There is a particular kind of humiliation in being known when your life is not in the best of shape. Abati Oldtaker knows this. The third episode strips a man who once had the confidence of a big boy of the money and puts him in front of people who might recognize the original version of himself.
The term "old taker" is part of Nigerian slang. As simple as it sounds, the term refers to a person who used to have money. Inevitably, there is humor in this term, although, not very friendly. An old taker has history. He used to spend lavishly, live well, or, at the very least, convince many people that he lived well. The issue is that history does not pay today's bills.
This is the dilemma of Abatiade's Oldtaker.
In Episode 3, he finds himself distressed and then questioned about why he is outside an estate. This is definitely not a glamorous entrance. Oldtaker looks like a man who has just had a bad day. However, the world does not really care about what exactly happened. Suspicions come first; explanations will follow.
The episode touches upon something that the series sometimes manages to grasp quite well: poverty alters the way in which people are perceived. If you stand outside the wrong building, looking comfortably off, nobody pays attention. If you look distressed, all of a sudden, you require an explanation. Oldtaker, naturally, reacts in indignation. His pride is remarkably intact; not much else seems to be the case.
That pride accompanies him to work.
Customers are hard to deal with, money is disputable, and disagreements are transformed into confrontations. The POS hustle is a source of most jokes in the episode. Transfers and service charges are discussed with the seriousness of a national budget. Everybody wants to save money, and everybody wants to make money. The unfortunate person standing between these two opposing desires is Oldtaker.
None of this is very new territory for Nigerian online comedy. Years of documenting POS agents, broke big boys, billing, and endless inventiveness required to get by without a steady salary have resulted in dozens of episodes. Episode 3 cannot be credited for any discovery. At worst, it repeats familiar jokes louder than others.
And there is lots of shouting.
Abatiade's acting style relies on reaction. Oldtaker never accepts an insult if there is an opportunity to turn it into an argument. Questions are turned into accusations; accusations are turned into speeches. This strategy works in short bits, especially if the character is defending a reputation which no longer corresponds with his current situation. However, some scenes just will not stop. Joke comes, introduces itself, and hangs out while characters keep on shouting.
More ruthless editing was needed.
Episode 3 becomes much more interesting when Oldtaker meets people from his past. Here, besides aggression, we see his panic. Recognition is a threat. These are people who might remember him with money and status or at least with the appearance of both. His first response is denial.
It is the episode's best joke because it is also its most uncomfortable observation.
Oldtaker does not only dislike being broke. He dislikes the idea of being known as such. There is a difference. One is a financial problem, the other is a social crisis.
For a character ready to argue with any stranger, Oldtaker becomes remarkably shaken when faced with his own past. The past becomes an unwanted witness. Old relationships and faces are threatening to reveal the gap between the man Oldtaker thinks he is and the man who is trying to survive in the service job and with POS transactions.
The series could use this more. Instead, it often retreats to noise whenever a quieter joke begins to take place. There is a more acute comedy hidden in the situation of Oldtaker, a comedy about status, male pride and exhausting Nigerian performance of having money. Episode 3 glimpses it but does not believe in it.
The supporting cast, which includes Malvin Tokunbo, Mideon Ifade, Habeeb Alagbe, Iyadabira TV and Mimisola Daniels, is mainly used as an obstacle. They question Oldtaker, irritate him, or remind him of things he would rather forget. Very few get enough time to become an interesting character away from the main character.
This makes the episode feel less like an ensemble comedy and more like a series of attacks on one man's dignity. Fortunately, Oldtaker's dignity proves to be unusually strong.
Structurally, Episode 3 remains close to a series of skits than to a tightly structured comedy episode. Problems come, arguments break out, and the story goes to the next one. The structure is easy to understand, but the repetition becomes apparent. Not every argument needs to reach the maximum volume.
However, there is an excellent comedy character at the center of it. Oldtaker's problem is not just that he is having bad days. It is that his ego did not receive an update.
The money is gone; the old image remains.
Episode 3 is funniest when it leaves the facts to co-exist. A former big boy can learn to hustle, run a POS business, cope with customers, and invent other survival strategies. What Oldtaker has not yet learned is how to do it with dignity.
At the moment, his pride is still living in better times.