Digital Comedy Skits, Male-to-Female Cross-dressing and Gender Non-conformance in Nigeria

Isaac Alomo (Zicsaloma) is a male comedian whose comedy skits thrive on antinormative gender identities. The non-conforming characters he creates through cross-dressing and demonstrating hyper-femininity in his social media skits have been analysed as laughter-making mechanics. These interpretations align with state-sponsored homophobia in the country, where expressions of gender-crossing identities are considered abnormal and illegal. Conversely, audience engagement with such content in the digital space highlights growing fandom, revealing a discrepancy between legislation and the inadvertent participation of the virtual public in challenging traditional gender norms. This dissonance is examined to show how Zicsaloma centres gender non-conforming identities in his routines in a way that transcends the laughable. Through critical analysis, this paper argues that repeated depictions of non-conforming identities on Nigerian TikTok serve as a performative mediation of taboo subjects, liberating suppressed gender identities within the digital public sphere and humorously challenging homophobia.