Laughter lines
We are a nation that seems to revel in taking everything too seriously. In effect, we have forgotten how to laugh. Sadly, what passes off as humour today are a few TV shows and fillers in films that make fun of others. Whatever happened to an intelligent sense of humour, wonders Shefali Tripathi Mehta...
Squeamish with the funnies? That’s us. The one free medicine for all ailments that we are least disposed to taking is humour. In the light of study, research and innumerable findings on the advantages of laughter, the healing properties of a heartfelt smile, we manage to maintain a straight face.
What bumps our funny bone (which literally is not pleasant — the sharp tingling down the elbow) is some Santa-Banta, some English idiom translated literally into our local languages, over-the-top impersonations and signboards that are funny only because they were not meant to be. C’est tout! We have a woolly, shifting Lakshman rekha in our heads which we decide to draw where and when we like, much as a confused teacher laughing with the class suddenly goes prim and reprimands the giggling students.
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