Like many of you, I have been looking forward to new episodes of the freaky table show. Wandji has written on here how it has brought some fresh air into our entertainment industry and how it is really an extension of what we do here on Poise. In a society where concrete information is so hard to come by, I have to commend the show hosts for the effort the make in researching the topics they have brought to the table thus far, knowing things can always get better. In the media business, you do not always have prior knowledge to the things you are sometimes required to speak on, making research skills a prerequisite for being a good presenter.
I had previously written about the CAMCOMICS vs Tembu Daniel affair so I was eager to watch the episode in which the hosting trio delved into the business of comedy in Cameroon. Without naming who I find funny and who I don’t find funny - I’m of the opinion that there is a lot lacking when it comes to our comedians and what they have to offer. That brings me to the question of who is a comedian - a question I think the people on the freaky table attempted to but did not quite answer.
We have a lot of funny people on the blue app which seems to be the general assembly of our entertainment industry. I think I am one of those people that write stuff that make people laugh on here all the time, but I can’t call myself a comedian. The Freaky Table trio, in my view, mixed up being funny and being a comedian. First of all, I think being a comedian is one of the hardest jobs in the entertainment industry especially with online media making it harder to keep jokes fresh and also harder to steal jokes. I guess that goes without saying that I am defining a comedian here in context to be someone who tells jokes on stage for a living - or what we commonly know as stand up comedy.
The best comedians I know are philosophers in my eyes. People who can magnify our idiosyncrasies in a way that makes us realize how ridiculous we can be. People who can make us see the irony in some of our behaviors. People with high emotional intelligence. People who are well informed on cultures and societies. Many of the greatest comedians have segments formed purely on cultural differences and ideologies. Good comedians use anecdotes, satire, hyperbole, irony, self deprecation, and other forms of expression to get people to laugh - the level of talent predicated on the general knowledge of the comedian, his command of language and his or her comedic timing.
Many of the comedians we have here seem to be limited in the scope of their subjects. I know a comedian whose act is based mostly on speaking poor English and seems to be centered around school, teacher, student, and parent - obviously, if bad English is concerned. That can only be funny for so long until it gets redundant. Our comedians to me seem to be scared of touching controversial topics which are actually a gold mind for comedy -politics, religion, gender and cultural differences being the most fertile of them all.
This opens up another question which the people on the table asked but did not answer. The question of if Tembu Daniel is a comedian and if crying as a punchline could be sustainable. I have seen many comedians use overreaction and body movements as the punchline in a segment of their acts but not as the punchline in the whole performance. Tembu Daniel however seems to start and end everything he does with crying. He has been doing it for so long that it almost looks like his only punchline, like crying is the actual joke. When I look at his full body of work, I prefer to put him in the broad category of entertainer rather than comedian. I look at him like Salt Bae whose performative butchering and salt spring flair have gained him worldwide popularity. He owns a chain of restaurants but his performances have since become the main attraction. His bent-at-the-elbow salt sprinkling is not what makes his food taste good of course but it is his culinary punchline like crying is for Danny Green.
Danny green now has “sense go kill me” as one of his other punches. I think if he wants to build a career on long running punchlines, he is going to have to come up with more than just two of them and maybe not mix them but the fact of the matter is that he is going to have to come up with other real content to punch on ,which is what he has been trying to do with his Town Cryer news like program and in his skits. I think what he does could be further developed in the form of sitcoms.
Any-Ha!
So, many comedians I believe, took offense to the critique dished out on the freaky table. A few openly reacted but I want to believe many were not happy as many were not particularly mentioned as one of the few good comedians we have. Those who reacted also seemed to be relaying a message from the general assembly of Cameroonian comedians. I mean, for people who spend a lot of time making jokes about people, you won’t expect such thin skin but in our context, it is easy to get upset especially when there is this illusion of your hustle being disrespected or sabotaged. 100 episodes of Freaky Table people telling me Dave Chappelle is not funny will not make me find Dave less funny. I don’t see Dave Chappelle being offended if you say he is not funny. The worst he can do then is to think you are mad. Like how Dangote feels about Shatta Bandle saying he has more money than Dangote. So for comedians to try to argue that they are funny by attacking people’s persons screams insecurity.
I understand we are at a level in our industry where we each need all the support we can get and really more importantly, all the truths we can get. I have since said that the movie industry in Cameroon needs the help of the comedians here because I really think most have a comedic thought pattern that can be better applied in film - adding comic situations to a bigger story. Ukwa (Nkwm Owo) of Nigeria is one of such comedians, and Sam Loco is another one. There is the short hunch-backed Ivorian, I just forgot his name, who can also be placed on that list. The three I just mentioned will definitely bore the audience if they tried stand up but in film, they do get the laughs out.
As far as I am concerned in this industry, the only thing that is not allowed is taking food out of the mouth of any genuine hustler. I am talking about things like gatekeeping and sabotaging projects to settle scores. Everything else is fair play especially when it comes to public opinion on the things we put out for public consumption. You don’t like that I have a brand called Oluwa Is Involved and you want to make me a joke about it, fair. If you try to poison the mind of one of my staff members to stir trouble in my organization because I made a joke about your flying boat, that is not allowed. To say, I don’t think people on the freaky table overstepped their bounds by making jokes about comedians not being funny and do not deserve any hatred from anyone or insults that have nothing to do with the work they put out for public consumption.
-Tino Foy