One of the many casualties of the Coronavirus pandemic has been this year’s Jive Cape Town Comedy Festival. But instead of leaving festival fans hanging with their hand sanitisers and face masks, the DUKE Group created the Jive #5SecondsOfFunny Challenge taking some of Cape Town’s best-loved comedians online for 30 days of short, sharp 5-second comedy snippets. 

Spearheaded by popular funny man Yaaseen Barnes, the Jive #5SecondsOfFunny challenge began with his commitment to tell a 5-second joke on his social media platforms every day for 30 days.  Six other Cape Town comedians, including Rob Van Vuuren and Dalin Oliver amongst others, have also been recruited to take up the challenge and have posted their own 5-second jokes in competition with Barnes.  At the end of each week DUKE has compiled a highlights reel of the best jokes by the comedians along with some entertaining Jive consumers who have added their own jokes to the lineup under the #5SecondsOfFunny banner. The weekly highlights are featured on the Jive social media platforms every week. 

Explains DUKE Creative Director Gareth Cohen, “With the cancellation of Cape Town’s annual winter comedy festival, the Jive #5SecondsOfFunny Challenge was devised not only to help our local comedians, but to also give the local public a humourous distraction during a stressful time. We chose 5 seconds, because we are always told there is a drop-off on views after 5 seconds, so why not turn that into the actual challenge.” 

Adds Barnes, “The lockdown has had a devastating effect on the comedy sector so the Jive online platform has been a fantastic initiative for us to be able to not only keep working, but to remain visible and relevant. And with everyone online at the moment, it’s a great way to connect with our followers and have a laugh in a not-so-funny time.” Other celebrities who have joined the challenge of their accord and  added to the excitement around the campaign include, Nik Rabinowitz, Francois van Coke and Angel Campey. The highlights reels of the Jive #5SecondsOfFunny campaign can be viewed here: Week 1:https://we.tl/t-hOUxUigdlnWeek 2:https://we.tl/t-DUWxnnoBsU Week 3:https://we.tl/t-ft6eAfUhmE