The VJ emerged as the perfect, ingenious solution, originating from a practice dating back to the colonial era when Christian evangelists would give someone a microphone to translate a sermon into a local language. By the 1980s, this evolved into the "video joker". Sitting at the front of a video hall with a microphone and sound mixer, the VJ talks over the original film, explaining its plot and paraphrasing the dialogue in Luganda. The VJ is often more of a draw for audiences than the film itself, and they are widely considered Uganda's most sought-after entertainers.