A
comedian, Bright Okpocha, popularly known as Basketmouth, on Friday said that
adoption of Pidgin English on stage by Nigerian comedians had limited their
reach and popularity.
Basketmouth
told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that many comedians would have
gotten international fame and recognition if they were entertaining in English.
He said
that Nigerian comedians also needed to step up their game in order to be
globally competitive.
``One of
the problems we have right now in the industry and which makes it difficult to
break out of our cultural background and society is the language barrier.
``Ninety
per cent of our Nigerian comedians entertain their audience in Pidgin English
and which limits their reach.
``You
can only break even in Liberia, Ghana and Sierra-Leone, all English speaking
West African countries, but can’t go beyond that in Francophone countries.
``So, if
you continue being lazy as a comedian and not striving to be universal with
your materials, you are going nowhere.
``Joke
is a joke, as long as you don’t make it too cultural because nobody in America,
with the right audience, knows about the Warri people or the Yoruba people or
Hausa.
``So
create your jokes and even more universal which is the major problem we have
right now.
``This
is the reason why South Africans can break into the Western world because of
the fact that they deliver their jokes in English and their structure is better
than ours.
``In
Nigeria, the entertainment is massive, but with no structure, ``he said.
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