Queens of Comedy: The Female Skitmakers Conquering the Internet.
This Friday, LEADERSHIP Flavour looks at three talented female comedy skitmakers creating relatable and relevant content that has gained them massive followership within months or a few years of kickstarting their craft.
Chivera Media.
I discovered Chivera Media (nee Chi Vera Obiajulu) sometime, early last year, based on YouTube feed recommendation. Chivera’s content draws from the universal relativity of experience of being raised by traditional and strict parents, reality versus expectations of everyday living, the love of K-drama and the willingness to laugh at its impracticalities and their impact on K-drama lovers, and the recounting the experience of living with African mothers and African childhood.
Interestingly, in her videos, her characters do not speak, but by exaggerated and calculated gestures, facial expressions and costumes pass her message across.
By so doing, Chivera made it quite obvious that despite race and cultural differences, certain relations and familial relations are universal, resonates particularly with Africans and Asians.
Today, Chivera Media has created 315 shorts and has 453,000 subscribers. Her contents are getting better, as she creates more simplified yet complex videos where she plays at maximum eight characters in one short video, and occasionally adding another character. Further, she is working on mentorship programmes to teach young and African content creators, how to make creative and relatable content as herself.
Charity Ekezie.
Three months ago, Charity Ekezie went from receiving a YouTube Silver Button Plaque for 100,000 subscribers, to amassing 657,000 subscribers within same period and speaking at the YouTube Shorts 2023 End of the Year party.
For what? For producing short videos (less or no more than a minute) that sarcastically debunks stereotypical views of Africa held by people of other continents like – Africans have no electricity, Africans sleep on trees, or Africa does not have motor cars/buses, or questions such as Can Africans read? Do Africans have air conditioners? Do Africans ride tigers and lions as mean of transportation?
Ekezie responds to these stereotypical perspectives in three ways – one, by going out of her way to place the object/subject of contention – like making her video with a young child reading in the background while she deadpan-ly cooks up a wild story on why Africans don’t read, or how they achieve literacy. Two, she produces short (seconds) videos highlighting interesting facts about an African country that is largely unknown, while dressed up in the country’s outfit. Three, by producing An Africa has This But Prefers This videos, where she highlights Africans prefer some locally produced object or tool (like chewing stick vs toothbrush) because it is much more effective and culturally-affirming than the modern invention.
Today, YouTube channels are making reactionary videos to her contents, and their many comments on YouTube channels show commentators who relate to her topic, particularly Africans in Diaspora.
Real Warri Pikin
While she may be the less popular of the three, with a 149,000 subscribers and lesser contents online, stand-up comedian and skitmaker, @realwarripikin (Anita Alaire Afoke Asuoha) is a fun channel with contents that can be jarringly funny or too grating to and for some viewers.
As the wife and mother of three herself said, in a trailer of her upcoming 2024 tour Unapologetically Me, people have described her as “very funny, confident and creative, beautiful and good, too razz or raw, or too real, too fat, even dragged her online for opting for weight loss surgery for health purposes, and for posting too many familial skits. But what they fail to understand is that I am unapologetically me.”
Anita’s content ranges from short videos of her stand-up shows, comedic and family-centered skits or challenge videos, and longer shorts about her weight loss journey.
Beyond her jarringly funny yet relatable skits, Anita should be applauded for taking up the very difficult challenge of choosing healthy living, as she looks so much healthier, radiant and beautiful today than before.
