Arsenal Football Club has become an unlikely star of the 64th Kenya National Drama and Film Festival — not for glory, but as the favorite punchline for student performers roasting the English Premier League side’s notorious trophy drought.
Held at Kagumo Diploma Teachers Training College in Nyeri, the festival saw creative routines across stand-up comedy, plays, and film all taking aim at the “Gunners” and their supporters’ painful emotional investment.
A Chuka Boys High School comedian brought down the house by asking a ministry official whether they had ever witnessed an Arsenal trophy win, a question that needs no answer for football fans.
Shimo La Tewa High School’s play, The Jackpot, featured a character losing everything after betting on Arsenal, while the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication’s film Madueke symbolized the club’s “near-miss” culture that has become painfully familiar to supporters.
The jokes tap into the intense rivalries among Kenyan fans who back Manchester United, Chelsea, and Manchester City. While social media often debates the merits of second-place finishes, the festival provided a unifying moment of levity for all.
Despite Arsenal’s starring role in the roast, the festival maintained its reputation for serious, high-quality performance. Mount Kenya University was crowned overall winner, while Dagoretti High School’s Tikiti dance tackled chaos in local soccer. The event also featured the heavily debated, court-reinstated play Echoes of War.
The festival has long been a platform for social commentary, and this year’s recurring Arsenal jokes reflect how global football culture has deeply embedded itself into Kenyan youth expression, sometimes with hilarious results.
For Arsenal fans in Kenya, the festival was a reminder that some wounds never heal, and that laughter might be the only therapy. For everyone else, it was simply entertaining. As for the trophy question? The silence from the Gunners’ section said it all.