JOIN USWalk into any house in the evenings; you are made to feel as welcome as a slug in your favourite dish. The characters on the TV scream, scheme, cry but laugh not at all. The audience ranging from grandparents to mere toddlers are immersed in the virtual drama. It is but natural that most of us are going through life with a scowl rather than a smile. Little wonder, a few youngsters believe that a ‘blue whale challenge’ is preferable than deciphering a 5000 episode storyline!
Looking at the exponential growth of stand-up comedians, we can safely say that people want to laugh more but unfortunately there are not many creative takers in the field of cinema and TV shows. Feel good movies have always been a better bet and doing better than expected grossing more than its production costs.
In the early days of Television, the shows aired brought a lot of laughter into our drawing rooms. Despite limited airing time, the strong storyline and excellent casts added to the immense entertainment value and led to great bonding among family members.
How many of our country’s youth are aware of the infinite talent of our yesteryears movie makers? The very presence of a few actors was an advertisement for clean humour. Today, we snarl or get snarled at by the stray dogs chasing us during the morning walk, by the errant driver who cuts across us in the bumper to bumper traffic, by the boss or the employees as the case maybe only to come back to have characters snarl out of the idiot box. No wonder we rank 122 in the world when it comes to laughter quotient according to a study!
Humour is not easy to define. It is that discernibly funny quality in a story, performance or joke. Somewhere our writers and directors have lost this penchant for humour. Now, humour seems to be all about slapping one another. I guess humiliation to one is humour to another.
The hosts at the award functions seem to be taking humour quotient to a new, low level with double entendre jokes that borders on crass rather than class.
With time come changes. Changes are meant to be for the better. I find that instead of learning from old masters, there has been a steady decline in the concept of humour or creativity. Jokes on race, accents and communities, wife, physical deformity, body shaming or targeting a person are all so very trite and unfortunate. They showcase a contemptuous kind of humour that definitely does not tickle the funny bone of most people. When will we get respite from vengeful characters and spineless, ‘come wipe your feet on me’ good people?
It’s time that makers of movies and serials learn the art of laughing ‘with’ others and not laughing ‘at’ others and bring more positivity around us. It is time that our young know that we too are a race that makes good jokes that helps improve our quality of life and health.