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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