Way before Maraji made all of us want to ‘e go be’ our day jobs and start Instagram hustles. Or before Lasisi swiped left and found the perfect mouth filter, we had a couple of OG Instagram comedians who, in their own unique ways made all of us laugh and forget it was mobile data and not stole wi-fis we were using to view them.
Most of them started on Vine, the micro-video app and had quite the following before deciding to pivot to video. However, when the Dollar reached 360 naira to $1 and rice prices climbed and climbed to reach 12k a bad, and we needed them the most, some of them vanished. Admittedly, some of them are still very active in the game, but while a lot of wrapper-tying comedians and other stylized comedians have saturated the Instagram comic scene, let’s give respect to whom it is due and remember the very firsts to do it big:
SamTakesOff
At his peak on Vine, he had over a million followers. Currently on Instagram, despite taking a long break from comedy and trying his hands out on music, he still has a considerable following of 58.2k.
Most of his skits had him playing an atypical, disgruntled ass Nigerian dad, quick to light his son at the slightest misstep. A lot of the time, when I was in a bad mood or needed some cheering, his page was always there to cheer me up, one super slap at a time.
Sadly, he has taken a break from skits, even taking all of them from his Instagram page, to focus on school, to fulfill a promise he made to his mom before her sad passing. But don’t weep just yet, he might be making a comeback yet, as seen in this tweet from a couple of weeks ago:
Anyway, let’s thank the internet for keeping his videos for us. Enjoy this quick compilation video of some of SamTakesOff’s best work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_T5Z4aZAEU
DontJealousMe
probably one of the very first internet comedians in Nigeria. He may be directly responsible for lighting the flames for e-comedy over here. He even had a whole animated comedy series on his YouTube page, we stan a trailblazing king. Still very active on social media, dropping hilarious videos on his Instagram page, our fave is a daddy and full-time actor now.
He is currently starring in a Netflix original show alongside Rupert Grint, from Harry Potter, so yes, he is fully blown blown now.
NaijaBoyz
if you didn’t know the words to their Single Ladies remix back in ‘09, what were you doing with your time please? Kings of making the most hilarious, out of pocket remixes to some of the biggest songs, Naija Boys were my favourite go to YouTube page back in the day. And to be honest, these guys put in the work. They rap, sing and shoot full videos for their remixes, we need to put a ton of respek on their names. They were still very active as at two years ago, trying their hands on original music of their own. They’ve been a little quiet since then, but we’re hoping to see more of their good stuff in the future.
Here’s their cover to Rihanna and Drake’s work in whom I am well pleased:
Dulo
Full name Abdulazeem Dulo- was another one of the pioneer stars on Instagram. Currently racking up 739k followers on the platform, he has been consistently cracking us up from way back till this year of our lord 2018. Recently, he made the move to the big screen, and brought his Nigerian dad talents along, starring as Tunde in the TV series- African Booty Scratcher.
Here’s a clip of him doing what he does best, cracking us the hell up.
No introductions necessary, Chief Obi has is one of the OGest, OGs in the Internet comedy game. Dominating Instagram with 307k followers, he’s really one of the biggest in the game. Other people seem to think so, he recently got a $1 million brand ambassadorship deal from Vomoz Flex brand and is currently working his way into the music industry.
Check out this very recent hilarious skit, that I still turn to when I need a good laugh, and appreciate the genius that is Chief Obi.
