We dare our comedians to come up with new material

No mincing words; Ugandan comedians are giving us a raw deal! Thanks to last week’s Pan-African comedy show Night Of A Thousand Laughs, we now know better than to laugh at every over-regurgitated joke. 

 

The show, featuring top-notch comedians from across Africa, was no doubt amazing, not when on the list were celebrated names like Klint Da Drunk from Nigeria, Mandy Uzonitsha also from Nigeria, Kenya’s Eric Omondi, Zimbabwe’s Carl Joshua Ncube, our own Patrick “Salvador” Idringi and, on an upcoming note, Cotilda Inapo. Such a line-up definitely wouldn’t fail to wow. But as entertaining as the event was, it served as an eye-opener. 

 

It exposed the underbelly of Ugandan comedy and put us in total doubt; have we really been laughing at these why-did-the chicken-cross-the-road kind of jokes, regurgitated over and over for all this time?

 

No doubt, all comedians repeat jokes; even Klint Da Drunk, who, by far, came off as the man of the night at the Imperial Royale Hotel show, redid that killer joke about reggae artistes and their inability to remember their lyrics following a swig of weed. Totally acceptable. But as nice as this joke may be, Klint doesn’t go retelling it to the same audiences for years.

 

In a chat with Blitz shortly after his performance, Klint said what has kept him on top in Nigeria is his undying knack to come up with new material throughout the more than 15 years he has been in comedy. “I try as much as possible to minimise how often I retell a joke,” he said.

 

Among the bests of the night was Mandy, an awardwinning comedienne whose gig was shockingly Ugandan! This woman had the audience in fits of laughter with her funny observations of Uganda’s dayto-day life.

 

With a lot of ease, she caressed the Ingrid Turinawe boob saga, kicked up some raving laughs by throwing a few jibes at our rapping President, sought to hook up with Moses Golola and also had something on Bad Black.

 

Now that was amazing – a Nigerian giving us new material from our very own land, out of a research she said she did overnight upon landing in Uganda. That’s world-class comedy, snatching a joke right from below the nose of our own comedians, who are busy spending all the money they get and not investing in coming up with new material.

 

No doubt our home-bred comics, Salvador and Cotilda, did well. But what did they bring onto the table? Loads of very tired and overrecycled jokes, jokes they have been telling for about four years now. What happened to creativity? 

 

Of course, not everyone noticed because some people were firsttimers. But you needed to have attended at least six previous shows of these two to almost lip-sync or mime parts of their performances.

 

And these two, seeing that they were given an opportunity to perform alongside the best from Africa, are supposed to be some of the best Ugandan acts. Suddenly, the CD skips, and the music is not so rosy, it is obvious Ugandan comedians are just joking around – literally. Hadn’t Salvador summoned all his old stuff, dude would have fallen flat on his face, what comedians call dying on stage. There is no doubt; comedy in Uganda has made quantum leaps.

 

From the not-so-funny antics of the cross-dressing Amarula Family, to the exploits of Philip Luswata’s Theatre Factory on Barbed Wire; from the ever-smiling Pablo bagging a jackpot at M-Net’s Stand Up Uganda, to the sell-out Mic Check shows at Efendy’s; we thought we had arrived. 

 

Salvador Idringi even trashed what was probably a good paying job at a telecom company to concentrate on comedy. It became obvious, there were big bucks in comedy and these funny people were reaping big!

 

Initially, it was shock and awe, with the acts going for our ribs and lungs, delivering daring performances, winning more fans and advertising deals and endorsements alike. They did their research, got the audiences laughing, and then something happened. 

 

Either they stopped smoking what induced the creative juices, or they got used to us gullible audiences, who have for all this long taken in their old stuff without complaining.

 

The jokes are now Idi Amin jokes; you just do not laugh at those. Then they jumped in on those jokes we have been snubbing in email forwards, with the names localised from Smith to Muhanguzi, or from New York to Kamwokya.

 

We have had it now. And I am sure if you are a loyal local comedy lover, you have heard all these comedians’ jokes a million times. Call this a revolt against lacklustre comedy. But it’s time we grew up and shaped our industry. Almost every comedian here is guilty. But some are guiltier.