If you watched Churchill Live yesterday, then you probably were incensed at the amount of bleeping of certain words the comedians were saying. Turns out that there was an order from the Communications Commission of Kenya that any joke touching on tribe, religion or sex not be allowed on television.
If you were keen enough, you noticed the bleeping happened just as the comedian was about to mention a tribe, like the Luo, Kikuyu or Kisii, and so from now on, expect some new kinds of jokes.
CCK has ordered that only “general family jokes” be aired and anything else be discarded or censored. This is pretty much the end of Kenyan stand-up comedy as we know it.
Our comedians cannot go a minute without blithering about a tribal joke and so censoring them on that, will be tantamount to censoring African American comedians from using the ‘F’ or ‘N’ word. It will be interesting to watch how the comedians adapt to the new rules and even better, to see the kind of “general family jokes” they will use in their acts.
Comments