Ghanaian comedian, Lekzy DeComic has said the only reason Ghanaians find jokes offensive is because they blow things out of proportion.
This is in response to attacks meted out to comedian, OB after he made a bad joke on Citi FM/TV’s ‘Decemba 2 Rememba’.
On the 24th of December 2019, OB was one of the performers who wowed the audience but while on stage, he made fun of names and how the bearers of the names turn out.
As he mentioned the names, he mentioned ex-President Mahama and NDC members came at him heavily on social media, pushing him to offer an apology.
After rendering an apology, it rather escalated the issue and getting the attention of people like Sam George who petitioned against OB’s performance of the night, 1026 laughs.
Speaking to Sammy Flex on the ‘Real Talk’, concerning jokes and OB’s saga, comedian Lekzy said the issue was no big deal but was only blown out of proportion.
According to him, Ghanaians take jokes too personal although they keep making comparisons between Ghana comedians and ones from other parts of the world.
“No joke will land without hurting anybody. If I decide to talk about fat people, slim people will be happy but fat people wouldn’t be happy. If I decide to talk about short people, short people wouldn’t be happy. Tall people will be happy. If the joke is not directed to you, you will always find it funny. And I feel when people go to comedy shows, they should just psych themselves that ‘we’re here to laugh’ don’t take things to personal” he pointed out.
He then used the opportunity to reveal how his joke offended a minister of state who warned him.
“I’ve been warned by a minister of state before. I won’t mention the name. I performed and right after performing, he came backstage asking who’s that comedian? who’s that comedian? and I came out and he was like, gentleman, don’t ever, don’t ever, don’t ever, ever talk about the party’ they were attacking me. The man was so angry, they had to beg him and he said anytime I’m on a bill, he won’t show up for the show.
“Ghana here, one thing about us is you can’t talk about religion, they always compare us to Nigerians. Nigerians they’re funny, Americans. They even compare us to Trevor Noah, the Kevin Hearts, these people attack their leaders.”
“Comedy is the truth but we present it in a funny way. Something that the layman cannot say, a comedian should be able to communicate that to generate laughter without you taking offence to it,” he stated.
Touching on OB’s apology, he said it was not necessary to apologize for a joke that made everybody laugh and that he is sure someone pushed him to apologize.
“Personally, I felt he shouldn’t. You can’t please everybody” he said.
When Sammy asked to be sure what he thinks about OB apologizing, he replied, “it wasn’t needed. but whichever way, things happen and we learn from it…”
