Laughter from broken English

If someone wanted to laugh to a joke, they ought to make sense out of it, even if it were a bad joke, it really has to be bad enough to earn the sense of fun in someone.

For 22 year old Tana Harawa, the jokes stem from colorfully combined words in broken English and this just pokes fun in people.

At the moment, Harawa who says he has done about 20 clips has received what he terms as overwhelming feedback from the fan base he is abruptly creating for himself.

But what might have been the source of the idea to go for a stand-up comedy form that involves usage of broken English?  Harawa says it is a long story drawn to a time when he did the sentences in broken English along with his cousin before their aunt laughed them off subsequently calling them mad.

‘’I then recorded a few voice clips and sent them to a few friends. They then went viral and people started asking for more. I later made a brand out of it,’’ Harawa told Malawi24 this week.

In his clips, Harawa tackles highly contested issues by making fun out of them and telling his stand by lining up words that do not match in terms of subject verb agreement and also pronunciations.

He creates his own way of pronouncing words such that by confusing someone, he also leaves them wondering what he might have meant.

At the moment, Harawa who is in third year studying Journalism and Mass Communication at the Pentecostal Life University in Lilongwe flies most of his fresh projects in videos unlike in the past when he used audios only.

“I could not upload audios to Facebook and Instagram, so the switch now meant that I was able through the videos to demonstrate in action what I was talking about,” he says adding that he does not have scripts for the projects but goes ‘free styling’ while sticking to issues in the topic under which the clip dwells on.

On his assessment of stand-up comedy in Malawi, Harawa believes the country is making notable strides in this field.

He says that it is only a challenge that comedy is not being fully supported as other acts of art, but argues that with the likes of comedian Daliso Chaponda flying Malawi’s flag high, this form of art is certainly not on the verge of dying.

Asked on an argument that use of broken English sends a wrong message of the nation he said: ‘’To me using broken English is normal and good because it is like I have reduced the gap between the literate and illiterate. People are able to get the message while putting a smile on their faces,” he told this reporter while indicating that he intends to study Performing Arts in a bid to bolster his skill and talent.

Harawa’s brief videos have been trending on social media over the recent period. He has since indicated that his fans need to brace for more laughter this year. He says he will be organising a show where one of Africa’s to stand-up comedian will be the headliner.

Malawians just have over the years been kept in the shadows of stand-up promoting nations such as Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria.

Funny videos of comedians from these nations are not a strange discussion among Malawians but day by day the artistry being deployed by the likes of Harawa are throwing the usual to the ground.