The types of comedy Ugandan comedians use to get a laugh

If you fancy yourself as a comedy connoisseur, you probably know some of the different genres of stand-up comedy.

If you are not, we present to you an overview of some of the most popular and different styles of stand-up comedy and how they apply in Uganda.

Observational Comedy

This style of stand-up comedy is popular with comedians Anne Kansiime, Daniel Omara, Cotilda, Hillary Okello, among others.

Observational comedy is incarnated by observations about life, finding humour in them and how they fit in life’s overall scheme of things. If you’ve listened to a Ugandan comedian discussing why Exes are the only Ys in our lives, then you’ve heard observational comedy.

Anecdotal Comedy

Anecdotal comedy leans on storytelling. If you hear comedian Patrick “Salvado” Idringi talking about the romantic impulses in Ombokolo while updating his audiences of the goings-on of Lumbejja and friends, you are probably enjoying anecdotal comedy. This brand of comedy is animated by storytelling whose articulate value is how the story speaks to context and subtext to make the perfect pretext for a joke.

Patrick Slavado doing standup pulse uganda

Deadpan Comedy

Deadpan comedy relies on a straight-faced, matter-of-fact delivery. The punchline is typically said without any emotion, thereby normalising the absurd by making it seem normal to the comedian.

It then shifts gears, as the absurd is accepted as normal, to wring the abnormal out of audiences’ acceptance and thus make the audience laugh at itself for taking what was merely apparent as real. Timothy Nyanzi is the closest thing we have to a deadpan comic in Uganda.

Topical Comedy

Topical comedy is often also called social commentary. Daniel Omara, Pablo, Agnes Akite and Joshua Okello come to mind as comedians who practice this particular style.

Typically, this brand of comedy takes issue with society and its politics. Here is where you are likely to hear the best jokes about President Museveni’s mobile toilet and whether it is his bowels that need movement instead.

A group of Ugandan comedians with this author pulse uganda

Wordplay Comedy

“I am 32,” says comedian Daniel Omara. ”Inches,” he adds after a dramatic pause long enough to convince the audience that he was talking about his age and not his, Ahem, shoe size.

This kind of comedy is catching on in Uganda, with Timothy Nyanzi arguably being the best comedian when it comes to deploying puns, double entendres, and punchlines to audiences. Thus, delivery in this genre tends to be filled with slick one-liners instead of lengthy serenades.

That’s why, Nyanzi says, he’s in a toxic relationship with Manchester United. He has currently tried to spread the comedic gospel by wordplay. As his fellow comedian Agnes Akite says, “Timo is a standup comedian who has mentored many comedians, me inclusive. The passion he has for comedy is on another level. He runs ‘New Material Night’ every Monday at Redbasket [Dewinton Rise] where comedians try out new jokes.”

Hopefully, Nyanzi’s efforts and the sets of several comedians will dovetail to expand further the horizons of comedy in Uganda.