Why can’t we make decent jokes?
There are those things which you know, but it takes time to know that you know it.
The New Year weekend turned out to be really stressful, and at such times I have two escape hatches – music and comedy.
I got into the comedy hatch via You Tube. There are those classics such as Monty Python with its peculiarly British sense of humour, along with well known names such as Rowan Atkinson (his interview of Elton John is hilarious), but there are thousands more very funny people, both men and women, getting audiences to shake in their seats effortlessly – comedians from the West, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and elsewhere.
After watching a few videos, I got round to knowing something I discovered long ago without actually being able to put it correctly into words.
It isn’t correct to say Sri Lankans don’t have a sense of humour. They do. But they don’t know how to channel and transmit that humour in a professional manner. The channels which can discover, nurture, promote and employ such talent do not exist.
Sri Lankan comedy has two main streams – films and the stage. Film comedians such as Freddie Silva were sometimes brilliant – I remember him miming bus travel in a film, hanging on to the bar with one hand while slapping mosquitoes with the other. But such talents were often wasted by incompetent directors.
Radio had Vinoda Samaya. But this was exceptional and one can see today that its quality and popularity depended entirely on the talent, style and personalities of the comedians involved. Nothing produced after the demise of Vinoda Samaya can come even remotely close to their excellence.
The stage is better in this regard than the films. There was a time, at least until the 1980s, when the cinema was as good if not better. But it has nosedived into pathetic attempts at laughter while the stage, when compared to what one can see internationally on You Tube, rarely makes the grade when it comes to themes and delivery. Our comedians do not take risks, and I don’t mean physical risks such as slipping and falling.
Taking a few titles from You Tube would illustrate this point. Maz Jobrani is an ArabAmerican while Russel Peters is Indian. Jobrani’s acts have such as: “Don’t buy anything from Middle East people,” “They killed Bin Laden,” “Why there’s a billion Indians in the world,” “Kicking brown people off planes and Trump is an idiot.”
Imagine any Sri Lankan comedian doing an act called, “Our president is an idiot.” People like Jobrani and Peters are so successful because they know how to surf through minefields. Take some of Peter’s titles: “Why I don’t do Arab, Jew vs. Indian jokes?”, “Why Chinese can’t do business with Indians.”
Jobrani delivers on anecdote, nuance and body language to get the laughs. There are many more out there, both sexes, doing the
It isn’t correct to say Sri Lankans don’t have a sense of humour. They do. But they don’t know how to channel and transmit that humour in a professional manner
same with consummate skill. American comedian Amy Schumer gets people to laugh on themes such as Women Who Kill, and on her not-so-romantic Paris visit and her session with the gynecologist, and about her workout instructor.
Carl Joshua Ncube of Zimbabwe tells Robert Mugabe jokes. Another comedian makes fun of the bureaucracy (issuing of passports). ‘Zambesi News’ is a popular TV programme where three young men – one white, two black – re-work every day news bulletins in a hilarious manner. Chubby Mexican comedian Gabriel Iglesias gets people to shake on themes such as Fluffy visits Saudi Arabia, Broke Back Mexican and High School Reunion. Joanna Rants and Eric Rivera make fun of the Spanish accent.
All these people, and many more, take risks as they touch on race, religion, politics and culture. But they are never deliberately offensive, and they know the art of making a stereotype work against itself. In Sri Lanka, unfortunately, comedians don’t take risks. Their jokes are bland and lack both content and technique.
The art of the stand up comedian has never taken root in Sri Lanka. It should. It has thousands of exponents and millions of fans all over the world, and stand up comedians are among the most effective critics of wicked politicians, xenophobia and many social evils because they are able to make fun of such negative phenomena and get away with it (with rare exceptions like Myanmar, where comedians who dared make fun of the military regime were jailed and tortured). But comedians practiced their art effectively, and continue to do so, sometimes even brazenly, in the sorriest places ranging from Gen. Pinochet’s Chile to today’s Zimbabwe.
Sri Lanka has a long way to go. TV channels should discover talent and promote it. The theatre sometimes shows flashes of hilarity, but its way too bland. As for the cinema, it lost its sense of humour with the demise of K. A. W. Perera and Manik Sandrasagara. Everyone now is far too serious. It’s a disaster of national magnitude.