Comedy Debate Re-ignited

When is Ghana going to have a comedy industry with many good comedians who can make a cavernous auditorium packed to the gills, laugh till they get their ribs fractured? The issue of Ghana not having many good stand-up comedians has come so many times on various platforms and it seems there haven't been any proper answers and solutions to this problem. The only solution people bask in proffering is: “Ghanaian comedians are not funny.”

The issue is not about taking our pens to write or opening our mouths in 360 degrees to say the stand up comedians we have in Ghana are not 'comedians' or not funny. We need to look at how we can make the comedy industry better than it is today.


I know many people have blamed Charterhouse for killing stand-up comedy in Ghana, not because they are the body set by powers that be to oversee the well being of comedy and are not doing it; people bash them for not helping Ghanaian stand-up comedy because of the legions of Nigerian comedians they parade on their Night of Laughs and Music platforms.

Well, I am aware of the fact that Charterhouse is a business entity that needs to venture into activities that will earn it proceeds so it is able to keep the business running but I have a philosophy that is used in solving situations when it gets to the crunch. I call it the 'sacrifice-to-save' philosophy.

Jesus Christ had to sacrifice his life to save the world from its iniquities without thinking about the pain he would go through in doing so. He went through trials and tribulations in dying to save the world. Mahatma Gandhi, Malcom X, Martin Luther King and our own Kwame Nkrumah sacrificed to save and liberate the people they served.

We charge government for not doing certain things for the people but we don't ask what we can also do to help change a bad situation for the better. Must we wait till government does everything for us before we can see development in our society? I have never said that Ghanaian stand up comedians have done excellently well in their delivery but it would be mischievous of me to say they are 'do-nothings.' The fact is that even though I believe there are a lot of things they need to do to make them improve on their acts, I think we need to encourage them to do what we desire of them.
  
I don't care whether people see David Oscar as funny or not but why deride him by calling him 'self-imposed crusader of comedy in Ghana' when indeed after being dumped by the people who discovered him, he puts together most of the up and coming comedians in Ghana just to make the game grow? The big people who have been brainwashed by foreign comedy are not ready to put their resources into helping project these young comedians.

This same David Oscar guy people say isn't a comedian, is toiling, moving up and down the country to organize Corporate Comedy Series, all by himself. So even if he is not funny, why don't we pat him on the back and encourage him for giving platforms to other comedians to shine. He has managed to get his Corporate Comedy Series aired on Viasat 1 and people won't appreciate his efforts to help grow the comedy industry.

When you go to Kumasi, comedian David Aglah has also been putting up comedy shows there. How many of those who insult these comedians have found out how they are able to fund these projects? Charterhouse had to take the LOL comedy Reality show off GH One screen because according to them people had said that the guys were not funny. If it is really true they took the show off because the contestants were not funny, then they need to ask themselves what to do to scour for better comedy talents. Perhaps the modus operandi for picking the contestants was defective.

Also, other people should come on board to establish comedy pubs and shows that will unearth more talents in Ghana. I have always said that our comedians need encouragement and direction to move to greater heights. Let's sacrifice to save. It is about time, we thought of using the 'sacrifice-to-save' philosophy to help pull Ghanaian stand-up comedy out of the doldrums.  Sometimes, we have to forget about maximizing profit and risk saving a situation now because when that situation is solved, it may yield results in bounty folds of what went into saving it.

That notwithstanding, the comedians should also try to up their game a bit. I say this because most of them do not impress at all. We are tired of the dry jokes; if you know that is not your field, leave it for those who can do better. It is about time Ghanaian comedians got more serious. They should learn the act well and do it maturely. They also need to be receptive to criticisms as and when they come.

I believe in David Oscar, I believe in David Aglah, I believe in Funny Face, I believe in Khemikal, I believe in Kaninja, I believe in DKB, I believe in Foster, I believe in James Brown, I believe in Baaba Spirit. Let's give them another chance. Let's criticize them constructively and urge them on to climb to the top.

I also have the conviction that if we can have comedians who can do different accents in English or even Twi just like Baaba Spirit does, that would add some flavor to the kind of stand-up comedy we have in the country. I want to see all stakeholders in the creative industry see this as a national issue that needs to be addressed for proper solutions. Enough of the “Ghanaian comedians are not funny.” mantra! Let's find ways of making them funnier or discovering funnier ones.

By Kwame Dadzie