Unpacking discursive strategies of humour and social commentary in selected skits of Adigun Alawada

Abstract

Social commentary, the act of using rhetorical means to provide commentary on social, cultural, political, or economic issues in a society conducted through the lens of humour, has received extensive attention from Nigerian academics. Nonetheless, there is a paucity of studies on social commentary and humour capturing multimodal features. The study fills this gap by undertaking a multimodal analysis that explores humour and social commentary in selected skits by Adigun Alawada on Instagram. Henri Bergson’s (1900) Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic, Norris' (2004) multimodal interaction analysis, and multimodal discourse analysis by Kress & van Leeuwen (2001) served as the study’s theoretical guide. Data were collected through the purposive sampling method and subjected to discursive analysis. Using the approaches, the study deconstructs how Alawada re-signifies mundane objects and practices into potent signs of economic precarity, gendered norms, and public health concerns. The findings demonstrate five principal thematic classifications in Adigun Alawada’s skits, including Nigerians performing religion for survival, marrying right, maternal credit in success narratives, laziness and work ethics, and advocating for healthy living. This study showcases the contemporary relevance of Henri Bergson’s theory while expanding the scope of Norris’s multimodal interaction theory applicability. The study recommends that further studies on other humourists using multimodal methods to deepen understanding of social commentary and humour in the digital space should be conducted.