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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the role of women in different comedic realms across Africa. We argue that women’s agency in humor production has always been present but with the rise of social media, it is also becoming more visible thereby transforming gendered agency in popular culture.

Paper long abstract:

Despite the recent African comedy boom, women have been largely absent from this discussion. Historically, formal comedy scenes have largely been a man’s game (not just in Africa but globally as well), with female joke telling being relegated to female dominated spaces, such as market and domestic settings. In more formal joking spaces, female attendance to stand-up events is often quite substantial, often “creating” or generating the laughter desired by the comedian. They also tend to prominently feature within jokes. This paper, therefore, highlights ways African humour traditions have historically kept femininity out (pertaining to person) and in (in relation to their issues), thereby retaining women as the butt rather than the weavers of the joke. In recent years though, social media spaces have provided new spaces for female production of laughter. We argue that women have always enacted humorous agency, despite their invisibility in formal comedic spaces. They are central to the jokes and the laughter of the industry. However, their own humour is becoming increasingly visible. With the rise of social media, women have been able to bypass male gatekeepers and create humorous content on their own accord. They are performed in private spaces, but then circulated publicly in what we refer to as the “public not public.” This creates an interesting paradox in that women are still largely performing privately, but with a public audience. Social media has therefore, allowed for the enactment of a new type of gender agency – that of humour.