The Joke That Raped Basket Mouth

Basket Mouth is a very funny comedian, and one of his funniest features is the ability to make fun of what most comedians don't. I was in UNIBEN when he started, and I nearly laughed my head off during promotions for his first major event in Lagos with Ali Baba. As Teju Babyface mentioned the N1,000 gate fee, Basket Mouth looked so alarmed, he said even he wouldn't part with N1,000 to watch himself.  I bet that must have cost them a few tickets, but it honestly was spontaneous, very funny, and indeed very fresh. Though possibly counter-productive.

I've heard jokes from various Nigerian comedians, which to a large extent are very disgusting to me. The ones which border around ethnicism, and tribalism mostly. It was quite an overwhelming outrage which followed Basket Mouth's joke about dating a Caucasian girl VS dating an African girl, particularly as it ended in "RAPE!!!".

The thing these days, is that there're these people who are hyper-active on Twitter, and every once in a while, they like to test their might, and also the loyalty of their minions. One of them got a hold of a Zimbabwean's rant, and blew it up to what it became this morning. Some of those among the sets of mindless drones that initially liked that comment, were later seen on Twitter castigating same Basket Mouth.

The originator of this beef on Twitter, whom I refuse to glorify with a mention, has finally retweeted Basket Mouth's apology as a trophy to himself. But then, suddenly, this same man has decided to push his luck a bit harder: prevailing on Globacom and GTBank to terminate any endorsement deals they have with the comedian. As much as I'd be pleased to see this outcry sanitize Nigerian comedy, I'd be absolutely irate to see people making this matter into what it isn't.

Rape is a very serious crime, yet oddly enough, this joke has been told by other comedians in other arena, and also previously by this particular Basket Mouth, whose moniker by itself conveys his tendency to unguarded speech. The question which critics and anti-rape activists are not asking themselves however is "DID THE COMEDIAN BASKET MOUTH GLORIFY RAPE?". Although he's tendered an apology, but it's not hard to tell from the tone, that is wasn't in any way heartfelt.

On my part, I'd say Basket Mouth depicted what happens a lot in our society. He didn't say go out and do it. He said this is what happens. What are comedians meant to do? Comedians joke about death, about poverty, disability, tribe, race, hunger, drug abuse, robbery, they even joke about the Devil and Almighty God Himself. Filmmakers do the same, yet, I've not seen such mobilization against a movie that depicts rape, or any of the other ills of life. In fact, Martin Scorsese wins an Oscar award for such.