Humour plays a huge role in Senegalese culture. We’re a society of multiple ethnicities, which can often create tensions – but our ability to tease each other with sincere affection is a big part of why we all get along together.
Together with Seynabou Thiam at Smart Ecosystem for Women (SEW), we were exploring ways to bring parenthood and wellbeing to the centre of conversations concerned with early childhood. We wondered if humour could help us reach and connect with parents. There’s a cultural taboo around admitting to parenting struggles out loud. We thought comedy might be a way to break through.
Comedy tradition in Senegal has been mostly sketchbased. When we heard that Jordy – a young dad himself – was pioneering a standup scene, we asked him if he’d be interested in developing a routine on fatherhood.
He loved the idea. He scripted jokes about how he struggled to understand his role in supporting his wife during pregnancy, and his experience of his baby’s baptism – a big cultural celebration where fathers can often feel sidelined.
He reflected on how his father parented him, and the differences between generations. Our culture is becoming less patriarchal, and many young men want to do things differently but struggle to know where to find their cues.
The first draft of Jordy’s script was hilarious. But we kept pushing him: can you take it even further? Can you be even more honest, raw and vulnerable? In late October 2025, atop Dakar’s Sama Hotel, in its intimate rooftop restaurant, Jordy rose to the challenge, and the result was not only hilarious but incredibly powerful.
You could feel the power rising from the conversations that followed among the men in the audience. They opened up to each other on the most difficult of subjects, from divorce to dealing with bereavement after losing a baby.
Making people laugh by showing his vulnerability not only demonstrated Jordy’s craft as a comedian – it proved to be a transformative way to create space for young men to have much-needed conversations about becoming fathers.
