Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
do you?
Ahem ;)
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
Ahem ;)
oh ho;)
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
I do not like Pakistani humor eh. Some humor is fun ya..but most of it it's about insulting women, offending people on the streets (that show with some hanif guy in it). And none of those stage drama jokes..i find those jokes very insulting mainly coz..they go personal on jokes swear about someone's mom or sister. Though, i do appreciate Moin Akhtar kinda joke..
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
Recently, Pakistani Humor has become no different than American Humor. I always find American Humor to be more disrespectful and insulting to others. American Comedians always make fun of people in a very disrespectful and disgraceful manner.
If one needs to know what Pakistani Humor really is, then perhaps reading work of Patras, Shafiq-ur-Rehman, Colonel Muhammad Khan, Mushtaq Yousefi, Ata-ul-Haq Qasmi, Shaukat Thanvi, Kamal Ahmed Rizvi, Anwer Maqsood and likes of them would help.
Comedians such as Late Moin Akhtar, team of 80's show 50/50, Late Nannha, Munawar Zareef, Lehri etc. produced some ever green humor that is still enjoyed among masses.
even pakistanis need to know what Pakistan humor really is, because works of shafiq ur rehman can be made into fantastic Tv movies or series, but they dont. so when it comes to literature, we have some great comedy..but the sad thing is that the names that you noted are all from a different era. I agree that the works are timeless, but I dont think anyone has come close to that level in Pakistan in some time.
US humor has many varieties, from stand up comedians as different from each other as steven wright, eddie murphy, lewis black, george carlin etc, to shows as varied as seinfeld, 30 rock, , shows like conan...movie
the issue with Pakistani comedy at least what I have seen is that it seems to be very borat-esque, or something similar to yelling and speaking in annoyingly made up voices like i see on univision.
There are some shows that I enjoyed watching like main air tim which was somewhat based on perfect strangers but i just got tired of desi Tv and shut it all off.
Movies...man, the chichorapana that passes for comedy in all desi movies is just annoying.
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
Umar Sharif (however his name his spelled), I find his one-note humor annoying. The jokes about women/wives (how they look scary without makeup, etc)....gettin old.
Oh and Leah Remini.....obnoxiously loud, control-freak, anal woman...on that show.
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
I think we are discussing comedians here not comedy.
Comedians have to entertain the audience, hence it is the audience who should be discussed.
Comedy in general is same everywhere. It gets different flavor because of different demands.
At some point, with time change, the comedy content changes also. When I read comedy books from few decades ago, it sound very silly and boring. With time, people at large do develop a higher level understanding and expect something more subtle but deeper.
Besides choice of words and vocabulary, culture/morals plays big roles in comedy which is suitable for current time.
Hence, both audience and time difference make comedians create comedy which could be sold.
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
Personally, I can't stand Seinfeld -- he's always putting others down, and his show is full of stupid characters.
But as an example of different humour, think of that ancient classic joke about the two guys on the motorcycle where the front guy puts his coat on backwards before they start off. Then they have an accident and some guy (typically a Sardarji is given this role) sees him lying on the ground and turns his head around the right way. I heard this joke 30 years ago, and saw it in the joke section here not too long ago. Desis think it is hilarious. I didn't get it at all. I had to have it explained to me, because firstly, the idea of wearing one's coat backward on a motorbike made no sense at all. Why would someone do that? (To keep the chest warm, it was explained.) Once that was explained, then some idiot broke someone's neck doing something stupid. Why is this funny?? I still don't get the humour of it.
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
everyone is just going off in different directions…are you guys talking about comedy in media…or in literature…or everyday interactions etc???
comparing apples with ball-bearings and tyres 
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
Classic Pakistani comedy as espoused by the likes of Moin Akhter, Ismail Tara, shows like 50 50 is long gone. Then there was the more hip Pakistani comedy in the 90s, early 00s which was also quite good. Shows like Video Junction (VJ), Kollege Jeans, Family Front to some extent, etc. In stage shows, there was the lame urdu variety (with the badadum tish sound effects) and the witty punjabi ones. These days though good Pakistani comedies are far and few between, there are barely any good shows on tv now and punjabi stage humor is now more about the vulgar juggats and mujras.
American humor is good in it's own way, there's no way it can be compared to Pakistani humor though. As someone else mentioned American is more about gags, toilet humor and insults. Generally a cheap form of humor and it's only done well by Americans. Bollywood attempts at these never work. Come to think of it Indians are probably the worst when it comes to humor, they lift jokes from Hollywood movies and punjabi stage shows. I can't think of a single well known Indian comedian (and no Shekhar Suman and Johnny Lever don't count).
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
Love Chris Rock - good and bad comedians come in all races.
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
Personally, I can't stand Seinfeld -- he's always putting others down, and his show is full of stupid characters.
Wow ... that show is kind of a classic. Isn't 'putting others down' the entire point of comedy. SNL? Satire? Parody? (Obviously you have to do it well). If you find Seinfeld 'mean,' George Carlin and Lewis Black are a-holes in comparison. Hilarious a-holes, may I add.
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
Ditto to 50/50, whoever mentioned it. They also don't make tele-plays like 'Rosie' anymore ... Moin Akhtar at his best.
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
The reality is that all cultures have their fair share of dramatised satire, situational comedy, stand-up and slapstick ... however if you want to compare comdedy of different cultures you have to look at which genre of comedy defined it for that culture and what heights it reached.
For me the height of American comedy is linked with sex, however American cult comedy is very much addressing prejudices with the use of cursory words.
The height of British comedy is perhaps the most subtle, it started off as the Anglo-American slapstick that we find common in the black and white flicks ... people like Norman Wisdom, Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and George Formby made famous ... the more modern variety of slapstick is found in British comedy under the guise of people who are clumsy, unlucky and a bit simple minded. There was a time when tongue in cheek (sexual inuendo) was defining British comedy in the days of Benny Hill, Kenny Everet and the Carry On films ... but then there was a paradigm shift to dark humour and satire. Today British comedy is most brilliant on the political scene and will attempt to mix every style of comedy in to a form of show biz entertainment. For me this is unique to Britain, however the French are looking at emulating this style.
Pakistani humour is interesting ... there are very discrete strains, but they all merge at one point ... I'll talk about that in a second. On one hand we have the intellectual monologues ... on the other we have the situational comedy and yet on the third variety we have stage shows. All three are competing for top place. There seems to be a class divide. However for me what defines Pakistani comedy and separates it from British and American is poetry and laughter ...
Anglo-Americans consider it wrong for a comic to laugh at his own jokes, but this only adds to the fervour of the joke in a Pakistani context ... except in some cases ... Also, the joining up of all three areas in Pakistani comedy are linked with poetry where cheap rhymes are found in stage shows, sitcoms and intellectual discourse ... nay ... also found on the back of rikshas and taxis and graffiti on walls ... the rhyming gags define Pakistani comedy for me ...
All three cultures often use music these days as well ...
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
this thread has travelled into different directions. but some good points nonetheless
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
American humor is more outrageous than desi humor. That's because of culture I guess - you'll find American comedians making fun of religion, race, sex and everything under the sun, and mercilessly at that. I can't imagine that sort of humor being tolerated back home :)
Though I do find American comedies pretty funny - Seinfield, Scrubs, Raymond..
Re: How is Pakistani humour different from American humour?
Yes George Carlin was mean in a very nice way! He got better with age