The Joker Returns: Conclusion

(MENAFN- The Post) Last week I was talking about how jokes, or humour generally, can help get one through the most desperate situations (although it's like taking a paracetamol for a headache; a much, much stronger resort is faith). I used the example of how Polish Jews, trapped and dying in the Warsaw ghetto, used humour to get them through day by day.

A similar, though less nightmarish, situation obtains in today's Nigeria. Conditions there are less hellish than those of the Warsaw ghetto, but still pretty awful. There are massive redundancies, so millions of people are jobless. Inflation is at about 30% and the cost of living is sky-rocketing, with the most basic foodstuffs often unavailable. There is the breakdown of basic social services.

And endemic violence, with widespread armed robbery (to travel by road from one city to another you take your life in your hands) and the frequent kidnapping for ransom of schoolchildren and teachers. In a recent issue of the Punch newspaper (Lagos) Taiwo Obindo, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Jos, writes of the effects of economic hardship and insecurity on his people's mental health.

He concludes:“We should see the funny side of things. We can use humour to handle some things. Don't take things to heart; laugh it off.”

Professor Obindo doesn't, regrettably, give examples of the humour he prescribes, but I remember two from a period when things were less grim. Power-cuts happened all the time - a big problem if you're trying to work at night and can't afford a generator.

And so the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) was universally referred to as Never Expect Power Always. And second, for inter-city travel there was a company called Luxurious Buses. Believe me, the average Lesotho kombi is a great deal more luxurious (I can't remember ever having to sit on the floor of one of those).

And because of the dreadful state of Nigerian roads and the frequent fatal crashes, Luxurious Buses were referred to as Luxurious Hearses.

Lesotho's newspaper thepost, for which I slave away tirelessly, doesn't use humour very much. But there is Muckraker. I've always wondered whether Muckraker is the pen-name of a single person or a group who alternate writing the column.

Whatever, I'd love to have a drink with him / her/ them and chew things over. I like the ironic pen-name of the author(s). Traditionally speaking, a muckraker is a gossip, someone who scrabbles around for titbits (usually sexual) on the personal life of a celebrity - not exactly a noble thing to do.

But thepost's Muckraker exposes big problems, deep demerits, conducted by those who should know and do better - problems that the powerful would like to be swept under the carpet, and the intention of Muckraker's exposure is corrective.

And I always join in the closing exasperated“Ichuuuu!” (as I do this rather loudly, my housemates probably think I'm going bonkers).

Finally I want to mention television satire. The Brits are renowned for this, an achievement dating back to the early 1960s and the weekly satirical programme“TW3” (That Was The Week That Was). More recently we have had“Mock the Week”, though, despite its popularity, the BBC has cancelled this.

The cancellation wasn't for political reasons. For decades the UK has been encumbered with a foul Conservative government, though this year's election may be won by Labour (not such very good news, as the Labour leadership is only pseudo-socialist).“Mock the Week” was pretty even-handed in deriding politicians; the BBC's problem was, I imagine, with the programme's frequent obscenity.

As an example of their political jokes, I quote a discussion on the less than inspiring leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer. One member of the panel said:“Labour may well have a huge lead in the polls at present, but the day before election day Starmer will destroy it by doing something like accidentally infecting David Attenborough with chicken-pox.”

And a favourite, basically non-political interchange on“Mock the Week” had to do with our former monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. Whatever one thinks about the British monarchy as an institution, the Queen was much loved, but the following interchange between two panellists (A and B) was fun:

A: Is the Queen's nickname really Lilibet?
B: Yes, it is.
A: I thought her nickname was Her Majesty.
B: That's her gang name.

OK, dear readers, that's enough humour from me for a while. Next week I'm turning dead serious - and more than a little controversial - responding to a recent Insight piece by Mokhosi Mohapi titled“A reversal of our traditions and culture.” To be forewarned is to be prepared.

Chris Dunton

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