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
9/11th 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?
