Stop taking yourself so seriously
with all due-respect.
Let’s take a minute to talk about something that everyone has been feeling recently — offense. It’s a discussion that has been beaten to death, especially within Standup comedy. Offense is like your kid’s grades or your cat’s photos. People feel the need to share it with everyone assuming others give a shit. It means a lot to you, but that’s it. It’s just you. No one cares about you offended person! The fact that you think people should, leads me to one question: Why do you take yourself so seriously?
Comedy audiences know that one of the basic rules of comedy is not to take offense. These are just jokes! Everyone starts off listening to a joke with the belief that they’re “Woke AF” and nothing will offend them. Doesn’t always go that way does it? The moment the joke is targeted at them, the wheels start turning. A joke about dogs upsets every dog owner and dog lover. Why? Dogs don’t give a shit! How seriously do you need to take yourself to get offended at that. Comedy is all fun and games until the joke is something you feel strongly about. Your profession, your religion, your ethnicity, your favourite TV show, your favourite Akshay Kumar movie, your favourite Paneer recipe or whatever the fuck else you care about. Suddenly, said person becomes the flag bearer of the insulted community and takes it upon himself/herself to save the dignity of the community from crashing.
A lot of comics are told not to do jokes about religion. Let’s be real. There are a lot of people who believe religion is conceptually stupid. To say there aren’t is a level of denial that cannot be comprehended. If that person is a comic, it is his or her job and responsibility to write a joke that presents the thought in a funny and new manner. To ask a comic to not write or perform a joke about a topic that the said comic finds trivial and amusing is like asking a dentist to work on all your teeth except your molars because there’s a community of molar-enthusiasts somewhere in the world who might get offended that a tooth expert is doing his job and working on a subject they hold so close to their heart. If jokes about religion as a whole offend you, start hitting open mics and talk about how you hate people who joke about religion. If you’re not going to do that, you’re offense doesn’t hold water, sorry. All this being said, the jokes HAVE to be funny. If a joke is being done just to get a reaction from the listener or to cash in on some topical trending bullshit, then as a comedy audience you have the right to be offended at how comedy is being insulted.
It’s been argued for years that “If one person’s opinion on religion offends you, then how weak is your religion that one person has the power to insult it”. A fair argument. And we all know that our country is full of rational people who respond well to logic. That brings us to the flipside of my argument — how seriously do you take jokes? There’s a reason why the term ‘joke’ has over the years become a slightly negative connotation for something or someone that isn’t serious. Jokes never were and never will be used to fight wars or run governments. They’re purely there for one reason and one reason only — to make people laugh. Think about it. There’s a dude who has decided to do Standup. After a few months of open mics and open spots, he thinks he has it in him to do this full time. He quits his job. Suddenly payments aren’t regular. He can’t order food online as much anymore. He has to take the metro instead of cabs. He forgot to buy a razor to shave before tonight’s gig and his T- shirt isn’t ironed. You seriously think this dude’s agenda in life is to take down your religion and change your political beliefs? Hell no! He’s got enough shit to worry about without you making yourself a part of his mind space. At this point even he probably doesn’t take himself seriously, why should you?
The people who get offended by jokes operate at the same level of delusion as a guy who writes a blog about people getting offended by jokes. Nobody is going to give a shit. We’re all insignificant as fuck. If I promise to accept that there are people out there who will probably not be chill enough to ever watch Standup live, can you accept that you belong to that group and get the fuck outta my way instead of asking me to stop writing jokes about a topic? No? Cool.
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