The joke’s on you if you can’t laugh at yourself
Humour’s mission is to make you laugh. Lighten the load. Act as a release during stress. Challenge dictatorships. But humour can also hurt people. The next Supreme Court hearing on the petition filed against Sardar jokes is on January 2. Like all emotions, humour has a dark side, too. It can reinforce ‘types’ and humiliate objects of reference. It can descend into ridicule, and sometimes be coarse and harmful.
Sardarji jokes have been around for ages. Sardars themselves crack them. The irony is that the man who made Sardar jokes most popular was a legendary Sikh, the late Khushwant Singh, through his popular column, ‘With Malice Towards One and All’. India laughed. Then there are the Sindhi and Marwari jokes, Namboodiri jokes, Bengali jokes, jokes on Biharis, UP Bhaiyyas, Tamils, Parsis, Maharashtrians, Punjabis and more. Sardars, Bengalis and South Indians are even stereotyped in popular movies. However, all Sardars are not Santa and Banta. All Malayalis and Tamilians do not say ‘Aiyyo’ in a sing song accent. All Kannadigas are not from Udupi nor are all Sindhis tightfisted.
Hence, does the petition against Sardar jokes imply India doesn’t have a sense of humour? Indians get offended easily. We have too many holy cows. Jokes on PM Modi are met with abusive trolls. The Congress government in 2011 arrested Aseem Trivedi on sedition charges for drawing cartoons against corruption. Kapil Sibal, then a UPA minister, wanted internet censorship because Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh were lampooned. Poking fun at gods and goddesses can land you in court. Make fun of Prophet Mohammed and you are sure to be murdered for blasphemy.
So, when do you call the cops? Sexist jokes against women reflect perverse machismo. Many forms of humour even reflect fear—the handicapped, the mentally imbalanced and the poor are insulted by some because they feel it’s a scary life. Some others laugh when people slip and fall. Or like in the circus, when clowns slap other clowns, it raises a laugh.
However, too much of a good thing—here extreme cultural sensitivity—ain’t funny. Extreme political correctness also makes a nation weak. Fear of offending minorities has made the British police turn a blind eye to rapes, honour killings and child marriages in Muslim communities in the UK. Scared of being labelled nationalist, European governments ignored the growing immigration and secular crises turning many countries into terrorist havens. In America, blind people are ‘visually challenged’. Blacks are ‘African Americans’. The backlash stormed the citadel of liberalism and the Conservatives won; Donald Trump became President.
The modern twin of political correctness is cultural correctness. So why did Obama’s America elect a man who behaved outrageously with women, insulted Latinos, clowned around and abused opponents? Because people were tired of being too correct. They wanted a laugh but the joke was on them.
As the court said, it’s impossible to enforce a ban on humour. Unless India, like China, becomes a dictatorship; which is unlikely. The vast reach of the social media mocks all laws against merriment. Where does one draw the line at offending people and being afraid to do so?
Simple. Relax. And respect good taste.
Ravi Shankar
ravi@newindianexpress.com