Parody and humour in Nigerian stand-up comedy: a critical analysis of Kenny Blaq's comic style

Abstract

This paper examines Kenny Blaq’s use of parody in songs to create comedic effect. His creative approach combining musicality, sarcasm and parody, distinguishes him from his peers in the comedy industry. This qualitative study adopts a literary methodology, analysing the lyrics of six parodied songs created and performed by Kenny Blaq. The analysis reveals that Kenny Blaq’s comedy draws largely from his ability to inject parody into his song-based jokes. The study’s findings highlight parody as a major driver of humour, rooted in the comic theory of degradation. Kenny Blaq is one of the few Nigerian stand -up comedians who craft and deliver jokes in the form of parodied songs. The research contends that the humour evoked by parodied songs depends on the audiences’ familiarity with the original song’s lyrics. This paper canvasses the need for Nigerian comedians to innovate and create novel comic arts, transcending beyond traditional joke-telling. It also encourages Nigerian comics to engage in research to enhance their knowledge of comedy and move beyond recycling existing jokes.