Humour offers an accessible mode through which such sentiments are represented, as it favours the agency of the less powerful and highlights their capabilities in the face of adversity and extremely powerful political forces, even if it does not always lead to substantive change in the precise moment it takes place. The ways in which humour can aid people to re-frame and re-think their own roles and agency within society is in and of itself its own form of power. This is exemplified in the forms of jokes designed to ridicule power like the following which circulated in Nigeria about former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, in which he received information that the United Nations wanted to honour him by commissioning a statue to be erected in his honour at the nation’s capital, Abuja. He was elated when he heard the information and he quickly agreed to pose for a photograph from which his sculpted image would be made. As the people were getting the instruments ready, he heard someone mention that the United Nations had made a budget of five hundred million dollars for the project, and he immediately halted all discussions in order to get clarifications:

This is an example of some of the political jokes that Nigerian comedians performed during Obasanjo’s time in office to humorously characterize some of the criticisms surrounding his persona and government. The changes and transformation humour can bring does not simply ‘happen’, but rather reflect a culmination of mundane, yet often significant encounters with those in power. This is reflected in political humour – and any resistance it may or may not demonstrate. Such fleeting moments of humour, however, still constitute political work and the accrual of these moments are important.

Ultimately, narratives transmitted through humour and satire over time are ‘dynamic, continual and shifting negotiation of ideas of power, resistance and dissent … the narrative through which leaders are mocked or ridiculed may be viewed as resulting in a simultaneous reification of elite power and critique thereof ‘ (Hammett, 2010a, p 15).