A Critical Discourse Analysis of Churchill Live Comedy Show

Ogal George Ouma1., & Titus Karuri Macharia2

Abstract
The viewpoint that screen comedy enjoys the autonomy to fashion its complex and often
subversive processes, revealing and commenting on the preoccupations, prejudices, and
dreams of societies that produce it finds its applicability on the Kenyan screens. The discourse
of the contemporary stand-up comedy in Kenya is sprinkled with the notion that the comic
content is conservatively limited to redundant and predictable vituperative tribal jibes, heavy
mimicking of accents and occasional slapstick showcases. This study sought to establish whether
this stereotype is founded as depicted on the Kenyan television on Thursday and Sunday nights.
As posited by Van (1995), a rich base of analyses resides in discourse and communication,
including non-verbal semiotic messages, such as pictures, photographs and movies. Five
episodes of Churchill Live comedy show were randomly sampled and reviewed using
Critical Discourse Analysis to evaluate the implicature, objects and language employed to
represent sociopolitical satire on the screen. The study found that the contemporary Kenyan
comedy is soaked in extensive parody and tribal jokes whose stale humor is based on
stereotypes. Against the backdrop of the injurious psychosocial effects of negative stereotyping
in the society, the study also finds tribal insinuations ingrained in the audience and therefore
recommends that Kenyan comedians should transit their comic niche and present content that
borders on harmless universal human nature or intellect that will be appreciated by all audiences
on a global scale.

Key Words: Comedy, Critical Discourse Analysis, prejudices

1Department of Languages, P.O. Box 1957-10101 Karatina University, Kenya. Tel No:
+254713907287.Email:ogalgeorge1@gmail.com

2Department of Languages, P.O. Box 1957-10101 Karatina University, Kenya. Tel No: +254725489251 Email:
karurimacharia@yahoo.com

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1.0 :Introduction : Propagation of Ideologies in Comedy

The capacity of the media to command what the viewers consume on the screens by propagating
various ideologies has been an issue of perpetual debate. The Kenyan screen is sprinkled with
various programmes that include inter alia, advertisements, news, movies and comedy shows
which often attract varied degrees of devotees (Ogola, 2011). Fitly, opinionated information
often jets in as the performer sustains the audience through genre power. According to Nyabuga
et al. (2010), the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya in 2010 paved way for media
freedom as a fundamental entitlement. As such, the genre is often uncensored thus able to lean
towards prejudices in the pretext of light moments aimed at creating humor. Gatling (2013)
posits that the thrust of comedy is entertainment which exploits virtually all literary resources in
order to trigger an uproarious response in the audience. This is the rumination echoed by Horton
and Horton and Rapf (2012) who posit that screen comedy has been free to work its complex
and often subversive process, revealing and commenting on the preoccupations, prejudices,
and dreams of societies that produce it (p.5). The contemporary comedy show in the
country is apparently engrossed in tribal jibes whose content is heavily sourced from prejudiced
notions. Against the backdrop of the friskiness of jokester media, Churchill Live 3utilizes
intertextuality and parody as a way of creating identity on the Kenyan screens. Intermittent
efforts to study tribal jokes have been chronicled by scholars in various ages. By way of
3The Churchill Show is a run-after Programme that encourages the upcoming performers and talented
citizens to showcase their aptness in a number of domains. It airs on NTV on Sundays from 8.00pm to
9.00pm.This show is the regions most favourite. In fact, according to Geopoll Report (2013), the fame of
the pioneer Daniel Churchill Ndambuki has transcended the Kenyan borders to the East African
Countries.

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example, Oliar and Sprigman (2010) conceive that although there exist a rich base of comedic
substance in the natural world, most humorists are slack to exhaust the materials and readily
resort to the commonplace tribal jokes. In the Kenyan locale, however, there has been delimited
attention to define the nexus between Kenyan comedy and tribal undertones.

Tribal prejudice, the thrust of this study, takes various shades which stifle our dream of a united
nation (The Standard, 2014). Applying Critical Discourse Analysis as a tool to unwrap lineal
presentations in comedy, we seek to alert viewers that whatever is dubbed stand-up comedy
may turn out to be a glass of tribally brewed concoction. Owing to the enormity of the audience
on a national scale, it is crucial to decipher ideological representations of tribal inclination
typical of Kenyan comedy.

2.0: The nexus between media ethnicity

The glamorous power of the media poses a train of thought to which a majority is oblivious. This
area has attracted assiduity in research and as Gataullina (2003) buttresses; the media is an
ideological apparatus for bridling the minds of the masses. He adds that viewers are perpetually
treated to hypnotic shows that promote the transference of stereotypes and beliefs of a
community to replicate the usual order of life. Against the backdrop of televised comedy being
revered as a god, the humorists enjoy the leverage to fill the conscience of viewers with repletion
that shapes their perception of others in a laughter decorated context (Rappoport, 2005) .

As observed by Park et al. (2006), the jokes often unroll beyond harmless content to ethnic
insinuations. Ethnic stereotyping has greatly been associated with televised comedy. The
promulgation of the new Constitution in 2010 has paved a new way in which comedy alternates
between ethnic jocularities as opposed to the colonial times, zones of confluence between
various ethnic groups were systematically frozen. Thus, careful social engineering attached some
negative ethnocentric labels among some Kenyan ethnic groups. For example the Luo were
labeled as genetically lazy, the Kamba as sex maniacs, the Kikuyu as cheeky, the Maasai as
trustworthy albeit savage natives and so on (Onyango, 2008).And in this mix, the process of
ethnic stereotypes has taken on political and cultural significance wherein popular ethnic labels
are highly socialized to the extent that they are acculturated into the ethnic groups that are being
misrepresented.

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3.0: Tracing Kenyan comedy

Historically, comedy can be traced to the ancient Greek religious ceremonies in which the god
Dionysus had rituals performed. Such performances heavily relied on farce. The ancient
rendition majorly exploited absurd humor as an interlude in the church to satirize social
phenomenon (Konstan, 1995). This wave of pratfall comedy found its explicit expression in 19 th
and 20th centuries in where playwrights densely satirized the society through intertextual
representation of tragic-comedy. The texts were penned against the premise that a text is a raw
material of transforming ideological values (Long, 1986). Although Kenyan comedy would
have taken off quite earlier, the impetus was stirred in 1999 after years of frustrated efforts by a
regime that confused talent for insurgence. The Kibaki regime seemed godsend as comedians
enjoyed the speeches of a president powdered with comic relief during his speeches. According
to Ndonye, Yieke and Onyango (2015), Kenyan comedy has been for a long time characterized
by mimicry of the political icons. A key motivating factor has been the fact that two consecutive
regimes have shown an insatiable appetite for comedy. As such, Kenyans have often drifted from
mimicry to recycled internet humour with heavy coats of tribal jibes.

Comedy has evolved to become a blade that cuts back and forth with varied impressions. Meyer
(2000) postulates that although comedy may be offensive, the rendition is occasionally timely, a
case neatly congruent with Kenya. The implicature is that comedy on tribal prejudice evokes no
opposition from the audience as the victims are equally treated to a comic moment as the
perpetrator. Scores of citizens enjoy Churchill Live Show which has featured seasoned
comedians with rich blends of comic content. However, the contemporary shows that Kenyans
shriek at ethnic jokes, an indication that they desire such jokester moments.

3.1: Methodology of the Study

The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative research design because it aimed to achieve
an in-depth understanding of ethnic stereotypes propagated in comedy. Five epodes of Churchill
Show were randomly sampled and analyzed for parody, slapstick and tribal stereotypes. The
episodes selected were varied in seasons in which they were aired. The Churchill Show involves
scores of comedians from all parts of the country. The possibility of propagating these ideologies

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is therefore so probable. It is therefore imperative that the writers implicative and connotative
effects of language manipulation and nuances are taken into cognizance as we unwrap the
ideological underpinnings in Kenyan comedy. The quantitative design computed the percentages
of the categories humor which were done through frequency tables and pie charts.

3.2: Theoretical Framework

This study has utilized Faircloughs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) Theory. According to
him, discourse involves social interaction, part of which is a text (Fairclough, 1989). An
insightful interrogation of social ideologies is delved into by Van Dijk (1998:1) who posits that
Critical Discourse Analysis involves analytical research that primarily studies the way social
power abuse, dominance and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text and talk in
the social and political context. In this respect therefore, CDA takes an integrated approach that
unveils linguistics, semiotic expressions and the general perception of language use as a social
practice. According to Batstone (1995), language use is dependent on social, cultural and
psychological backdrops which necessitate an enquiry into the nexus between genre structures
and their relation to the society. One key element of CDA lies on the term critical which,
according to Fairclough (1992: 9), implies showing connections and causes which are hidden; it
also implies intervention, for example providing resources for those who may be disadvantaged
through change. Covert details of discourse should therefore be unveiled because the consumer
of utterances is powerless against them. A major obsession of CDA is not only delimited to
textual analysis but also a deeper description of the society that produces such genre in order to
decipher the correlation between the society and linguistic choices informing a speaker or
writers style of a text. This leads to the study of generation and propagation of ideologies in
different social contexts. Wodak (2002) observes that CDA considers ideology an important tool
for establishing and maintaining social relations in social institutions. In his book Language and
Power written in (1989), Norman Fairclough draws a clear-cut correlation between utterances
and the social orientation of the institutions where we reside. He provides three vital stages
involved in analyzing any discourse: Description, Interpretation and Explanation 4. It is at the

4 The nexus between text source and interaction is key to this study. In Kenyan comedy, it is imperative to discover
the motivation, source and effect of the utterances of humorists against ethnic backdrop. Batstone (1995) postulates
that discourse serves to reveal psychological and cultural framework in which stereotyping finds its discussion.

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latter stage where we unveil the social determiners and effects of utterances in discourse which is
the thrust of this study.

4.0: Findings and Discussion

In this exercise, we undertake an analysis of the comic content of the sampled episodes.
Although there are many types of humor, the transcribed utterances were screened for parody,
slapstick, tribal jibes and other general sources of humor. The findings were then presented in the
table below:

Category Sample Sample Sample Sample Point E TOTA %

A B C D L
Tribal 3 4 2 2 3 14 35.0
jibes
Parody 1 1 2 1 1 6 15.0
Slapstick 1 1 1 1 1 5 12.5
Satire 1 1 2 1 0 5 12.5
Others 2 1 2 3 2 10 25
Total 8 8 9 8 7 40 100.0

Table 4.01: A frequency Table on humor categories in Churchill Show.

4.1 TRIBAL JIBES ON CHURCHIL SHOW

Our study found many utterances soaked in insinuations of tribal prejudice. The study revealed
that the rampant stereotypes of ethnicity in the nineteen utterances transcribed. For instance, one
utterance goes, For Luos, money is not a problem; for Kikuyus, money is not everything, its the
only thing. This is a label that does not only tag Kikuyu people an avaricious group but also that
whose main obsession is money. For ages, the kikuyu have been stereotyped to be crazy about
the pursuit of money. On the other hand, the Luo community is depicted as a braggadocios lot
whose problem is how to spend and not what to spend. In another utterance, a comedian
commented on the eve of Gor Mahia Match, We have 30 Mercedes and 4 NZEs. That means we
are 30 Luos and 4 Kikuyus. Against the backdrop of the new catch phrase swag, the humor

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sustains a prejudice by implying that Kikuyus are lackluster in swag for they fear spending as
opposed to Luos who are synonymous with posh lifestyle.

Tribal prejudice was also found to be evident in pronunciation of the characters. For instance, a
comedian said, Msichagae kwa nini nimefaa hifi led.mwarimu hayuko aloudmagali za
Kibla.angaria usho..lege.lagalidim na luts ( Do not be surprised to see me in redthe
teacher is not aroundthe vehicles plying Kibera routelook at the faceReggaeriddim and
roots). The Nyeri dialect of Kikuyu is known to be devoid of /l/ sound. The comedian therefore
uses the flawed pronunciation to make an indirect reference to the inhabitants of central Kenya.

The examples given by the characters on stage informed the direction of the humor. A Kalenjin
comedian said, Masomo ikikataa, jaribu mbio (if education is taxing, try athletics). She goes
ahead to add that a letter from her boyfriend read in part: Mbio mbio kutoka rohoni. (Running
fast from the heart). It is a prejudice held about the Kalenjins that the only thing they are perhaps
good at is athletics. This can be linked to scores of runners who have been interviewed on the
screen speaking what sounds gibberish. The comedian further sustains this by saying, Jemutai,
comethere is no need of running after you. It is apparent that the locale and message is
intended to evoke a feeling in the Kalenjin listener. The audience will anyway laugh as if
oblivious of the source of the joke.

The Kisii in comedy are depicted as those with rising intonation in all utterances. Additionally
one of the episodes commented that they are unpolished in mannerisms. By way of examples, we
picked two utterances: Kisii music utilizes only repetition and tonal variationA Kisii MC
embarrasses people by making unnecessary announcements in a function.Wathotho (children)
wanakojorea sufuria jikoni (peeing in sufurias in the kitchen). Although sounding incomplete
without prosodic features, the humor targets the Kisii community whose language is intonational.
Coupled with an imitation of an embarrassing subject, the utterance elicits laughter in the
audience. This informs the reason why another performer uses a rising intonation to greet people,
Whazup! Exploiting the history of the Kisii, the joke communicates not only a repetitive
language but also a fast conversation that can easily elude ones ear.

In order to convey the portrayal of the Luhya community, a comedian posed: A Luhya was asked
to choose between tea and juice to which he replied, I will take juice as I wait for tea. It is

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commonplace to associate this community with food. The impression that the Luhya eat a lot has
been held as a defamatory narrative that elicits merriment. By not preferring tea to juice or
otherwise, the character communicates gluttony in which every food stuff requires maximum
utilization. Such mold has become acceptable as an epithet of the Luhya thus admissible in
comedy.

It is conspicuous to note that most of the collected utterances leaned towards Kikuyu-Luo
stereotypes. A comedian posed, Ujaluo itakuuaMjaluo hatoi pesa kwa counter.anaenda
kwa ATM. He doesnt need a receipt because he has a soft copy...Luos dont die, they rest in
peace Against the perceived egoism of the Luo, the comedian seeks to confirm a presumed
brilliance in which Luos record everything in the mind. The pride aggrandizes to death in which
they are not common beings and do not expire as commoners.

Noisome recycled humor in this research appears disguised in various shades. The mold about
the people of central Kenya was the talk in town when the Pope visited the country. One
performer lipped, If you dare a Kikuyu landlord that you will hang yourself should he ask for
rent, he will be paid using funeral money. In the same episode, yet another one verbalized,
When Kamau goes to withdraw from the ATM, he observes strict surveillance. The idea of
insignia of a Kikuyu being covetous regurgitates itself in a different fashion. It further paints a
picture of an indifferent being who, even in the face of death, will still ardently desire to amass
affluence. The final part exposes a tribal repugnance in which a Kikuyu is eagle-eyed and no
money matter escapes his sight. Thus a Kikuyu is zealously observant on money, a joke that
shreds the ribs of Kenyans.

4.2 Parody in Churchill show

By definition, parody refers to a piece of art that imitates 5 some person in a humorous way
Konstan (1995). Bearing in mind that pioneer comedians heavily relied on parody, the comic

5Much of the episodes of comedy in ancient times used parody to mimic the leaders of the church and
politicians. Often considered an ingenious showcase of talent, successful users of parody may take
signature utterances in heavy accents to depict a character in a way that leaves people wanting more. For
more on this area, see Long (1986).

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genre still surfaces in the Churchill Show. The paper identified six out of the total utterances, an
indication that they are still relevant for purposes of jocularity. For instance, imitating the former
President Kibaki, a comedian verbalized, Pore pore Kijana.washa kerereni wewe uliwaleta
hapa na ni wewe utawatoa (Be patient, young man,stop the noiseyou are the one who
brought them and will take them away) accompanied by the paralinguistic like the presidents
gait and facial contortion, the joke makes the audience reminiscent of the comic relief to which
Kibaki would treat his audience after reading a formal speech. Impersonating the Character
Wilbroda, a comedian deliberately says sow instead of show to communicate the sheer lack of
the sound // in her speech. Successful utterances of such achieve comic effect. The same
aftereffect is registered when in the word srub instead of the conventional shrub. Mimicking
President Mois speech Permission granted and greeting the audience in a purely coastal accent
are some other ways through which parody has been sustained in the show.

4.3 SLAPSTICK6 IN COMEDY

Drawing its motivation from physical activities that supersede normal boundaries, slapstick
exaggerates performance to achieve humorous satisfaction. Five occurrences were observed in
the selected episodes. For instance, one character contorted the face beyond the limits of
normalcy. In yet another scene, an alien invited to take part in a cultural dance was observed to
be overly gyrating the hindquarters with a view to impress the audience. The excess physical
force evinced varied degrees of admiration from the audience who rewarded the performer with
laughter. Closely connected to this is the frolicking as one joyously massages the tummy as an
indication of wealth. This fabrication excites the assemblage who applauds at the peculiarity of
the joke. In a parallel show, one falls down to dramatize how one proposes to a short woman.
Lastly, this research identified the removal of the outer garments as a way of creating humor.
Realizing that the tie was worn on a sleeveless shirt, the audience bursts into laughter.

4.4 SATIRE IN CHURCHILL SHOW

6According to Vonnegut (2010), slapstick involves crazy and laughable actions in which a character may go to the
extremes of removing clothes to make the audience roasted in laughter.

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Satire has characterized comedy for a long time. According to Hiet (2015), satire refers to a
situation where a section of society or politics is deliberately mimicked and mocked in order to
poke fun at them and point criticism using humor. In one scene, a character satirizes the lack of
tissue paper in parliament washrooms. Hon. Duale runs into Muthama who refuses to give a
piece because he has the oppositions. This begets hilarity considering current affairs. By
mocking the Coalition Government regime as one in which one would not pick money
underscores the hard economic times in Kibaki government as opposed to the previous era. This
weakness is exposed by a comedian in a light moment. Other instances were those involving key
phrases like kumbafu, mafi ya kuku and bure which exposed the flaws of our president in
humorous ways.

4.5 OTHER SOURCES OF HUMOUR IN CHURCHILL SHOW

The selected episodes were not devoid of general sources of humor admissible to any audience
irrespective of geographical setting or ethnicity. This paper considers such utterances ingenious
overflow of thoughts necessary in brewing laughter. Most of the general sources were attributed
to fashion, love and relationships, education, environment, technology, politics, religion and
business. It is the view of this paper not to keenly discuss the discourse of these items as there is
no peculiarity except for their skillful craftsmanship that can be evidenced elsewhere in the
world.

Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is apparent that Kenyan comedy uses varied degrees of humor
types. Going by the computed percentages of the studied items, the results find ethnic
stereotyping very prevalent in Kenyan comedy. Although many scholarly attempts have studied
comedy in Kenya, no formal efforts have revealed the comparative enormity of tribal jibes in
relation to other genres. The paper concludes that ethnic stereotyping is a dangerous vice even if
indulged in humorous doses. The paper recommends that Kenyan comedians should transit the
comic niche characterized by ethnic jokes to neutral or general humor that does not border on
labeling in the society.

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