I remember a few years ago when I had just discovered Zfancy TV, I was totally taken by the form of content he put out and I watched all his videos that were on his Instagram handle.
Zfancy is one of Nigeria’s famous skit makers who rose to fame by making prank videos. And his videos were actual pranks because they were filmed live. His locations were not staged, or at least I don’t believe they were. He did his pranks anywhere and everywhere, in the supermarket, on the streets, in the major road during traffic. He would come up with different scenarios that would make whoever he was looking to prank fall for it.
I heard rumors that he began to overdo it, but I am not sure. I heard that he pranked some people he was not supposed to and then the police got involved. I do not really know how true all that is. But then, that guy sure took risks. He would go to where touts are smoking weed and pretend to be a SARS official, or he would go to a random person and pretend to be a ghost trying to find his way. His ideas were creative and beautiful I guess that is why I was addicted to his page for a while.
But these days, there are prank videos I see and I just cringe. Sometimes, I wonder if these content creators only do these things for the clout and likes, or if they are really concerned about the kind of content they put out.
These days, a lot of prank videos usually involve fake shootings or dead bodies. For the fake shooting, you will see the actor suddenly burst out of a street, begging someone for his life. Then, they will play a gunshot and he will fake being dead. Meanwhile, the people all around will run, some falling and injuring themselves. The other one shows when people are walking home at night and see a man pulling a dead body out of the bush. It is spooky, of course, and they run. He chases them.
I do not enjoy such content because as far as I am concerned, they lack creativity and they are insensitive.
Nigeria, my dear country, is in a state where surviving every day is an achievement. You are at risk of losing your life to just about anyone, from the police to soldiers to robbers, kidnappers, terrorists, bandits, and ritualists… let me know if I missed any. Left and right, people are having their lives snuffed out prematurely and some people out there are making a joke out of it. The country is in a bad place now, and people are naturally tense. Even myself, even if I think I heard a gunshot I would get out of there as quickly as my two feet can carry me. It is better I make sure from a distance.
So, as it is, any small sight of danger, people are ready to run for their lives. That is how bad things have gotten. And that is what annoys me about these videos because the content creators capitalize on this and use it. I don’t care that they might reveal to the people in the end that it was all a prank, maybe give them some money and have them smile for the camera. I care about the people who will come to social media to escape the traumas of the real world and see people making fun of it online as well.
I know how important these skits have become to an average Nigerian, and I am one of them. Like, many of us eat these skits as breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But still, there are jokes that are not even meant to be made because they might open up some wounds, wounds that were already in the healing stage.
Comedy is now one of the fastest-growing industries in Nigeria, with more and more young ones going into it every day, just like music. It is my hope that people will always remember that the content they are creating is for humans like them, and not algorithms. And they should consider our feelings and emotions as well. If you want to make a prank video, you can prank them without sending their hearts to the sole of their feet. As a matter of fact, it will show just how creative you are.
There are still a lot of things that need to be done, a lot of changes to be made, and a lot of things to be learned. I am sure that with time, we all will learn all that is required of us. And people will be more wary of what they put online and what they take from it. it is only a matter of time.
Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below, I would love to know your thoughts. Till we meet in the next post.