Comedy Programs Sans Humor
By Syed Janran Hashmi
Westfield, IN
The duplicate prime minister was impressive. There were some minor differences in his facial expressions but overall he looked very similar; his voice was identical and his peculiar accent was copied magnificently. After a few minutes, I flipped the channel and watched President Asif Ali Zardari being mocked in a different comedy program; then it was General (Retd) Musharraf, followed by Mian Nawaz Sharif and the list went on. In short, all the prominent political leaders had their dummies in the programs and surprisingly, they all looked very close to their real counterparts. That Friday evening was no different in its primetime programs; there were numerous political comedy shows being televised and they all looked similar, based collectively on caricature and impersonation, without any exception. After watching just a few, I was quickly bored and turned off the television.
We all know that before the liberation of the current media policy in 2003-04, it was impossible to contemplate a comical representation of the president of Pakistan on television while he was wearing a military uniform. But after the policy was relaxed, one of the news channels took the initiative and introduced a comedy program on the weekends. Being the only one for a while, it turned out to be a huge success. It was hilarious, tremendously realistic and incredibly sarcastic. The program was also recognized internationally by The Washington Post and was appreciated for its ingenuity and creativity. After its success, almost every major news network has added one or more weekly comedy shows. With some minor rearrangements, most of these programs are based on mimicry. Not that there is any harm in parody, but sadly, impersonation has become the only form of comedy on television nowadays. Sometimes, a social class is imitated, and at others a profession, but mostly it is about a renowned political personality. In these programs, regrettably, very little is focused on the actual writing of the script and the success of the show is fundamentally based on their copying skills.
Even though it is a freshman in the Pakistani electronic media, political satire has a long history in comedy. The Greek playwright Aristophanes, who is considered to be the father of comedy, used sarcasm in his plays and ridiculed the great philosopher Socrates in The Clouds. According to Plato, that caricature of the sage was so immense that it might have played a role in the persecution of Socrates. Aristophanes also lampooned the Greek statesman Cleon for his pro-war ideology in The Knights and The Babylonians. He may actually have also been tried for his work but his real fate eludes history and his contribution remains a source of motivation for many of us today.
In the US, many successful and internationally recognized political comedy programs are aired regularly. The most noteworthy of them include the HBO series Real time with Bill Maher and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that are entirely political and absolutely hilarious, yet they remain impersonation-free and parody-less in their presentations. There are many other night shows in the list that have an element of political satire in them, including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with David Letterman and in these programs as well there are no caricatures. They just follow the original script. Only the legendary Saturday Night Live has some element of mimesis occasionally, but that also is directed carefully, occupies only a small fragment of the show, and is commonly presented by the distinguished guest himself.
The reasons for our considerable dependence on these programs are evident. We do not have enough writers who specialize in political satire to back up the escalating number of comedy programs every week. Caricature is certainly an easy way out of the difficult task of humorous script writing. It relies upon imitation instead of ingenuity and hence the same subject is copied over and over again in almost every show with some minor changes in the structure of the program. The scriptwriters in these shows depend on certain clichés like corruption, fake Bachelors’ degrees, the NRO and the issue of contempt of court. They mix these clichés with current events and the whole program is prepared in just a few hours. It does not require any more research, training, practice, innovation, creativity or even a script.
As a nation, we realize that we have lagged far behind in the fields of science, research and technology and just like these, we have also undermined the significance of culture, art and literature in the progress and success of society. We have ascertained that any young person who has some potential to write or create should get overwhelmed in making two ends meet and ultimately be pushed out of society to settle abroad. Their peculiarities are condemned; their unique capabilities are disregarded; their creativity is disrespected and their talent is underestimated. They are quarantined. This strategy is ultimately paying off as we are witnessing a ‘brain drain’ in front of our eyes.
(The writer is a US-based freelance columnist and can be reached at skamranhashmi@gmail.com )
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