Who doesn’t like to laugh? To laugh is to show openness, acceptance, surprise, happiness and sometimes ridicule. It’s not something that we can control, but it is something that has a positive note to it.
Comedy is not an oddity in our culture. The most popular people at family meetings, offices and universities are those who get people engaged in laughing. Those people are our mini celebrities.
Our movies have to include comedy to have a longevity. Punjabi movies especially incorporated comedy into their scripts, even in dramatic films.
On TV we watch variety shows like Hasb-e-Haal and Khabarnaak.
On social media we laugh at memes all day and share them with our friends. The platform has become a gold mine for regular people to share their skills with a hungry audience outside of traditional media.
What Is Comedy?
But what is funny?
The things that were funny ten years ago, are they still funny?
If I hear a joke multiple times, will I laugh the same?
Is comedy only shock value?
What does what we consider funny, say about us?
Who decides what is funny?
Do our thoughts change when the joke is on us?
Is comedy an escape from rational thinking or can it be used to express cultural issues and speak the truth?
Comedy As Counter Culture
A good comedian is a smart one. A taste for humor requires intelligence. And today we will be focusing on two comedians who have used their wit to oppose the popular narrative of traditional media regarding women.
They are the voice of reason, which is otherwise considered boring or too serious.
With the use of good writing, effective storytelling, natural charisma and perfect timing they have made logical thinking a fun way to get the messages across and be a voice for social concerns.
A now educated youth looking to not repeat mistakes of the past, loves them.
They are Naik Parveen Syndrome and the Desi Bombshell Shumaila Bhatti .
Naik Parveen Syndrome
This is a fun,satirical character made by Mariam Shafqat. This Naik Parveen comes with a towel for a duppatta and the same death glare that we get from our aunts and mothers. She is someone perfectly fine with the way things are and has a lot to say.
What makes her a hit is that we’re finally hearing these things being dethroned and ridiculed for what they are, and in a collective sense. We’ve otherwise heard these things from aunties and they always say it in a way that is final and threatening, which is slightly uncomfortable.
By doing so, she has been able to showcase the other side of the argument, that being the typical perfect doctor bahu doesn’t get you the picture perfect life. It’s a riot and something that we are glad to finally have.
And if nothing else it might show the public what they sound like overall, and how it negatively impacts their own daughters.
On asking why she made this character, she responded, ‘ Because I was sick and tired of glorifying sick behaviours that only serve to keep up misogyny. For example glorifying the idea of your husband falling in love with your cooking skills before you. This in turn basically legitimizing the idea, that no matter what you’re gonna be designated to cook for life. So many things on daily basis triggered me to come up with the character and despite the page almost going dead; the character refused to die. Because these attitudes are here to stay for long.’
On asking if she was ever afraid she said, ‘No I wasn’t. I may have been uncomfortable at occasions, but I have learnt this a long time back that in order to shake up the system you have to get used to living out of your comfort zone.’
We also asked if people understood the joke. To which she said, ‘ I think 95% understand what I’m talking about. Those who don’t are not my responsibility. In this day and age there is no excuse to be this daft.
You can find Mariam’s work by finding her page on Facebook.
The page is Naik Parveen Syndrome.
Shumaila Bhatti
Shaumaila Bhatti is a character by Muhammad Moiz. Shumaila Bhatti is the no nonsense girl you wish you were, she sees what’s going on and is here to be fooled by men, aunties or uncles.
Moiz uses a snap chat filter, and a very Punjabi and conversational mode of speaking to get his point across. It makes everything more comfortable, personal and relatable. He also uses a lot of locations in his comedy to showcase the variety of situations that Shumaila has been through fighting the jerks of the world. One feels like they’ve been all over Lahore listening to her.
Shumaila again breaks the mold because she always has something to say, and in unafraid to do so. She is a perfect defense against the general narrative oh who is the ideal girl in our society.
Shumaila is not amused and she she will have the last laugh.
We asked Moiz why he created why he made a separate character instead of just saying the message .
He insisted that, ‘ I personally feel comfortable playing characters. I think it allows me to add nuance to a stereotype, and I feel that one needs these things for effective characterization. That is nuance and stereotypes’.
We then asked what is the goal of your comedy, to which he said, ‘ I don’t have a specific goal or agenda with my comedy to be fairly honest with you. I think I’m taken by the idea that Pakistan is ready for more than it is being offered.
But performers are reluctant do so because they fear the backlash, which is legitimate, but there is a need to push the envelop, which I am doing. Besides I think dirty comedy needs a revamp. Dirty comedy has been misogynistic and comedy in general in the 70’s and 80’s, so everything can be changed. And I think that comedians have a greater responsibility to be do content that is responsible, forward looking and out of the box and that is what I wanted to do with my drag performance’.
While discussing his responses he said that, ‘ My responses have been predominately positive ( Podina Chtuney). But the younger audiences respond more to the humor while older people go into the shock value part of it, but they are okay with enjoying this kind of humor. Everybody comes to my shows and everybody enjoys them, but I do curate my audiences, since I’m doing it for the art not the money’.
To see his content you can search for Desi Bombshell on YouTube and Facebook. Or maybe his drag shows in Karachi.
Our Comedy Scene Overall
Comedy like I said requires a lot of hard work and talent to pull off. We do have a good bunch of comedian who made their way up with social media.
People like Zaid Ali made themselves popular by doing relatable YouTube level comedy, which the young audiences really liked. Ruksaar Naz of @browngirlproblems1 is another emerging person of that lot showing promise.
People like Ali Sufyan Wasif, Danish Ali and Mooro have also done well to push the envelop regarding production, new things and editing.
The common thing being that they are acting in some way or the other as a response to traditional films and media, and being actually funny while doing so.
Naik Parveen and Shumaila Bhatti stand out because they want more than just to make people laugh, they want to make a better representation of women. They go beyond just entertainment which is both exciting but also perhaps dangerous, because people think comedy is not something beyond silliness.
But it truly is. Mariam and Moiz’s success is a good sign that variety is possible, and that fun and educational can go hand in hand.
Maheen Ahmed – Writing to create culture
@lahore_la_notte
