Behind Keemokazi’s Humour

Photo from Wikifamouspeople:

Keemokazi’s tiktok is the FUNNIEST channel I’ve watched on TikTok. If you haven’t binged watched all of his clips, please do so now. I’ve done it at least twice.

But the real star of the video? His short-tempered, fire-tongued Arab mother.

Kareem’s most successful videos follow a pattern. First, Kareem shocks mom. Then, she’s enraged, along with an inevitable “I’NA A NA ABOUK” (which means ‘curse your father’ in Arabic).

Both LOVE the pranks

Despite the appearance of shock and stress, both Keemokazi and mum love the jokes. Kareem loves it because he loves provoking his mother. Her anger and whooping are signs of motherly affection and love. Mum loves it too because his pranks rejuvenate her and make her less serious. They probably relieve stress too, even with her torrent of threats and “I SWEAR TO GOD”s.

Actually, she ends up doing just this in one of his pranks from March 13th (just watch the video).

To summarize it, Kareem startles his mum inside her car. But mum’s reaction is not the usual shock – swear – whooping patter. Instead, after the initial shock, she closes her eyes and pretends to faint. 

Kareem’s laughs and smile quickly turn to worry and dread. You can literally see his smile drain from his face. He pleads “are you kidding? Mama, are you kidding? Mama?”

And just before a smile slips out, she shocks HIM: “GOT YOU ASSHOLE” she screams before proceeding to whoop him.

This proves three things: that Kareem cares deeply for his mom, cares for her reactions, and lastly, that mum knows who really has the power in the prank.

Kareem plays with his mother’s fragility when he reveals how easy it is to get a rise from her. By pranking her over and over again, he calls her to take herself, along with her son, less seriously. And of course, watching a mother justifiably yell at her son for shocking her is extremely entertaining.

Behind his parents’ wealth

Keemokazi also happens to be very wealthy. At least that’s what all of his ‘flexes‘ suggest. He has a waterpark in his backyard, a larger-than-average crib, and a whole room full of spices. The source of this wealth is probably his parents. His dad is a general manager at Randy’s Auto Sales, a used luxury car dealership in California. That explains why Kareem can drive around in a Rolls Royce and why they own such fabulous cars. They also have a maid (or maybe a cooking coach?) named Mary who speaks Spanish. I wouldn’t be surprised if his mom ran a successful fashion or lifestyle blog.

There’s nothing wrong with being wealthy. In fact, if you’re able to immigrate to a new country and then succeed beyond belief (as Keemokazi’s parents seem to have done), then I’d respect you. But there’s one critique I have of Keemokazi’s videos. Even though I laugh while watching the videos, a part of me dislikes that he makes fun of his parents’ wealth.

Here’s what I mean.

Kareem angers his mom whenever he breaks an egg or a mug or a glass on the floor, or when he soaks her couch, carpet, or bed with water. Mom’s anger is a sign to me that she does not like it when Kareem breaks her things. Perhaps she finds waste abhorrent because (like my parents) she knows how hard she had to work to buy that mug/couch/carpet/egg/glass in the first place.

This doesn’t seem to be the case. To get back at him, or when she punishes him, she also wastes things in the process. For example, after Kareem broke a glass, she threw one back at him to … retaliate? Surely, if she valued the glass or the mug or the egg, she would not throw them back. But she throws them anyways. Therefore, she doesn’t value the objects.

Through his jokes, Kareem perforates his mom’s supposed concern for the possessions in the house. He reveals that her anger stems not from seeing her hard-earned possessions being broken, but rather, seeing her son misbehave. If mum really cared about the objects, then she would 1) take away the fuel from his fire by not paying any attention to him when he dares to break another thing, and 2) not break or waste things in the process of beating him up. Neither of these two things are true, and it’s this point that makes his videos so funny.

To sum it all up, Keemokazi’s greatest flex may be the fact that he can break things over and over again and get away with it.

So, Keemokazi, keep up the videos! They’re hilarious and uplifting. You have a keen ability to pick out where someone is merely an actor, and it’s this that makes your videos so funny.

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