These six ‘Famalam’ comedy sketches have over 100m combined views

Black sketch comedy has taken centre stage in 2020, with HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show nominated for three Emmys and BBC3’s Famalam up for a Bafta, with Nigerian star and co-creator Gbemisola Ikumelo competing for Best Female Performance in a Comedy.

Season 3 of Famalam

Season 3 of Famalam is now streaming first on Showmax and it’s as funny as ever. See some of the viewers’ favourite aunties handle their nephew coming out, discover Nollywood’s ‘finest’, check out Idris Elba’s skill set (Idris Elba can do anything!), watch the rudest Midsomer Murders ever, catch up with the Nigerian prince who no one emails back, and see two cartels going to war – over the booming avocado trade… 

The Independent (UK) praises Famalam as “a sublime achievement of satire,” saying, “Like all the best sketch shows, Famalam is a mix of comforting recurring characters and scenes, but tweaked with a delightful and clever wit on every outing.” Similarly, The Guardian hails Famalam as “quickfire, playful comedy, rooted in the black British experience.”

Directed by Tom Marshall (Chewing Gum, Ted Lasso), Famalam earned writer-producer Akemnji Ndifornyen a BAFTA Breakthrough Talent award and Samson Kayo nominations for Best Comedy Performance at both the BAFTAs and the Royal Television Society Awards.

Teaser sketches from the show have gone viral repeatedly on Facebook Watch, where just these six videos already have over 100 million combined views.

• Turf Wars (over 30m views on Facebook Watch)
• There Is No White Jesus (over 28m views on Facebook Watch)
• When Someone Doesn’t Like Beyoncé (over 21m views on Facebook Watch)
• Coming Out To Your Auntie (over 13m views on Facebook Watch)
• Idris Elba Can Do Anything (over 7m views on Facebook Watch)
• When The Sassy Black Friend Has Enough (over 5m views on Facebook Watch)

The Famalam team predominantly pokes fun at the black experience in England. But, with a cast that includes a Nigerian (Ikumelo), an Ivorian (Tom Moutchi), and London-born cast of Ghanain  (Vivienne Acheampong) and Cameroonian (Ndifornyen) heritage, the comedy also often feels distinctly African. 

Ndifornyen isn’t interested in being pigeonholed though: he wants to get everyone laughing. “I apply the Family Guy model of laughs: that nothing and no one is sacrosanct,” Ndifornyen told The Royal Television Society. “So, while my name is one of the blackest, most African names you can ever find, and, when I cross my mother’s threshold, I’m in Cameroon, the reality is that there are some aspects of life that we all encounter. Love, relationships, aliens – we’ll cover it all.”

Laughing at yourself…

This season, for example, the show also mocks White People Chicken and explores the universally relatable dangers of leaving WhatsApp groups, the emotional impact of realising your friend has been faking his LOL replies, and annoying friends who try to stop conversations when there’s a spoiler involved. No matter your background, Famalam will quickly have you laughing at yourself. 

If you still need more laughs – and who doesn’t this year? – also check out two other ground-breaking black sketch comedies on Showmax – the Emmy-nominated A Black Lady Sketch Show and the Peabody Award-winning Random Acts of Flyness, which both have 100% critics ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.