Article http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jla.2025.06.007

Realities of Terrorism, Kidnapping, and Armed Banditry in Nigerian, South African, and African American Stand-up Comedies

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Idowu James Adekunle

Department of English, University of Ibadan, Oyo State 200005, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author: Idowu James Adekunle

Published: August 18,2025

Abstract

Standup comedy is a notable performance with different dramatic aesthetics. Its dramatic aesthetics are unique universal sociological happenings. Standup comedy shows deal with social problems of ancient and contemporary worlds. Although many studies have examined standup comedy from theatrical productions, entertainment viewership, and linguistic dexterity without considering its security impact. Therefore, this article explores societal issues of terrorism, kidnapping and armed banditry in Nigerian, South African and African American standup comedies to illustrate how these menaces affected the peace and unity of entire universe, and, at the same time, instill good moral values to the operators of these social menaces through standup comedy narrative dexterity. Data are purposively selected. The selected comedians are: Nigeria, AY and I Go Dye; South Africa, Moosa; African America, Chappelle. The comedians were selected based on their similar treatment of societal issues. Performance Theory of Schechner was used to analyze the data. Data were subjected performance and literary analyses.

Keywords

Terrorism; Kidnapping; Armed banditry; Stand-up comedy; Menace

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How to cite this paper

Realities of Terrorism, Kidnapping, and Armed Banditry in Nigerian, South African, and African American Stand-up Comedies

How to cite this paper: Idowu James Adekunle. (2025). Realities of Terrorism, Kidnapping, and Armed Banditry in Nigerian, South African, and African American Stand-up Comedies. Journal of Literature Advances2(1), 38-47.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jla.2025.06.007