Laughter they say is the best medicine, but then who reads Readers Digest anymore? Times have changed such that one man’s medicine seems to be another’s poison.
Laughter at the cost of others has always been enjoyed in our country. All our lives, we have laughed at jokes on our neighbours (read Pakistan) or Sardars or politicians. The topics could range from silly to satire, but laugh we did at the expense of a hapless victim. But lately we have become more sensitive to certain categories of laughter. We can poke fun on some, but not on some. No more jokes on Sardars, as they are of a racist nature, and so on. This has made life a trifle complicated.
Our nation has thrown up some holy-cows who are touch-me-nots, no matter what. If you touch them, then all hell breaks loose and the certain political wannabes get fodder for some time and license to wreak havoc. What people fail to realise is, that gone are the days of Duryodhan, who could bring mankind to Kurukshetra, just because a Draupadi had allegedly laughed at him, for missing the pond for the floor. Should Draupadi be blamed for her insulting laughter is a debatable issue, popular notions do blame her for the war!
While one laughter of Draupadi is alleged to have led to a war, another instance of laughter seemed to have brought mankind to extinction! Once after a hearty meal of modaks, Lord Ganesh was on his way back home, when a sudden crossing of a snake caused a jolt leading to a fall. When Lord Ganesh fell down, his stomach broke open and all the modaks rolled out. Soon Ganesh started collecting the modaks and started stuffing them back into his tummy and then tied it with the snake Vasuki! Seeing this, Moon and his wives broke out in laughter, which seemed to insult Ganesh. It is said that he cursed Moon to disappear, leading to an imbalance on the earth! On the request of Lord Shiva, the curse was reduced to Moons diminishing form, but regaining it later, leading to waxing and the waning of the moon! Laughter which lead to insults, could be cursed in the mythical times.
Has much changed? No not much, except that people can’t curse now, but they sure can lead to a lot of trouble. Also, earlier, only the aggrieved party could cause trouble, like a Duryodhan or a Ganesha, but now the aggrieved parties keep quiet and often aren’t too bothered, but you have their ‘supporters’ who wreak havoc, reminding me of the regional epithet – chai se kittli garam!
This brings me to the recent episode of a relatively unknown stand-up comedian, who is known to about a single-digit percentage of the youth in India (I will spare you that decimal figure in terms of the total percentage of Indian population!). An obnoxious ‘chat’ created by him involving two national icons and all hell ‘snaps’ loose! Political parties are up in arms; Mr. Nation-wants-to-know debates it loudly for hours on prime-time, forgetting his prime responsibility of giving his viewers news and newspapers make it first page news and lo behold - the wannabe comedian becomes what he wanted to be – famous!
While this was not funny, I mean the comedians efforts, by any standards, the aftermath of it sure was. While not being too judgemental, especially when I am told that my standards of comedy are archaic, (and thank god for that), at best, the piece was useless, not worth mentioning and at worst, it was crass and below standards by any reckoning. What is of concern is the modern day cursing by the upholders of ‘nation’s pride’. Who are these people sitting in judgement? Who has given them right to decide what is funny and what is not and the course of action to be taken when those insulted have not said a word? Rather, had it not been for the unnecessary ruckus and media attention, the allegedly insulted icons wouldn’t have even known about it, along with we, the innocent victims of noise and opinion-overdose.
The only thing this episode should have thrown up is what is humour? What makes people laugh and what levels of pits are present day comedians digging into. What is the definition of crass, vulgar and below-the-belt humour and if humour can exist sans expletives. If the nation has time, let us debate on some of these topics instead of lodging police cases. Folks need to take chill-pills instead of filing unnecessary PIL’s!
Our nation has such burning issues to worry about, that a certain wannabe comedian and wannabe political outfits need to be ignored. Who are a few individuals when we Indians have not spared gods and great souls? Our nation has enough touch-me-nots and we don’t need more. While I do agree that the humour could have been of some class, one thing is for certain, there are no holy-cows, at least not until the cow moos!
Comments
0 comment