Do we lack sense of humor?

It has been noticed many times that people mainly from India lack sense of humor.. If any spoof of a person or anything is been made, few take it in the right spirit while others take it offensively..

For example the recent incident where Manoj Kumar, the actor got offended by a scene in Om Shanti Om where a spoof was enacted on him.. According to him it was not humor but it was making fun of him..

Interestingly, there are people who start their day with laughter therapy and they try to start the day with having good laugh..

This is just one incident, while there are many incidents where people have been offended by a spoof on them.. But there are many series in the west which actually presents spoof on the celebrities and they just take it as a humor..

So, is it that we Indians lack sense of humor???

P.S - Concept taken from CNN-IBN poll..
Edited by Anu.Rad - 16 years ago

I don't think we lack sense of humour. Hasya-Ras has always been a part of our culture. Humour has always been successful in our movies, on television...most of the SMSes/emails exchanged are humourous (jokes etc).

Manoj Kumar ji ka case alag hai, the problem is that we compare everything we do with west and try to be like them. Matlab ki woh log jo bhi karte hain woh theek hai, humko waisa karna chahiye...yeh thinking galat hai. If people don't mind made fun of themselves there, doesn't mean we should do the same. Unn logo ka apna culture hai aur humara apna.

You can't make fun of an individual and try to pass it as humour if that person objects. Agar Manoj ji ko problem thi unke scene se to we should respect his feelings. Some people don't mind that kind of humour..that is well and fine, but some may not like themselves to be made fun of and we should respect their feelings. It is not that there ain't other ways of creating humour.

Films are not like cartoons,In film anyone make a joke about particuler person, sometime that person feel hurts some people take it light way,its not lack sense of humor, for joke kuch bi bolna or dikhana achi baat nahe...😳 😳

 

Edited by Believe - 16 years ago

Let me begin with an anecdote. Gary Larson the creator of farside did a farside cartoon poking fun at Jane Goodall a well known and respected researcher. The cartoon was of a chimpanzee grooming another chimpanzee and pulling out a blonde hair. The caption read "Well, well... Another blond hair...Conducting a little more 'Research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?". Not only did it make fun of her it made some rude references. The people at Jane Goodall foundation were obviously outraged and had their lawyesr Gary Larson. However, Jane Goodall intervened and had the foundation retract the legal suit. She was able to see the humor in the cartoon and found it quite funny. She knew that Gary Larson did not intend to insult or humilate her. He did it in the name of humor. Gary later visited her in the Gombe Streams National park where he was attacked one of Goodalls research chimpanzees and no he did not sue her for it. Goodall even wrote a forward for a Farside collectors book making fun of Gary's unfortunate Chimpanzee encounter.

Both Gary and Jane have a quality that is essential to being a person with a great sense of humor - that is the ability to laugh at themselves.

Of course we Indians have a sense of humor. We make jokes a plenty. We have funny movies, TV series, we crack jokes in school and at parties, we forward and post jokes. We do know how to laugh and make others laugh. However, where many of us fail miserably at is the ability to laugh at ourselves. When it comes to ourselves we are unable to take humor for what it is meant to be, humor; which is really unfortunate.

In my opinion laughter and humor are above the individual. As long as people take themselves obsessively seriously and make a furore over trivial matters the Indian sense of humor just is, if not poor.

"Sense" of Humour differs from person to person..each person perceives the things according to his / her attitude,upbringing,the society  grown....and  last  but not  the  least ..the current  mental  state...
However  anything  beyond limits does not have any beauty..whether its fashion or humour or anything....but the limits are not same for every person ,every society and period of time...
last but not least..Manoj kumar is not from this period of time....he is from BC time...his humourous anger can be nvmd😉😆
cheers,
Myth

Originally posted by: mythili_Kiran

"Sense" of Humour differs from person to person..each person perceives the things according to his / her attitude,upbringing,the society  grown....and  last  but not  the  least ..the current  mental  state...
However  anything  beyond limits does not have any beauty..whether its fashion or humour or anything....but the limits are not same for every person ,every society and period of time...
last but not least..

Manoj kumar is not from this period of time....he is from BC time...his humourous anger can be nvmd😉😆----😕
cheers,
Myth

Sorry myth i cant agree with u, if manoj kumar not from this period...do u think anyone can put insulting joke on him?!!😳

 

films n real life has lots of diffrences

Yes mostly we do lack a sense of humor.. nut in this case Manoj kumar took objection against his being beaten by the police which can be insulting to an individual who hasnt been either doing illegal things or making such depictions in movies.....such humor could offend him... 😊

How many of us think throwing a banana peel in front of our parents and grandparents and see them fall is humorous..... we have a hierarchical culture and must respect it.. We dont fit well in the "Simpsons" humor...😊

Edited by qwertyesque - 16 years ago

Originally posted by: Anu.Rad

So, is it that we Indians lack sense of humor???

 I don't know if this is off topic here but I cannot watch Kajra re song  cheerily and passionately with AB sr and jr both romancing Ash when it was a known fact that Ash and AB were dating.😕 I consider myself pretty easy going when it comes to humor and acting but still this is one of the things I cannot digest. 

Originally posted by: lighthouse

 I don't know if this is off topic here but I cannot watch Kajra re song  cheerily and passionately with AB sr and jr both romancing Ash when it was a known fact that Ash and AB were dating.😕 I consider myself pretty easy going when it comes to humor and acting but still this is one of the things I cannot digest. 

LH its like saying since Sunil dutt acted in mother india his marriage to Nargis could be deemed incestuous...😆😆