoke laughter in two Nigerian apolitical movie comedies, namely: Nnaa Meen and Touch and Follow. The tendency here is to attempt a poetics of this burgeoning genre of Nigerian movie-comedies. The term ‘apolitical’ suggests that these comedies are not political and do not evoke “contempt, indignation, or scorn” through deriding, but are “comic in that comedy evokes laughter mainly as an end in itself” (Abrams 1981). We are confronted with a world of comedy which is a world of delight in variety; even its hardships are not lasting” (Bernet et al in Types of Drama 10).