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Paper short abstract:

From critically analysis of conversations around selected humorous videos and memes of political campaigns in Nigeria, this paper argues that, more than fostering resistance, humour functions in the political space as agency of desensitization.

Paper long abstract:

The 2023 campaigns in Nigeria to elect the next set of political office holders have made the social media a space of intriguing humour. Numerous videos of candidates' gaffes and memes of various social significance are often extracted from campaign rallies and circulated in the social media space by candidates and their supporters to demarket their opponents. This is not new. From Patience Jonathan, former First Lady to President Muhammadu Buhari and Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike down to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the current presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), humour has attained an important status as a weapon of political (de)marketing and resistance. Drawing on data from the social media presentations and representations of the campaign goofs and gaffes of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I carry out a phenomenologico-existentialist analysis of the use of adaptive humour in electoral demarketing of political aspirants. My study purposively selects tik tok videos and memes of this aspirant and viewers’ reactions to them. I critically analyse the conversations around these videos and memes and argue that adaptive humour has the regressive political function of enabling individuals, politicians and their supporters alike, to cope with everyday stress and also build up resilience in the difficult times of electioneering. Thus, more than fostering resistance, humour functions in the political space as agency of desensitization. Beyond this, I further suggest that while sustaining its ludic function, political humour enables informed electorates to scrutinise aspirants dispassionately.