Paper short abstract:

The advent of digital technologies has enabled Africans and Europeans to mediate their cultural encounters in more positive ways. This study focuses on how a European comedienne named Overszabi leverages the borderless nature of social media to perform 'Nigerianness' and gain popularity in Nigeria.

Paper long abstract:

With the advent of digital technologies in Nigeria, the affordances of participatory exchange on social media for both African and European users have opened up possibilities for mediations and negotiations of cultural encounters in more positive ways. This coincides with women's increasing subversion of men's hegemony in the cultural production of humor. Interestingly, Nigerians in Diaspora as well as European women in particular have also leveraged the borderless nature of social media to partake in the production of Nigerian-themed skits. This study focuses on this trend, exploring ways in which a United Kingdom-based Hungarian comedienne named Overszabi (Sabina Yuhas) adapts and re-creates comic contents produced by popular Nigerian comedians. A nuanced analysis of her comedy routines shows further subversions - through lip-sync and matching performance accouterments, she undermines the hegemonic European culture, dazzling her audience with a multiplicity of images that are neither fully European nor fully Nigerian. The study concludes that, although Overszabi's skits mark a healthy departure from reciprocal stereotyping between Africa and Europe, her successes are paradoxically unattainable by Nigerian comics who perform 'Europeanness'.