Online comedians. Daily, they grow by the numbers. In Nigeria alone, we have popular ones like Maraji, CrazeClown, Taooma, Sydney Talker, among others. There are other instagram comedians like Careyboy, Yanira, King Bach, Destorm, Adam, Luvjjp and lots more.
Some of these comedians have been signed on to major projects, clinched movie roles, gotten endorsements and become household names.
Many of these ones have gained such massive popularity and quite a number of following. They produce skits and put them up on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. Skits are known as short videos produced and performed by the artists themselves. They are sometimes included in music videos at the beginning or ending.
However, in recent times, viewers have begun to question the amount of influence these short skits actually have. This happened after a video was released by Sydney Talker, a Nigerian comedian, on Twitter and Instagram. Tweeps were of the opinion that his skits encouraged sexual harrassment and sexualization of the female gender. While some argued and said it was all for entertainment, others were convinced that it was really of a bad nature.
The question then remains: are comedy videos popularly referred as skits really as bad as they say? What then do we say about music videos? Criminal movies? Basically the internet.
An argument stated that these videos were satirical and shouldn't be taken seriously. But what is satire really: Cambridge dictionary defines satire as a way of criticizing a situation, especially people or ideas in a comical way to make a point. Satires are often used to condemn a political stance or governmental situation.
While some of these videos attempt to reveal a societal issue, most of them really have no serious nature and are just put up to make people laugh. What degree of influence does these skits possess? Does a skit that depicts a situation where the body parts of women can be touched under force encourage others to do same in real life? Can skits that show how strict parents can be and how force can be used to make others do your bidding affect people's behaviour in real life?
"We are what we see". Has society, especially youths, indeed been affected by the things they see, hear and experience on the internet?
As children, we grew up in different environments and those places have moulded our habits, mindset and ideologies. But we wonder; do online materials have as much influence on a person's mind? Have they in one way or the other contributed to the amount of violence seen in the world? Should these materials be vetoed? Or maybe they are really not that deep....
A school of thought believes these skits should be accompanied with a moral lesson. That the end should show how doing something in a certain way can have consequences.
The internet is such a large world with unlimited contents coming in daily. There is not much that can be done to control the nature of the materials posted. Online skits have come to stay and their level of influence can never be measured. Whether they are more than just comedy is a matter that is still up for debate.
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