There genuinely cannot be a nation incapable of laughter, so what is Pakistanis sense of humour like? I know group humour is not an easy thing to define, but there must be some characteristics and lingual traits that are unique to Pakistani humour.
I understand British humour can be quite multilayered, and often our jokes have double and even triple meanings. It wouldn’t be quite wrong to suggest that we invented the concept of telling jokes with a straight face (actually our French and German friends might disagree with that). Although, we like to assume we are quite witted people but sadly for some, our sense of humour can be very ironic, euphemistic, aggressively sarcastic, teasing and quite dark. We love ‘friendly banters’, don’t mind two way sledging. In fact even when we were rubbish at cricket, we were still good at sledging, in fact we are expert at that It is very unique, however. I particularly love how self depreciation is a very central aspect of our humour. To me it’s very important to laugh at yourself every now and then, every individual must posses this quality - if done right, it feels so brilliantly liberating.. So in short, either you find British humour totally offensive and absolutely hilarious, it does take a while to get used to (and actually understand) our humour.
Anyway, coming back to Pakistan, I know Punjabis for certain have an amazingly bombastic sense of humour. It’s wonderfully matey and it’s best when it’s conversational. However it has to be said that the clarity and the brutal directness of Punjabi humour means it’s often perceived as low-brow ‘street’ humour - to me, this tag is completely unfair and unnecessary. Of course, it doesn’t help if you are at the receiving end of Punjabi humour, and trust me, it can get very cruel and easily turn into never ending cycle of bullying. As an NRP, one thing that really attracts me to Pakistan (or Punjab rather) is the sense of humour. I love it, even if I don’t get most of the jokes, but I simply admire the fact how Punjabis are not afraid to make fun of themselves. A poster said in other thread Punjabis have this rare ability to laugh at their own stereotypical parodies - and this is absolutely true. It’s one thing to say funny things but another to be able to take a joke, as far as my experience goes, people of Punjab are capable of doing both things so effortlessly.
I remember talking to my uncle who is very involved with PMLN and personally know their top tier leadership. He recently visited my father and at some big family dinner, we asked him what was PMLN’s top guns’ reaction to Imran Khan’s famous ‘Oye Mian Saab jaan deyo, saadi vaari aaan deyo’ and all the other sledging. I thought he will probably say something like Nawaz Sharif wanted to eat him alive, he couldn’t wait to have the guy shot, but to our surprise, he said something “oh they enjoyed it, they thought Imran was hilarious - these little things don’t bother Noon league, they may hate Imran the political opponent but deep inside they and their children are all hardcore Imran fans. They would never wish any personal harm to Imran”
That’s a very important point, as an outsider I must say I was totally blown away by how Imran Khan can stand right in the middle of Model Town, rip apart PMLN in front of a huge crowd (to non Lahoris - Model Town is a favourite residential place of majority of PMLN beneficiaries and ministers, inc Shehbaz Sharif, ironically the area is also Imran’s hometown) and yet not a single person would get hurt. No one would fear for Imran’s life just because he sledged PMLN in their own front yard (he’d been doing this successfully for past 20 years). When I witnessed all this, I could feel this sense of pride and assurance. I wanted to shout out that this is it. This is Punjab - The Great Punjab! This is exactly why we have this strange sense of stability in the province. This is exactly why despite all our faults, we don’t suffer from monumental level of xenophobia which is so ramped in other parts of the country. The fact that even the political parties there can see the funny sides of things amidst tension and rivalry, says a so much about how inherently lighthearted people of Punjab are. The humour is even visible in it’s politics which is supposed to be all dirty and dark.
I did intend this opening post to turn into a monologue about Punjab’s great sense of humour, but oh well, Punjab is part of Pakistan. Everyone Tom, Dick and Harry have his 15 minutes of fame by critcusing the illusive “Punjabi establishment”, but how about for once, we appreciate the positive aspects of Punjab.
Anyway, back to the topic, do Pakistanis is general have a good sense of humour? How would you describe it, how does the common humour translate into literary world? Do you have a favourite piece of satire by Pakistani author? What is the future of comedy in Pakistan, my parents who were huge fans of likes of Moin Akhtar, think Pakistan has lost it’s high to middle brow comic sense.
