Comedy in Nigeria, like telecoms and pure water, has been one of the rapid explosions in the social fabric of Nigeria and in particular Lagos. It is one of those things that we never really saw coming or believed could happen. Yet, just like mobile phones and those nasty plastic sachets that block many a drain in our cleaner and greener Lagos, we woke up and they were all over the place. They came in all shapes and sizes, of both genders and many hues, though strangely with a disproportionate number of waffi boys representing on the stage (must be something in the water). Like local musicians, they also have been embraced by the Nigerian public, though without the same level of adulation as master MC Ik aka Wildchild is often wont to complain about.
For some reason, pidgin English has been come the lingua franca of the trade, understood and accepted by all strata of society. This has brought about a very distinct local flavour to Nigerian comedy, still our comedians have delivered their material with a wit and intelligence that has pushed the boundaries but still remained generally respectful of their audiences. Sure, often the practitioners trade each others jokes and sometimes sound more local that they really are for authenticity; nevertheless they have fully established themselves as a key ingredient in the local entertainment scene, and are now exporting their craft to wider audiences.
So you can imagine our shock when at a recent comedy show we had to endure not one but three comedians that made jokes of various degrees of crassness about rape. And not in a sympathetic way either! The subject matter of the jokes varied slightly but the end result was that they all trivialised the all to real phenomenon of women being violated. What will be next Lagos? Jokes about child molestation? We had experienced this only once before, when a ex-comedian turned politician who came back for a cameo decided that jesting about women being violated by armed robbers was something the Lagos audience might find amusing. We had hoped it was a one off, but being one of the elder statesmen of the art, some of the younger pretenders seemed to have gained confidence from the fact he was not reprimanded and have now launched their own verbal assaults. Anyone who has been unfortunate enough to be connected in anyway with sexual assault or molestation will attest that only the truly depraved can find such a horror amusing.
So Lagos, the next time one any comedian mounts any of our local stages to spout such vitriol, please join us and resoundingly boo them off the stage.
Otherwise, how is your weekend going Lagos?
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