The Doug Stanhope Podcast - #561 Global Media Frenzy - AUDIO

Episode Date: September 7, 2024

Doug sits down for an exclusive interview with the editor of GhanaCelebrities.com  - the site that first broke the news of his "swatting/arrest".Laugh and learn - as Doug makes you feel stupid for not knowing all the Ghana facts which, he himself learned only 30 seconds ago.Also, Alex O'Mera is here too and gives a health updateDownload the PrizePicks app & get $50 instantly when you play $5 with code STANHOPE at https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/STANHOPESupport the show: http://www.Patreon.com/stanhopepodcast

Hey we're gonna talk today to fuck I don't know his name yeah gonna be talking to Ghana celebrities comm the managing editor Godwin we got a hold of they were the first people to pick up this story about the SWAT team raiding my house and whether or not it was a prank or it was real before I had a chance to even knew that it had turned into a viral story. They were the first, they beat TMZ. Suzanne Walsh somehow, of all people, of course. She's basically a gossip columnist at heart. I would say so.

And she's the one who sent me the first story that broke. I don't know how she finds... I don't... maybe you're on a search but also the celebrity side said that you ignited a global frenzy which I still have my favorite description of the whole thing. Yeah there was a story from India and Pakistan and but yeah these guys are first so I told them I would give them an exclusive interview but by then it was I put mine out but I said I want to interview you like how did you find me and well let's find out. It was never covered in Bisbee. Yeah well we don't know that

because our paper is weekly. That's true. So hey maybe. Maybe. Maybe from Page. Yeah you know I'd be... Well fuck it's Friday and the mail came. No one's called you to ask anything, right? Yeah, we wouldn't have made this weeks because it cut off this Tuesday. Oh, all right. All right, let's say... It comes out Thursday.

How are you, by the way? People will be asking you. Oh, I'm good. I'm feeling a little bit better and surgery is still possible. All right. In the future, possible. They're still trying to figure it out. You sound great.

Yeah, I feel a bit better and at Harvard, they're still trying to figure it out. You sound great. Yeah, I feel a bit better. And at Harvard, they're still trying to figure out what's wrong with me. And when you hear that, you're like, oh shit. Yeah, you've been here for quite a while this morning and you haven't coughed once in a while. Yeah, it's gone away a little bit. So I'm really grateful, really grateful.

All right, I just came out and Alex, this Alex, just set up a beautiful array of Floyd's tomatoes, like a little cornucopia, that one's gonna fucking die soon, and my book, and it looks very good morning Bisbee with Tug and Alex. Hi, how are you? Coffee cup is coming. Are you enjoying the fruits of an Indian summer?

All right, let's crank up, get to Ghana on the line. Ghana's on the west coast of Africa between Cote d'Ivory, which is the Ivory Coast, and then the other ones. And it's right next to that, too. I know Togo, because I used to do a bit of like during the Clinton administration where like where I can't even remember where I would find the bit but I remember it was something about if I was Bill Clinton going through all that shit I would just fucking quit I would just like the old-fashioned way no call no show fuck you I don't

need the money I like I'm the president of the biggest I can do a lateral move I can go be Prince of Togo if I want you want to fuck around so that's where Togo and my life's intersect I am fucking r. Let's get this guy on the line. There you go Oh, yeah, I can see you now. Good morning No, good evening. Oh, okay. I'm in the morning And who do who do we have the pleasure of speaking with Okay, you can call me me I'm the editor of GhanaCelebrities.com. You're the editor and so you're the one I spoke with yesterday? Yes, yes I'm the one with Ghana, the Vanshiku, 2.3. All right well first I want to thank you for being first with the breaking news of my false

arrest. We would really, this is my friend Alex here, he's also a journalist and spent quite a bit of time in Africa, not in Ghana, but... Oh okay. Uganda. Uganda. That's interesting. Oh okay, that's in Africa, on the west coast.

Yes. So, so I, obviously what we want to know is how does a story about a vaguely known comedian in a small town in Arizona get picked up by the Ghana celebrity dot com? Yeah. All right. So what happened was I was on Twitter. I didn't really scan Twitter to find viral news you know that's what's happening in the US because we report on it sometimes as well. Yeah we

know we were on Twitter and we were looking at your website and it I'm just curious how you pick and choose the the stories there's a story like John Cena talks about why he didn't want to have kids. Like why would that story be picked up in particular? It seems very random. Okay, yeah, so we just look at what is trending in the US. Because we have, you know, we have Ghanaians staying there,

we have Africans staying there, and maybe they will not follow publications over there but they will follow publications back home and be reading about you know what's happening over there so we we follow stories in America what's trending in America I saw the video I saw it was yeah go ahead yeah no no yeah you saw the video I saw it was yeah go ahead yeah no no yeah you saw the video where did you see I saw a video on the Twitter accounts it's in the article let me check it out but I saw it on a Twitter account and people

were losing their minds like is this real is this not real so I was like this this guy this was very interesting because it was quite difficult to tell when I was real or not I it's your part look very real I mean you played your past very well. Even though you later said you knew what was coming up. I think you guys beat TMZ by almost a full day. That's gonna feel good. That's crazy. That's crazy. Yeah. So immediately I saw it and I saw that I was going crazy on Twitter. I knew that this is something that you that people would like to read about.

So I just got to work. I went to, you know there is a subreddit, Dogstownhomesubreddit. So I checked it out. I saw that they were also talking about it there. They were also not really sure what was going on. So I was like, okay, this is generating bias. They're talking about it on Twitter. They're talking about it on Reddit. You know, so I just got to work, started researching what people were saying, what the video was saying, you know, what you were doing.

You were live streaming and all that. And then I just put it together. Yeah. You know what, I didn't notice. I didn't notice. Do your stories have comments? I didn't look. Oh, okay. I didn't notice. Do your stories have comments? I didn't look. Okay. Yeah, we moderate them, but we don't really check them

because there's a lot of spam that people put out. So, okay, because I would be curious. But we kill them at the back end. I was curious. I was making a joke that that's how I found out that it was viral is because all my friends in Ghana called me in the middle of the night. I would be curious. Did that story get a lot of people, it's got a lot of hits, not in Ghana but in the US and also Ghanaians in the diaspora or Africans in the diaspora who check out our site.

So yeah, so it's a combination of Americans who are trying to find out what's going on and then people over there who also you know check out our site on a daily basis. All right, did you know who Doug was before this? Um I I know the name I'm not familiar with his work But I know I know the name of head like when I hear Doug Stanhope, I know it's a comedian And and I think an actor so I know the name of Head, like when I hear Doc Stanhope, I know it's a comedian and I think an actor.

So I know the name of Head, but I'm not familiar, I wasn't very familiar with the work before this, yeah. Yeah, a lot of people have, join the club, a lot of people don't know who I am, which is why it's even more funny than I'm on a website for, I guess in Ghana, if you just tell people that I'm world famous they're just gonna believe you right well yeah don't take my word for it yeah

you know you don't just put up random stories you do actually do some journalism I there's a Chris Vincent writes as a column it's an op-ed column. Yeah that's the editor I was telling you about. I couldn't get him to join me because he's quite busy. But that's my boss. That's the founding editor of the site. He's a Daniel lawyer based in the United Kingdom and he writes quite a lot. Damn, let me knock this ad out. Oh yeah, it's PrizePix. Hey, you ready to make every game way more exciting? Join PrizePix and get in on the action. It's America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 million active members. It's easy to play unlike the other apps it's just you

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Stanhope on prize picks to get $50 instantly when you play five. You don't even need to win to receive the $50 bonus. It's guaranteed. Prize picks. Run your game. And we're back. Alright, then we have those who deal with the IT and stuff. It's a small team, about 10 people. All right. So do you take freelance? Yeah.

If I started writing articles, could I submit them? You have no problem with that at all. Dogstan Hope writes. I like it. Yeah, I could. We just watched one of your videos uh that uh i'm gonna mispronounce the name a lady with a very large a backside uh and it says people are concerned for her uh but then she's likened to someone i

don't know has i uh been to yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah, Hajib Bintu. She's a legendary Ghanaian socialite with a humongous backside. Let me say that. Yeah, I just said it. The headline says that there's concern for this woman who has a giant backside like the Hajib Bintu. But then the article goes on to say that the Bintu woman, she capitalized on her giant barrier and picked up some ambassadorial duties and maybe this young lady and it shows her sashay with quite a carriage. There's a lot of trunk there and there's a there's a it seems like a gymnasium full of young male gentlemen with cameras taking pictures

and when she turns around they follow her ass like it's a bug light they're They're just drawn to it. Yeah, those are high school students, you know, you know, teenagers, you know, so it's like they're having a kind of That might be a high school student, but that is a a college ass. That is a that is a doctorate in in in buttocks. Yeah, yeah, that's, she has quite a bright future ahead of her, you know. As you were saying, the Haji Abingtu lady, she started on TikTok just posting videos, showing off her, you know, her backside, just, you know, sexuality suggested videos.

And then she just started building a following and now she's massive. Yeah. You know, she gets to work with brands. It seems like TikTok is really huge there. Like TikTok is a main, cause there's another story about a gentleman who's been kind of a poo pooed

cause his brother died a few weeks ago and he's back on a TikTok dancing around in dresses. And they. Wow. I'm impressed by how much you've seen of our site. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it says Akanobu? Akanoba. Akanoba. Close. Yeah, it's Akonoba. It's one of our languages.

Sorry, I haven't had my kinky for breakfast yet. Yeah, so, yeah, so TikTok is quite big. A lot of influencers and creators are making it big. they make a lot of money with their content, you know. Yeah. And the Aconoba guy is actually a cross dresser. He dresses as a female and then creates content around that. Yeah.

How does that go over? Because I've heard homosexuality is illegal in Ghana. You know, it's crazy. The parliament actually passed a law a couple of months ago that is going to ban what they do on TikTok. But the president has refused to assent to it because he's playing a bit of political football. But it's highly likely his government will go out of power within the next few months. So he's trying to leave it for the next president to deal with that mess. Yeah.

All right. I want to know, because you're in the West, upper West part of Africa, and it's very dense, there's a lot of countries around you. Do you have immigration problems or are you the immigration problem? Like if you were to go up to Burkini Faso, would they say, hey, get the fuck back to Ghana. We don't need your kind. No, no, no, no. That is travel, but not so much to our neighboring countries. We are actually surrounded by French speaking countries.

So there's a couple of French speaking countries between us and Nigeria. So the issue is between Ghana and Nigeria, there are lots of Nigerian immigrants in Ghana, there are lots of Ghanaian immigrants in Nigeria. So Togo and Benin. Yeah, Togo and Benin. Yeah, they are French speaking. So we don't really deal with them that much. Unless those on the border towns who deal across borders.

But immigration is a real challenge. How often do they change their names? How often do they change their names? Like how long has Burkini Faso been not upper Volta? Yeah, they used to be upper Volta. Yeah, they used to be upper Volta, they are now Burkina and then Benin also used to be Gahome, I think. Yeah, but it's, it's we usually, African countries usually change our names after independence because most of the names are colonial legacies.

Yeah, I believe it's because- Ghana used to be the gold post. I think a lot of African nations are on the payroll of the big globe makers. Cause if you change your name, then they have to get a new globe every couple of years. Rand McNally, yeah, big time. So yeah, we are just helping them make more money.

Yeah. So we are just helping them make more money. So is there a lot of civil unrest around you? Yeah, yeah, not too much but you know I still have some issues. I think Niger and Mali but they are a bit more further removed from Ghana. Our immediate neighbors are quite stable. What's the main source of, what's the main industry in Accra aside from TikTokking? Is that how you pronounce it? How do you pronounce your capital?

Yeah, Accra. Accra. But Accra is okay, yeah. What do people do for work? There's a lot of trading, buying and selling. There's a lot of, you know, it's a normal economy, a usual economy you find anywhere in the world. We have high tech jobs, we have low tech jobs, but people make a lot of money in trading,

they make a lot of money in working for major corporations, they make a lot of money. When it comes to what actually makes Ghana's economy move, you have to go a bit outside of Accra, because the minerals, cocoa and gold and those minerals are not found in Accra and oil. They are more in the hinterland. But the economy is sector around Accra. So everything happens here, but the money comes from elsewhere. I, if I were to fly there, and you pick me up at the airport,

I drop my bags at the hotel, and we're going to go get drunk. What are you going to make me drink? What will I be drinking if I'm drinking what you're drinking? OK, so we have local companies who brew. we have club and then we have star beer. Those are the local companies that's what they brew. Club like a club of you know in cards clubs right.

Yeah yeah. We have a beer company called club and then we have a beer company called star. Those are the two local beer companies yeah. We have a beer company called Cloud. And then we have a beer company called Star. Those are the two local beer companies. Yeah. Okay, so do you have any weird drinks that are like inherent to, are there any like alcoholic beverages that we don't have in America? Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We have palm wine. You know palm wine? Palm wine? Yeah. I've not. It's from the palm wine. You know palm wine? Palm wine? Yeah. I've not. It's from the palm tree. I'm going to have to Google palm wine.

Yeah. But it's from the palm tree. It's quite good actually. Yeah. And then we have aquateshi. Do you have? Go ahead. That's local distilled gin. Pure alcohol.

Ah, distilled gin. Distilled from sugar cane. What do you mix it with or do you? No, no, you just go straight up. Alright. Badass. Nice. It's crazy.

Pure alcohol. It's a liver damage at that one. And we're back. Speaking of liver damage, do you have healthcare? It's quite expensive. Um, and also there are issues with infrastructure. Um, sometimes the main hospitals gets overcrowded. You can send a sick relatives and they'll be asked to sleep on the

floor, a lot of issues. Oh geez. Yeah. So, but we also, it's, it's quite bad. It's quite bad. But recently they've been building, they've been building some some world-class facilities by, by the capacity issue is still quite disturbing and also the cost is quite high. Recently we've been having a bit of a kidney dialysis crisis. A lot of people are getting kidney disease, but the costs for the dialysis is crazy.

So people are having a lot of issues. Yeah, do you have plenty of clean water? Because if you can't hydrate, you're gonna have kidney problems. Yeah, I stay in Accra, so water is okay. And water is okay in most of the major cities. But when you start going to the rural areas, they have a lot of issues accessing clean water.

Yeah. And I also read a story from Mr. Beautiful talking about multiple wives. Is that polygamy is okay there? How many wives do you have? Yeah, yeah. It's become an issue in the media recently about men and how, because we had a popular, very popular actor called Puipu Meme, who was with his wife for over a decade and then I think he flew here to, he even flew here to America to reside there with the kids and then after a few years of while he stayed in Ghana and was working as an actor, as a content creator, YouTuber and all that, raising money to take care of his family in the States.

Yeah. So I think the wife divorced him a couple of years ago. And then a few weeks ago, she got married to a white guy. So it has sparked a massive conversation about marriage, you know, how men should relate to their wives, whether they should keep only one wife or have options. But the fact is when it comes to marriage in Ghana, when you marry civilly or under the law, you can only have one wife. It's in the law. But if you marry traditionally using our local customs yeah you can marry as much as

you want and it's also if you marry Islamically because Islam is also a big religion here you can also have as many wives as you Islam is big there yeah it's the second biggest religion we are mainly a Christian country about 30 percent is uh and 70 percent is christian so so when you said she married a white guy first of all is that outrageous did that make that make gana celebrity.com when a lady married a white guy no it's it's not an issue that she married a white guy it's an issue that No, no, no. It's not an issue that she marry the white guy. It's an issue that the husband sends abroad to dump him and I marry the white guy. So that's kind of where the people are taking it from.

Oh, she married a white guy here. Yeah. Oh, okay. I thought she married a white guy in Ghana. I'm like, I thought the only white guys in Ghana would probably like Christian missionaries or something. Yeah, we see a lot of more, more missionaries here. No, no, no. The actor sent her abroad to stay there to live in America with a case.

Yeah. So he was financing her life in America and then she divorced him and they married a white guy. So that's where the story comes from. Have you been to America? No, I've never been. No. And it's the Chris Vincent that is in the UK part time? Yeah.

Yeah. He he he he moves between the UK and Ghana. And then most of most of the time, most of the time he's actually traveling. He's a bit of a travel, whatever. He loves visiting countries. Do you travel often? No, no, no.

I'm often the one who has to run the site. Yeah, all right. You never answered the question about how many wives you have. No, no, I have one wife. Just one. Alright. Just one. Good. Yeah, multiple wives seems like multiple fucking problems. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.

Well, we don't want to keep you long. I just wanted to thank you. I'm going to keep an eye. I'm favoriting GhanaCelebrities.com and I will check in and see what's happening in your part of the world because it's not nearly as depressing as our news over here. I try to avoid it. And your news is just ladies with a big ass are making headlines I'm in. I'm curious you have a lot of comedians in Ghana?

Oh yeah that's a good question. Do you have a lot of comedians is there a comic scene? Yeah that's a good question. Yeah there's a comic industry here. We have some stand-up comedians. We have Obi-Wan Ponsan. We have DKB. We have Lexie the comic. But the big comedy industry is actually Nigeria. I don't know if you are aware of that. They have a lot of good comics. The comic industry is still developing a bit. aware of that. They have a lot of good comics. Yeah there's a show comics from around the world that was on Netflix that that's Sean Smith always talked about it I can't remember the guy's name that hosts it. Larry fucking Charles. Larry Charles yeah and yeah I know that there are different parts of Africa I know Johannesburg and Nigeria you don't

have a comedy club in Ghana? No they do they do they have a few. All right. Yeah but it's still it's still blasphemy. Yeah it's not it's not it's not where it wants to be. All right. But you could tour. Let me put it that way. You could totally tour. Yeah. I mean, right? Yeah, you could tour. That is, that is, that is actually love, you know, going out and spending money. You know, you know, a lot of Americans come here during Christmas, because we

have quite a massive, you know, tourism and nightlife industry. All right. During Christmas, we, we, we we receive I think hundreds of thousands of Americans and other Africans in the diaspora. We spend a lot of time and money here. You know you can actually do something around that, yeah. Especially at Christmas, December. You want to go to Ghana? Sure. Just for kicks? Sure. I always root for Ghana in World Cup.

All the African countries have the greatest uniforms. We actually meet the United States a lot whenever we qualify to the World Cup. I think we met in 2010 and then we met in 2014 and 2006 as well. Yeah, I met in 2006, 2010 and 2014. Yeah, I was root for the what is it? He beat the United States each time. Oh, nice. Yeah, good. That's good. We lost the last one. We won the first one, lost the third one.

Oh, yeah. Okay. So it's a split decision. Okay, got it. Yeah, I always root for the team with the best colors. I don't care about the United States. They're boring. Africa has all the best colors and the Netherlands. That beautiful orange. Yeah, yeah.

We love colors. We love colors. Our writing is colorful. You know, you've heard of the kente cloth from Ghana, very colorful. What was that? Kente cloth. Oh yeah kente. It's woven cloth that they used to, no not kente, kente. Kente. K-E-N-T-E. It's a woven cloth. All right. Very colorful. Oh, yes. All right. We love colors.

Yes. So you can see if you get I don't know how much you can see of this, but so do we. Yeah, big time. Our house is a thousand different African colors and not a piece of beige anywhere. Nothing is painted brown or white or it's everything is a silly color. Is that one of your books on the shelf on the table? Oh yeah yeah. And then our comedy about other things.

This is a it's a more memoir of yes the crazier of my my life I don't I'm trying to sell books in in Ghana so so we're always branding yeah yeah yes it. Actually, the website, our store is down because our merchandise person is out of the country, so we shut it down because I'm not licking stamps and going to the post office. I appreciate your time, sir, and thank you for making me a global news story. Not only did you beat TMZ as well as Pakistan Tribune and several other Hawaii local lines. But you were number one. You beat Joe Rogan. He didn't call till the next day We will we'll keep an eye on your site and thanks for joining us Yeah, and thank you. Thank you for calling me. It's been great chatting with you.

And Alex, is that Alex? Yeah. Yes. Nice to meet you. Yeah, in Africa, you know, you have a friend here. You can hang up. Good to know. And we've done crazier things.

Yes you have. Yes, definitely. Oh boy. Alright, alright. Bye now. This was a great time. Yeah. Thanks. Alright, bye now. Yeah, how am I?

Yeah, next time think about air miles. That's a lot of... That was cool, man. That was a great guy. I was curious about where he learned English. You know, I mean... I couldn't understand most of what he said. I was going to say, hey, do you come with subtitles?

But I didn't want to be rude. I'm impressed with how much you know. That was really fun, you guys. Knowledgeable guy. I mean, that guy was really knowledgeable about all kinds of stuff. I was remarkable. I mean, I experienced that guy was really knowledgeable about all kinds of stuff. I was remarkable. I mean I experienced that in Uganda. Everybody, this was 10 years ago, everybody had a cell phone. Absolutely, because they had no phones. They had no infrastructure for them.

And they were more in tune with what was going on in the world than I was. I was like, what the hell? How do you know? And they were all like, phone. You know? And just so plugged in. It was remarkable. Yeah.

Wow.