After suffering (many) talentless comedians whose routines involved mocking folks with disabilities and other marginalised groups, it seems we must now also suffer (many) content creators whose content creation is limited to seriously unfunny pranks. This is super annoying.
I really hate that the world rewards clicks and views rather than content. And that it rewards stupidity. And that we live in a world where Prankster, TikToker, YouTuber, and Influencer are valid job descriptions. Yes, I am an old-fashioned curmudgeon. I own that with my full chest. But when these jobs encourage quantity over quality, crap is bound to happen. Folks are going to push the boundaries in all sorts of silly, sometimes dangerous ways (for others and themselves) for those clicks.
And while we have content creators doing amazing, even useful, productive work, we have also seen loads of crap. Someone recently sent to me the video of one such ‘TikToker’ drinking (or pretending to drink) ethanol. With the amount of idiocy going on, he might have actually drunk ethanol.
Then there was the American (?) YouTuber who crashed his plane for views. And then we’ve been recently bombarded with the 18-year-old Mizzy in the UK whose pranks involve pretending to steal an old woman’s dog, entering homes of people, messing with a train control system: in short, generally making a nuisance of himself in many ways, scaring people, and endangering lives.
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In Naija, we have Trinity Guy whose pranks involve pretending to be shot (so that those around scale high walls to avoid being victims at the risk of hurting themselves really badly) and, most disgustingly, getting a little girl to be explicit about her genitalia. What a vile pervert.
Trinity Guy has been charged with obscenity by the police for the video with the little girl, but he alleges that the girl’s parents consented to it. I don’t know what any parent would be offered to make them agree to their child being abused in this way, and I don’t understand why a 31-year-old man would think that exploiting a child in this way was a good way to create content and garner views.
Maybe I shouldn’t be shocked that this man couldn’t tell he was veering into paedophilia/sexual harassment territory when he made that video. We tend to – in my experience – be lax about sexual harassment in Naija. From traders in the market touching young girls anyhow to lecherous university lecturers demanding sex in exchange for whatever. And it is all par for the course.
Does anyone remember the march against harassment in our markets (can’t recall where now), and one of the traders boldly said on camera that he wouldn’t stop touching women without their consent?
According to some reports, an estimated 70 per cent of Naija women have suffered sexual abuse in one form or another, and a majority of those abuses (including rape) go unreported by the victims because of fear of being stigmatised. As sad as it is, the fear is valid.
Even comments by Nigerians (especially those in Naija) under accusations of rape or other forms of sexual abuse on Twitter are very often busy blaming the victim, questioning the victim, or turning the accusation into tasteless jokes. And yes, I am aware that Twitter doesn’t represent the entire Nigeria, but it is representative of the prevailing culture and attitudes.
Nothing will change until sexual education changes the way folks view/talk about sexual harassment.
Trinity Guy deserves to be punished for child sex abuse and for endangering lives in his other skits. Hopefully, others like him will learn and desist from idiotic “pranks,” but I am not holding my breath. As long as the world continues to reward clicks, folks will roll out of bed and think up ways to get those clicks. And not all of them will be doing good stuff.
Nobody should earn millions for stuffing their face with food in front of a camera or for pestering people out and about, minding their own business, putting buckets over strangers’ heads or interrupting meals or conversations of folks they don’t know by suddenly dancing/singing in front of them or whatever else rubbish – sometimes dangerous- these nonsense TikTokers and YouTubers all over the world do for views.
But that’s where we are. I wish we would all ignore them and force them to find better ways to earn their five minutes of fame and money.
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