On the Lighter Side – Comedy the Bajan Way

I celebrated my 1,500th page read earlier this month. 🎆Thank you for the support. Shout out to a reader/readers from Anguilla, the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates and Belgium. Hope you will visit often.

In my last post, I promised the possibility of Bajan-made movies. There are so many but the vernacular is mostly used and for non-Barbadians, there is no translation so it may get lost. Still, I found a few comic clips that seem suitable to share. I hope you enjoy.

First up is the late Alfred Pragnell, a local actor and first-rate story teller. In this clip he begins with a couple of jokes and ends with a poetical piece by an esteemed Barbadian writer, the late Jeanette Layne-Clarke. 

                 Alfred Pragnell – Some Bajan Jokes – Keeping Bajan Time [Source: Bajanbloom Bloom, 2010]

Then there is the duo, Rum & Koke (a play on the name of a popular drink mixing Barbadian rum and Coca-Cola). They were regulars in the cast of Laff-It-Off, a troupe with an annual comic production usually poking fun at social and political events of the day. In this live performance using comedy and mime, Rum & Koke joke about the trouble men get into when their "outside woman" (i.e. the other woman) calls their cell-phone. They also contrast how women and men park their cars. I must confess I do often have to make more than one attempt when reversing – but I don't usually crash into anything.😃 

           Rum & Koke Barbados – Cell phones and parking [Source: Rum and Koke Barbados, January 2017]

The final comic piece is a song from the 2016 Crop Over season from Madd – a group that has been around for a couple of decades...and you can tell from the size of "PC Broomes' pot-belly" (the man in peaked cap who is parodying a police constable). They began their comic presentations right after school and although they have "day jobs" they produce a calypso tent, Bacchanal Time, at Crop Over and they operated a clothing store, Up Beat (which is still in operation, however I cannot say if they are still the principals). 

This song is intended to discourage Barbadians from littering and it addressed a popular news and social media controversy over a school girl who refused to pick up a piece of litter at her school upon a teacher's instructions. Everyone had something to say about it. This was Madd's approach.

                                              Madd – Pick It Up Crop Over 2016 [Source: KING PIN, 2016] 

In terms of film clips, as the Bajan accent may be challenging I am sharing a beautiful 6-minute feature on Barbados. There are underwater views - the baby turtle heading out to sea is touching. The gorgeous west and east coast views remind me why hundreds of thousands of tourists visit every year. I couldn't be more nationalistic than that.

                                      Barbados movie [Source: GoodTimesCatamaran 2016]

'Til next time...