Distance as a dramatic phenomenon cannot exist without differentiating levels. A piece of performance or a dramatic enactment attains its meaning in audience’s perception through certain strategies which a playwright or director applies in order to manipulate ideas, opinions, images, information and similar subjectivities with dramatic distancing. As a piece of pungent satire and burlesque comedy, Wole Soyinka’s latest play King Baabu (2001) is interspersed with both emotionally disturbing and highly amusing situations, thus constantly modulating the levels of dramatic distancing for its audience/readers. In this paper, it will be revealed how by constantly readjusting audience expectations (levels of involvement) of a performance, including its themes, characters and ideology, Soyinka modulates the cognitive and emotional levels of his audience/readers. However, by doing so he creates an effective distanced position, whereby they can both enjoy the performance emotionally and remain cognitively alert to the critical issues raised.