Thursday, February 18, 2016

Senselessness of humour

Yesterday, somebody asked me whether humour can be taught. Out of impulse, i replied in the negative, later explaining that humour is something one acquires over time. I'm yet to come across a kid who is REALLY funny. Neither have i heard of a baby who made his ma laugh through labour. I'm sure there are certain principles in humour that the likes of Pryor, Carlin, Seinfeld, Berra and Barry must have touched upon but to me, the idea that it can be taught by ABC to XYZ is quite pedantic. How long before the person who is learning from a master realizes that he is only becoming a clone of his master? I say this because the funniest people you know don't sit in an empty room writing jokes after jokes, hoping they click with the public. That job is of a stand-up comedian. Not for people like you and me, for whom the whole world's not a stage. The funniest people you know do things organically, don't they? They may read a lot, yes. They may observe a lot too. They may know a lot as well. They just don't have to put their jokes into a structure. They just deliver when the time is right and to an audience they know is going to get their minds blown. A joke, for lack of better words, is basically bullshit that helps kill time in style. And we don't really need jokers for that. Anything can click and anything can fail. After all, humour is a chance-based event. Let's keep it that way.

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