I was actually online when the blog post that put Basket Mouth on the hot seat
over his seemingly innocuous rape joke went viral. Within minutes, the
comedian had come under fire for that joke, with many people calling for
Glo’s removal of his endorsement amongst other penalties.
Since then, Basket Mouth
has tweeted a half-hearted apology to his fans, saying – as I recall –
that he would stop making rape jokes and start joking about underage
marriage. Many people found the apology insulting, and the drizzle
turned to a rainstorm.
Now, a week later, Basket Mouth has graced us with a full discourse on
the subject. He was recently on the show Live@Battersea on Vox Africa,
UK, and he spoke at length on the sensitive topic.
“Definitely I am sorry about what happened. The people that it
offended…I won’t say the people that misunderstood but the people that
it offended,” he began to the attentive talk show host, Adesope Olajide.
But this thing has limited the kind of jokes I can tell, the (sad) comedian lamented.
“Sadly, every joke hits people the wrong way. If I crack jokes about
food, there are people in third world countries saying, ‘Why is he
cracking jokes about food? Have I chop na?’ They will just go on twitter
and say ‘This guy should stop cracking jokes about food, I haven’t
eaten’.”
He maintained, however, that comedians have the power to crack jokes without restriction, or limits.
“No. If you’re a comedian, you have the power to crack jokes because the
truth is, humour has no limits. You can crack jokes about death,
living, anything you want to crack jokes about. Humour has its own
education that sends a message. Everything is funny. Everything in life
is funny; there is humour in everything that we do.”
To Basket Mouth, the only limit to the type of joke he should be able to crack is his audience.
“For me, the only thing that limits me is if I go for a church event I
won’t crack any joke that has any X in it. Then if I go for an event
where everyone is drinking and drunk with their wives, I’m not going to
be cracking jokes about Noah and Solomon, I have to crack a joke that
suits them. I crack my jokes according to the audience. So that’s my
limit. I limit myself according to the audience, but when it comes to
jokes there shouldn’t be any limit. But because of the culture and
everything, you have to respect the fact that people might find it
offensive and just hold back.”
AND THE RAINSTORM BECAME A HOLOCAUST!!
If Basket Mouth was hoping Nigeria was going to rise up in adulation and
adoration and – in one weepy emotional moment of hormonal uncertainty –
chant “Family, family, we are one!” he must have been disappointed to
see the comments most people had for his talk show interview.
On Bella Naija, a Fatimah commented simple, “He doesn’t get it.
Chigbo went full superlatives with his own comment: “Wrong!!!!!!! You
cannot crack jokes about everything. Everything is NOT funny! You have a
brain, a conscience and a heart.”
Basket Mouth may have smiled, however, at the comment from Mide, who
said “Some topics are inconvenient, we know. Yet we need to be reminded,
from time to time, and by comedians and in a lighthearted manner to
make us uncomfortable. Rape is one of those topics. Censorship by a mob
of moralists and who do not value the redeeming qualities of the arts
should never be allowed.”
Wonder what I think about the whole thing? Well, rape is rape, and a
joke is a joke. While I’m sure Basket Mouth meant no harm (surely) to
the ladyfolk with his joke, rape is still a sensitive issue for people,
especially given the social attention it has been getting lately (hello,
India.)
That said, most ‘jokes’ are inappropriate, if we get right down to it.
If we put a ban on inappropriate jokes – which are basically most of the
really funny jokes – we may end up with a really, really, sober and sad drinking population.
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