Lessons from Cameroon's YouTube Queens
This essay examines the success of Pakgne, a French-language sketch comedy show by Muriel Blanche and Marcelle Chou, which accumulated over 7 million views in its first year. The writer distils seven practical lessons from their rise—craft, consistency, progress over perfection, authenticity, collaboration, focus on work before returns, and letting the work speak for itself.
Meet Muriel Blanche and Marcelle Chou; the stars of a YouTube sketch comedy show called “Pakgne.” I first got introduced to the show last year by a cousin who forwarded me a link to one of their sketches. I found myself watching more than 10 other sketches right after.
If you have never heard about them, it would make sense since their show is in French and they are followed by a majority francophone audience. Pretty much like how Ngwane Hansel’s show was popular amongst Anglophones. But since I hail from the other side of the Moungo, swimming across that language barrier isn’t much of an issue and so I get to enjoy their show as much as any other person who does. Got the metaphor? (wink wink)
Muriel and Marcelle’s sketches have racked well over 7 million views on their Youtube channel! Trust me; that is no small feat. Even King Kong’s videos have not accumulated that many views. As a matter of fact, it barely makes half of it. And when you think that Pakgne's audience is ‘majoritairement Camerounaise’, you start to grasp how much of an audience they have. And I should add here that their show has been around for barely a year! And it has, since January 1st, been running its second season.
But I am not here to shower effusive praises on statistics like the ones above. I joined PoiseSocial not to write like your average blogger (and I don’t consider myself one) who just gives the gist so they can drive traffic to their site. I try as much as possible to find the angle that can serve as a takeaway. And then I go through every comment to see what I can learn in turn from you all.
So with that in mind, je crois que nous pouvons commencer sans tarder. So, what lessons can we learn from Muriel and Marcelle?
FOCUS ON THE CRAFT FIRST: It was Steve Martin who said that in order to achieve success you have to “Be so good that they can’t ignore you.” Truth is, if I am writing about these two young ladies today, it is because they are good at what they do and I actually enjoy their content. This reminds me a little of the story Tino Foy shared about the ‘musician’ who paid a photographer to take pictures to promote himself when he had not recorded anything before. Work on your craft, hone it and polish it as you go along. Do that first and etch a space for yourself before you start concentrating on the add-ons. Your core product and service is the most important thing you have. If it's not good, people will not tap into it.
CONSISTENCY: This is something that Tino and I grapple with from time. Especially when PoiseSocial goes dark like over the last 3 weeks with nothing published. To be fair we both have our businesses that we both run and PoiseSocial is something we do out of passion in our spare time. But if you find your daily bread on the internet and you want to be able to gain a following, then be consistent. Muriel and Marcelle release a new video every Wednesday afternoon. I'm not saying you should do same, but you have to be able to be consistent with what you put out both in quality and in time. Look for a rhythm that best suits you and stick with it.
DON’T ALWAYS LOOK FOR PRETTY: Procrastination through perfectionism is the worst thing you can do to yourself. Not everything must be good when you start. If you want to wait to have the whole pack of cards, you may end up never shuffling anything. When Muriel and Marcelle started, their videos were not always good. The camera angles were not always right, the laugh tracks were not always synchronised, the lighting was not always the best, but they made sure their material, which is the core product, was the best. And by material, I mean the script and the acting. That was a year ago. Today their videos have a better quality and though it may not be perfect yet, one can see the obvious great leaps in improvement. Your goal, in whatever you do should be progress and improvement, not perfection.
BE RELATABLE AND AUTHENTIC: Muriel and Marcelle are not the first two ladies to do a sketch comedy together and certainly won’t be the last. But they have been able to find their own voice. Pakgne is different. It doesn’t copy from anybody else. It is also relatable. The sketches focus on things which happen around us every day and the language, slang, expressions, and accents are all real. No gimmicks.
COLLABORATE: Muriel and Marcelle have understood that to make their show grow bigger, they need to tap into those who are actors of the cultural phenomenon of the present zeitgeist in Cameroon. Zeitgest means ‘spirit of the times’. Let me spare you the Google search. Season 2 has featured starring guests, so far, which are Mr. Leo, Askia, Salatiel, Fanicko, Minks, Stypak Samo – all of them, musicians. They use their platform and mesh it with the platform of these musicians to further promote their product. A lot of times, we think we are too good to share with others especially when we have something good going for us. It helps no one. And to paraphrase a character in the movie ‘Hidden Figures’ any upward movement for one us is an upward movement for us all.
And the last two points.
SEEK YE FIRST THE WORK AND EVERYTHING ELSE SHALL BE ADDED: Again, this goes in line with what Tino was talking about in the Salatiel article from a few days ago. Focus on the work and ROI before you acquire assets. The girls of Pakgne have been having some serious endorsements coming their way. And products placements are more and more evident in their videos. By product placements I mean that Coca-Cola can pay them to put a bottle of coke on their table when shooting a dining room scene for example. Again, I’ve spared you a trip to Google lmao. But these endorsements and products would not have come if they hadn't been working hard on their material. They probably paid for their first sketches out of their own pockets.
DON’T BLOW YOUR TRUMPET: When you do go work, you won’t need to stand on a rooftop and say it. People will do it for you. Here I am talking about Muriel and Marcelle. They have no clue who I am. I won’t write too much about this as I would expatiate in an article sometime next week.
Here are there the links to two of my favourite sketches on their YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he9O-Fj-n28 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KusIkVv6N_c
- Wandji Wilfred.
The piece reflects a moment in the mid-2010s when YouTube was emerging as a platform for Cameroonian creators to build audiences largely within francophone and diaspora communities, and when individual creators could achieve significant reach without mainstream media gatekeeping. The writer positions Pakgne alongside other homegrown digital successes, noting both the linguistic divide and the shared Cameroonian cultural moment they inhabit.
At the time, this was one of the first serious attempts to extract and share actionable lessons from a peer's digital success—modeling a reflective, non-clickbait approach to cultural observation. It remains relevant as a meditation on craft, consistency, and authenticity in content creation, and as a document of how Cameroonian creators were building platforms during an earlier phase of social media maturity. The emphasis on collaboration and the rejection of perfectionism feel especially prescient.