The Linguistic Construction of Ethnic Stereotypes in Nigerian Comedy: A Critical Analysis of Jokes About Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa Communities

This study presents a critical linguistic analysis of ethnic stereotypes as constructed in Nigerian comedy texts, focusing specifically on jokes targeting Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa communities across stand-up performances, online videos, and comedy skits produced between 2020 and 2024. Ethnic humour in Nigeria is pervasive and socially normalised, yet its linguistic construction and potential contribution to stereotyping and interethnic relations has not been formally examined in recent scholarship. The research adopts a critical discourse analysis methodology informed by the Benign Violation Theory of humour and the linguistics of stereotyping. A corpus of 200 comedy texts was collected from YouTube, Instagram, and publicly documented stage performances, and analysed for the linguistic strategies used to construct ethnic character types, including lexical choices, prosodic exaggeration, phonological caricature, and narrative framing. Findings reveal three primary stereotype construction mechanisms: phonological caricature of accent features associated with each ethnic group, behavioural attribution through narrative recurrence, and semantic association of each community with a fixed set of cultural traits. The analysis documents significant asymmetries in how the three communities are stereotyped, with economic stereotypes dominating Igbo representation and religious and political stereotypes dominating Hausa characterisation. The study contributes to the critical linguistics of humour and ethnic relations in Nigeria and recommends media literacy education addressing the social implications of ethnic comedy discourse. Keywords: ethnic stereotypes, Nigerian comedy, critical discourse analysis, humour, interethnic relations.