Ace Nigerian comedian Alibaba has expressed concern about a growing lack of professionalism among some comedians in the industry.
In a recent episode of the Outside The Box podcast, Alibaba shared an incident involving a comedian he had sent to host a corporate event. According to him, the comedian made an offensive joke about the chairman’s plus-size wife.
Alibaba said, “There are about three Nigerian comedians who I can’t stand. They have no decorum. They insult people’s feelings. When you try to correct them, they don’t listen. You send them to a corporate event and they tell dirty jokes. When you get reports about their bad behaviour and confront them, they just downplay it.”
He recounted the specific joke: “Someone called me once to complain that one of them said, ‘If a race happens now and everyone has to carry their wives and run, you can’t carry this woman and run.’ I felt that was below the belt. When I confronted him, he downplayed it. He even told someone I was confronting him only because he was becoming popular.”
Alibaba did not name the comedians involved but emphasized the importance of setting limits in comedy. He encouraged his peers to use wit and intelligence in their jokes rather than tasteless humor.
He ended by advising comedians to understand where to draw the line, especially when performing at formal or corporate events.
