Being funny ain’t easy

OH NO. THIS column’s campaign to prove that people in Asia DO have a sense of humor nearly hit disaster.

First, some slow-witted Western journalists had trouble understanding my slogan:

“Asians aren’t not not unfunny.”

What’s the problem?! It’s perfectly clear to me. Also, it demonstrates an irritating level of indirectness, a key Asian personality trait (or perhaps just one of mine).

Second, a pesky international dispute exploded in my face.

I was right in the middle of gently educating (“browbeating”) a European correspondent, when bad news came over the TV monitor in the elevator we were in. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh had blocked Facebook after a US cartoonist set up a “draw Mohammad” project on the site, the newscaster said.

“Aha,” the journalist responded. “Surely that suggests Asians have no sense of humor?”

I ad-libbed: “Not at all. Would you agree that to be funny, an item has to be funny?”

He agreed.

When we got to a computer, we called up the “Draw Mohammad” page on Facebook and looked at it. It overflowed with anger and intolerance from all sides. The journalist said: “I see what you mean. It’s not funny at all.”

The two of us investigated. That campaign was supposedly set up by “Citizens Against Citizens Against Humor” or CACAH, a nice witty name. But no such group exists and humor was not the real aim. It was triggered by Molly Norris, a US cartoonist, who fully admitted to interviewers that her real goal was to be “un-politically correct”.

The reporter and I agreed that there was a difference between sharing laughter and provoking anger. And there’s something not quite honest about doing the second while pretending to do the first.

In contrast, Mr Jam’s Gang aims to unite cultures with smiles. “Now I see what you guys are doing,” the journalist said. “You’re bridge builders.”

The reporter asked me if the prophet Mohammad told jokes. I pointed him to a list of Islamic, Buddhist and other jokes that readers of this column/ website helped collect.

And I told him an ancient Islamic tale:

“A man once came to pledge allegiance to Mohammad, saying, ‘I have come to follow you. I left my parents weeping.’ The Prophet replied: ‘Why don’t you go home and make your parents laugh?”

By coincidence, a group of Asian Baptist women in Hong Kong invited me to give a talk on holy humor the same week.

I turned up to shared my favorite one-liners from the Bible, including this one:

“And he prayed: ‘Dear God, I thank you that I am not a robber, a criminal, an adulterer or an employee of the inland revenue department.’”

(That’s from the Gospel of Luke.)

Read the complete article by Mr. Jam.