Ghanaian comedians after finally winning the fight to show the nation of how hilarious and witty they are, are now fighting a new war. Renowned Comedian and Optometrist Amponsah Obarima Akuoko popularly known as OB Amponsah has sent out a plea to patrons and bloggers to avoid recording full comedian routines and sharing it over the internet.

In a series of tweets, the comedian made it known how this innocent acts by patrons and bloggers is making the work for comedians very hard. He pointed out in the post that in other parts of the world, phones are not allowed at comedy shows.

“What bloggers and some comedy patrons fail to realize is that there is a difference between posting the art of musicians and that of comedians…comedians struggle a lot before we are able to come up with hit jokes, and the thing about jokes is that you cannot tell the same joke to the same people more than twice, it gets stale.

So if you decide to cover a comedian’s set and post all of it online for free without his or her consent, though he may get sine exposure, you are inadvertently depriving the comic of his livelihood. In advanced settings, phones are not even allowed at comedy specials” he said.

The comedian added that they [comedians] wouldn’t have an issue if the videos posted online by patrons of their craft and bloggers are ones that they [comedians] have released to the public themselves and just like musicians they [comedians] have sole ownership of the content they put out.

“When you visit the YouTube channels of comedians, you will find a number of videos the comedian has released himself, these video he believes are ready for the free consumption of the public. These videos we wouldn’t have issues with if anybody copied and posted them. Like musicians we also have sole ownership of our content, except otherwise stated in the contracts we sign with event organizers. So please respect our craft and help us grow as well.” He added.