Red carpet at Humblesmith’s show.
Dear social media influencers, street interviewers, youtubers etc, now is the time to stop making mocking videos of people.
The trend these day is for someone with a camera and a microphone to hit the streets of Lagos to interview people about trendy issues. The interviewer usually asks cunning questions with the hope that the interviewee will mess up with his answers so that he can create a funny video out of it which will go viral on social media. The question could be ”what are the mineral resources we have in Nigeria?” The person providing the answer may out of ignorance mention Fanta, Coke, Pepsi etc thinking the question was about soft drinks aka ‘minerals’. This becomes a huge catch which will now be transformed into a mocking video for youtube and other social media platforms.
This worrying trend is gradually killing Nigerians as they now find it difficult stepping forward to speak when they see a camera and a microphone. I first noticed it when I took to the streets to interview youths concerning the Lazy Youths statement made by the president. Many of them fled when I and my camera man approached them for their opinion. When I asked why they don’t want to be interviewed, to my surprise, they said they are afraid they will become a laughing stock on social media because guys like us are known to make mockery of people in videos.
Well, I brushed whatever they said aside because I thought it was just a bad day to be out interviewing people. Also I felt most of them didn’t want to get interviewed because they weren’t in their best clothes with good makeup on.
However, I recently discovered the extent of damage the habit of making mocking videos of people has done to the Nigerian mind. I made the discovery when I was on the red carpet at Humblesmith’s Osinachi Concert at Eko Hotel last Sunday. I thought it was going to be easy getting people to interview because they will all be well dressed and would love the whole world to see them on TV at their best. However, I was wrong. The same issue I faced on the streets the other day met me on the red carpet again. Many guests at the event didn’t want to be interviewed. According to them, they don’t want to ridiculed for making a slight mistake while speaking. They don’t want a voice shouting ”FUNKE, Apostle must hear of this” when they speak the wrong English. It almost became hell for me as I had to step off the red carpet to beg people to be interviewed. I had to assure them that they won’t surface in any mockery video. I even promised them that if they make any mistake while on the red carpet, I won’t mind telling my camera man to cut it off so we can start all over again. I managed to get a few people to interview, and I did keep to my promise.
I hereby call on social media companies who are into the making of funny and mocking videos to please put a stop to that, because it is making Nigerians scared of facing the camera. This is very bad and not encouraging to people who find it hard speaking in public.
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VIDEO from the red carpet at Humblesmith’s Osinachi concert:
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