The Indigenous Origin of Intermediality in Nigerian Stand-up Comedy

Abstract

Abstract Intermediality, a conflation of different artistic media into one event, is typically considered to have developed in the West. In this paper, we argue that intermediality existed in pre-colonial performance traditions across Africa, where various modes of artistic enactments merged into one were preferred to enactments partitioned into different generic categories. This study identifies multiple artistic genres inherent in Nigerian stand-up art, with specific reference to various sets of Ayo Makun’s AY Live wherein we identify the blending of joke-telling, theatre, cinema, song performance and dance within each show. We trace indigenous origins of this conflation of forms by illustrating how delineations between “types” of play, as seen in AY Live, did not exist in indigenous performances. This paper thus, extends research on intermediality and African popular culture by detailing the ways in which Nigerian stand-up enactments are packaged as total entertainment in the manner of pre-existing indigenous performances.