2006-01-22 - 9:11 p.m.
The other night, Nya and I went to see Albert Brooks� Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World. In brief, it has an intriguing title, but is basically a shaggy dog story (which I oddly haven�t seen mentioned in any review) that raises far more questions than it answers. But I had never really thought before about the issue it approached. Obviously, everyone must find something funny. I�d just never considered what makes people laugh in other cultures or even in non-English speaking places.
The hilarious �executive transvestite� British comedian Eddie Izzard talked once about doing a tour in French through France. Although this is difficult for me to imagine in an industrialized society with leisure time and money to spend on entertainment, they don�t have comedy clubs in France. Stand-up comedy is unknown and people watched Izzard�s shows somewhat mystified (I like to imagine them staring through a cloud of Gallois cigarette smoke). I guess they�re not jokes people and really do prefer the slapstick of Jerry Lewis.
In the film, Brooks sneaks across the border to Pakistan to meet with some young aspiring Pakistani comedians. He does the same routine for them that fell flat when he performed it in New Delhi and they laugh hysterically. Of course, they (and he) have smoked considerable quantities of hash beforehand and I suspect that cracking up at anything while stoned is pretty universal. But, although they apparently do, he generally fails to figure out what makes Muslims laugh. A trope in the film is him accosting random people on the street and asking what makes them laugh, generally with little response.
When we were talking just before the movie, Nya said this very matter-of-factly (and made up on the spot):
What do people in China find funny?
When ghost of ancestor bring down pig.
This sent me into a paralyzing hysteria (shoot, it still does). Analyzing it, I think it�s great that it completely avoids hackneyed Chinese-American stereotypes about mystery-meat restaurant dishes or violin-and-meat studiousness. It�s just inexplicable and bizarre. Foreign, which is the point.
People laugh everywhere and like things they find funny. But if there are apparently no stand-up comedians in non-Anglophonic places with leisure time, like Italy or Russia or India, what the heck does crack people up? The question isn�t answered in Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, but you should see the movie anyway.
� 2006 Geoff Gladstone
Sign My Guestbook!
powered by SignMyGuestbook.com
�
