This paper investigates the use of bombast in second-language (English) contexts as exemplified and parodied in the mass-media comedies Icheoku and Masquerade. It points out the prevalence of bombasters in Nigeria, identifies the general elements of bombast as an essential feature of nonstandard English, and identifies the expressive and perceptive dimensions of bombast. It argues that the use of bombast indicates the speaker's ignorance of or indifference to the essential communicative function of language, and the powerful status symbol that English language users obtain in African English-as-second-language (ESL) societies.