Making Sense of the Pandemic: Kenyan Covid-19 Jokes and Online Liveness

Abstract

Abstract The words, the phrases, and the faces of those delivering news regarding the Covid-19 pandemic from the Ministry of Health—new cases, number of deaths, number of recoveries, and efforts towards “flattening the curve”—became a routine television feature in Kenya. This drove Kenyans to adapt to an abnormal situation as the new norm. Kenyan comedians, especially Eric Omondi, built their jokes around the personalities that delivered the Covid-19 messaging and the expectations and fears of Kenyans regarding the effects of these special Covid-19 announcements. This article, in contrast to the extant literature’s treatment of ethno-centric humour, seeks to explore online jokes surrounding the Ministry of Health’s Covid-19 announcements and the monthly presidential addresses, as expressed by Eric Omondi, a Kenyan comedian. The aim is to understand how Kenyans made sense of the pandemic through the creation of incongruous humour.