The Global Crises Could Be A Big Joke To The World
What is a joke?
It is an attempt to be humorous by chance or by choice.
So, what does humour entail? Apart from also defining our chief bodily fluids and tolerating someone, humour is anything that causes a sudden rise in happiness as a result of combining something that is real with something absurd at the same time, in a surprising manner.
Yes, the journey of a joke isn’t uncomplicated. But it isn’t undoable.
But, should we be joking about serious issues?
Unless you believe that all our global crises are hoaxes, we can scientifically and emotionally establish that all of our man-made-mess actually exists.
To try and change the world with humour, the absurdity shouldn’t just make a person laugh but also think about the matter at hand, instead of eclipsing it or rendering it trivial. The joke should encourage people to challenge the sanity, justice, and mindset that surround the issue.
The success or failure of a potentially controversial joke depends on the medium, the context, and the timing of its delivery. Once you get this right, it makes for the perfect punchline.
The punchline is the home-run for any joke. It is usually the moment of surprise and instills laughter and/or happiness in the receiver of the joke. Let’s take a couple of examples in the context of the global crises and try to dissect them. (Yes, can’t wait for you all to read the super amazingly boring analysis of a joke. Okay, I’m sorry, in advance.)
This comic strip makes a parallel between people who think global warming is a hoax and those who believe that the earth is flat. It basically highlights the absurdity of the mindset by using a protagonist whose thought process is even more logically absurd.
The joke combines reality and absurdity very well. However, the tone is prejudiced. By stating that those who don’t believe in global warming are also the ones who think the earth is flat, the joke has a higher focus on mocking such individuals, rather than making the receiver of the joke think about the issue. It alienates the audience from the issue, which is why it isn’t a great joke.
The joke is a take on the human need for instant gratification. It shows how fickle-minded a person can get in light of selfish gains from a situation.
This panel, too, optimally combines reality and absurdity. By adopting a primal theme, it makes it relatable and consumable for a vast majority of people. It makes the receiver of the joke think about all the times that they were flaky as well. It puts the audience in place of the protagonist, which is why it is a great joke.
So, why is it important to be funny?
The reason is akin to the Pavlovian dog & bell experiment. So, this guy, Ivan Pavlov, in a series of experiments to understand human behaviour, started feeding his dog only after ringing a bell. The dog, over time, got used to this. So, every time the bell was rung, he knew his human was giving him food.
And one day, Pavlov decided to ring the bell and not give any food (evil, I know right?), but nevertheless, the dog salivated. Bottomline, the dog had associated the ringing of the bell by his human to the presence of food (can’t blame him, can we?).
This theory was a huge milestone in understanding human behaviour.
Let’s try applying this to the global crises in context of humour.
Say, the Bell signifies Happiness, Salivation = Thinking about a global issue, and Food = Joke.
We tend to actively think about stuff that makes us happy. I know, I know, people with mental health issues have it otherwise. But when properly designed, humour couldn’t hurt anyone.
<Insert Pun Here> Classic Pavlovian behaviour, right?
So, there is a healthy possibility that if we did thoughtfully and intentionally joke about the global crises, more people would be actively thinking about it than there are now. Today, as the crises are most often wrapped in a boring, serious, and sad manner — although important, do not appeal to a vast majority of people.
With the advent and establishment of memes, parody social media accounts, GIFs, among others, everyone is a content producer. These are tools that often take a funny spin on something serious. Granted, they do misfire and backfire at times, but today, humour is one of the easiest ways to make someone consume information.
We aren’t making much progress by being presenting factually correct yet boring statistics or hosting super serious TED format talks. All this does is isolate the layman from thinking about something that could possibly save or change the world.
So, go ahead make a dubstep video to call out Trump and his supporters for deeming climate change fake; create a meme to make fun of that Indian politician (who you obviously cannot name) who conveniently changes his stance on dynasty politics; or talk about mental health with a snippet of a Dhinkchak Pooja song. The possibilities are out there and they are limitless.
The global crises have a lot to gain by being a joke. What is the worst that could happen ? An oil war ? A nuclear war ? Communal riots ? Oh………….wait.
I’m Aravind Kannan. I believe that by nurturing human behaviour we can make the world more sustainable. I work with Solarify, a solar energy company based out of Bengaluru, India.
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<insert funny contextual video that nobody will watch because they won’t scroll so deep>
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Are you still here? Seriously?
Thank you.
Fin.
