Entertaining impoliteness in Isbae U’s <i>curiosity made me ask</i> series

Entertaining impoliteness has not been sufficiently explored in Nigerian literature. This study, therefore, examines verbal aggression in ‘Curiosity made me ask’, a Nigeria-centric and YouTube-based interview series where no topic is off-limits. Hosted by Adebayo Ridwan Abidemi, better known as Isbae U, the provocative yet entertaining show combines bold, cheeky, and sarcastic messages to drive irreverent and unfiltered humour that pushes boundaries. The qualitative research approach served as the study’s methodological guide. Relevant excerpts were drawn from 10 purposively selected episodes of the sampled interview series. Culpeper’s entertaining impoliteness served as the study’s analytical guide. The findings indicate that Isbae U and his guests in the series employ Culpeper’s impoliteness super strategies: bald-on-record impoliteness, positive impoliteness, negative impoliteness, mock or sarcasm, and withholding politeness for performance and entertainment purposes. The study adds to existing studies on entertaining impoliteness in the global context generally but also broadens understanding and appreciation of the interview series within the Nigerian context. The study concludes that there should be further research into the multimodality of digital talk shows, focusing on how facial and editing features work together to create entertaining impoliteness.