Laugh Out Loud!!!

I've been noticing a lot of stuff lately, one of them was how splendid some things intellects would label as stupid or idiotic or perhaps even a waste of time are...

Let's take comedy for example, I know many of my study-freak friends wouldn't laugh thinking that it'd make them look immature and stupid in front of others. But what they didn't notice was how communication and laughter could bring people together, and how these two subjects work so well together. I find it amazing how audiences could respond to statements following a story the comic presents that has a specific tone. I watched a few videos before starting to work on this post, among the comics were Ahmed Ahmed, Maz Jobrani, Aron Kader, Dean Obeidallah, and Wonho Chung (really, that's his real name... not kidding). It's amazing how these comics can give one particular statement that sends the whole crowd laughing their hearts out. Don't get it? Here are some few examples I can share...

Observe the sentences written in Italic which represents a story or a situation and then the corresponding statement underlined which representing the statement that sets the laughter off...

“my dad wanted to take my family out on a fishing trip at a beach in Selangor, but after a few hours looking for an exit to the beach, my bored brother innocently asked my dad, 'Are we there yet???' and my dad's calm response was...” “'don't worry, we'll get somewhere...'”

“after 9/11^th hate crimes towards middle eastern Muslims went up more than a thousand percent which still puts Muslims in fourth place in the hatred list” “right after black guys, gay guys, and jews... so what exactly do we have to do??!!”

“as I have a middle eastern descent, a director during an audition was like, 'oh, so you're an Arab..'” “'..can you say, 'I will kill you in the name of Allah!!!'?”... “I was like,'I can say that, but what if I say, ''hello, I'm your doctor,''' the director said... “Great!! And then you hijack the hospital”

“I want to play a bad guy in the movies, I wanna rob a bank in a film, but do it with a gun...” “not with a bomb wrapped around me.”

“being a middle eastern, people often look at me in a strange way, once there a guy sitting opposite of me at an airport, he was holding his magazine  upside down and looking at me suspiciously...” “oh the humanity...”

Get the idea? I found out that it was only fair that I watch for some other details in presenting a funny statement and as you can observe, I wrote some of the phrases in Italic and Bold. These phrases hint the audience on what was going on at that instant and how the coming statement is funny. These few little details not only contribute to the laughing but also stimulates the audience's brains to understand one topic faster... take my fourth example for instance, as soon as the comics says “..but do it with a gun...” the audience picks up the understanding that “this guy is being stereotyped as a terrorist” and as the comic goes “...not with a bomb wrapped around me.” the atmosphere is just blown away by laughter which so happens maybe due to the things going on in the audience's mind that very instant- maybe they're laughing because of they're right, or perhaps they're just acknowledging that the comic actually does have a point.

Another thing I noticed about comedy is that most of the things they joke around are about sex, religion, and politics, because without these topics, we don't really have much to joke about. But the beauty of this department is that as these topics get talked about, people are brought together, happily, and no hatred is bred. And debates can go on in a much much more peaceful air this way, won't it? Even when its about something that's bothering us, laughing about it for a while could bring all the stress of it to relief. I wish to be able to talk about these topics in public every once in a while so that people would start to realize about these things... I mean even with the freedom of speech, Malaysians can't understand unity to it's full potential. You say something about the truth and the next thing you know is that you're being held custody under the International Security Act. Or maybe when you quote out a joke, many people in Malaysia nowadays don't get it or barely laugh but instead they dully say “yeah yeah that was funny, I like that...” or “HILLARIOUS, my friend, you can almost hear me laugh, that's how funny it is...”

So what's wrong if we take things easy a little more and let our faces smile every once in a while? I say that I think it is about time for us to come back to appreciate laughter and the joy it offers... don't you?