How My Mother Inspired My Comedy Skits – Taaooma

Popular Nigerian skit maker and content creator, Taaooma, has revealed that her mother and the everyday behaviour of African parents are the biggest inspirations behind the comedy skits that made her famous.

Speaking with TheCable during the United States Mission in Nigeria’s 250th Independence Day celebration in Lagos, Taaooma admitted that while she sometimes runs out of creative ideas, she always finds a way to refresh herself.

According to her, most of her content comes from observing her mother and the funny habits of African parents.

She said she simply takes those real-life experiences and adds her own creative touch.

“It’s not like I don’t run out of ideas, but I obviously recoup and rejuvenate.

“But one of the major sources of my ideas is my mother and daily African parents, what they do and how they do their stuff.

“I just take the ideas and put my own spice on them. If you sit down and think about the things your mum does, there are so many funny and crazy things.”

Taaooma also explained that she is careful about the kind of content she consumes because it directly affects her creativity.

“I don’t just consume any kind of content. I consume things that I know will inspire me, things that are good for my brain, not just brainwash content,” she said.

The comedian also spoke about the origin of her popular character, Quadri, revealing that the role was never meant to become a recurring character.

According to her, she initially created Quadri for an advertisement or simply because she needed another neutral character. However, after noticing how much fans loved the character, she decided to keep using it.

She described Quadri as a typical Ilorin boy who is bold, rebellious and never afraid to speak his mind.

“I think I created the character for an advert or maybe I just needed another neutral character. When I did it, I realised people liked it.

“Quadri is just a regular Ilorin boy. They’re very rebellious. They can insult you. They don’t take nonsense. That’s just the Quadri character. Everybody has a Quadri character in their life.”

Taaooma dismissed claims that she intentionally creates characters to represent different ethnic groups across Nigeria.

She said her characters develop naturally rather than through deliberate planning.

“Even if I am intentional about putting Nigeria on the map with my content, I don’t think that part has been very intentional.

“I don’t sit down and say, ‘Let me pick a character from this region or that region.’ I just do it according to how it comes.”

Taaooma, whose real name is Apaokagi Maryam, rose to fame through comedy skits where she plays multiple characters inspired by everyday Nigerian family life. She welcomed her first child with her husband, filmmaker Abula, in 2024 and has continued expanding her career in filmmaking and digital entertainment.