Dar es Salaam, March 2 -- It began, as all great Tanzanian things do, with a loud announcement, a little controversy and a pile of cash big enough to make even the dourest mzee consider a career change to comedy.

The Tanzania Comedy Awards (TCA) arrived like an Instagram Bongo Flava beef, with a whole lot of sparkles and laughter that would flow like free beer in a village wedding.

The stakes? Outlandishly high! 30 million shillings for Best Comedian of the Year — so large an amount that even tax collectors were threatening to quit their professions.

Best Male and Best Female Comedian got 20 million shillings each, just to keep the gender equality in financial comicality.

And then a cool 5 million shillings to ...