Needed: A sense of humour…

It’s been brought to my attention that I have a tendency toward doom and gloom pronouncements, and it’s very easy to fall into a rhythm of writing about how crap we are as human beings. So I thought I’d do something a little lighter today.

But now that I think about it (oops doom and gloom alert), I realise it’s not just me. Is it possible that the world has lost its sense of humour? I mean, we’re quite possibly living in the most privileged time in all of history – many of us have pretty much everything we could want (and certainly everything we need), but we’ve stopped being able to laugh at things. In fact, we take things so seriously that it’s become a bit of a joke in itself. Political correctness has become a parody of its own intention, but succeeded in making us into a nation of angry, self-obsessed whingers. OK, rant over (or is it)…

A man walks into a bar with a giraffe. The two of them proceed to get blisteringly drunk and, eventually, the giraffe passes out on the floor. The man gets up and staggers toward the exit but the barman shouts out to him “Oi, you can’t leave that lyin’ there”. The man turns to the bartender and says “that’s not a lion, it’s a giraffe”…

Boom boom…

So what’s going on? Why have we become so incapable of laughing at ourselves and our situations? Why have work places become deadly serious, politics devoid of humour (ah, lovely irony), and the average person more inclined to commit road rage than to laugh off a transgression on the road?

I’m going to take a stab at three things: the first is that we’re too used to getting our way when and how we want it, the second that our adult lives have no room for fun, and the third that society has been slowly becoming less tolerant of the fringe. Let’s have a look at all three.

But first:

Paddy and a couple of his mates are down the pub enjoying a few cleansing ales. After the first two pints, one of them says “fellas, I’ve got a bit of bad news”. “What is it?”, Paddy and his mate say. “Well” says the first bloke, “I reckon my wife’s having an affair with a plumber”. “How d’ya know dat den” says Paddy. “Well”, says the first bloke, “the other day I came home and found a pipe wrench under the bed. I’ve never owned a pipe wrench in my life. She must be screwin’ the plumber…”. “That’s terrible” says Paddy and his other mate, “have another drink”.

After a few more pints, the second bloke says “fellas, I also reckon my wife’s having an affair, but with the electrician”. “That’s awful” says Paddy, “how d’ya know dat den”. “Well” says the second bloke, “the other day I came home from work and found some wire clippers under the bed. I’ve never owned a pair of wire clippers me entire life. She must be diddlin’ the electrician”. “Oh no” says Paddy, “have another drink”…

Several pints later Paddy speaks up. “Mates, I’m broken up about the plumber and the electrician” he says “but I’ve got worse news”. “Whatever could that be?” his friends question. “Well” says Paddy, “I think my wife’s having an affair with a horse”. “A horse?” his mates enquire, “how is that possible?”. “Well” sobs Paddy, “the other day I came home from work and found a jockey under the bed”…

Boom boom…

So, the first: we’re getting too used to getting our way when and how we want it. Three factors contribute to this. The decline in prices of luxury goods, the increase in the availability of credit, and the rise of internet shopping. Thirty years ago, luxury goods (e.g., televisions, VCRs, PCs) cost a lot of money relative to earnings. A household had one television, and that wasn’t upgraded every year. If they were lucky enough to own a computer, it was shared by the entire family. At the same time, credit was hard to come by. Credit cards weren’t easy to get, had low credit limits, and weren’t used (for the most part) to buy things you couldn’t afford. Instead, people would find what they wanted, and then either save for it, or pay it off in instalments (taking ownership after the last payment). Finally, purchase required a physical trip to the shops, not an “ooh, that looks nice – CLICK”. Not getting what we want, when we want it, allowed us to develop patience, and to appreciate the things we had.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the internet, and I love technology. But having whatever you want whenever you want it is not a good recipe for self-control. It is, on the other had, a great way of breeding a nation of spoilt brats. And just like those brats, we’ve learnt to throw tantrums when we don’t get exactly what we want, right now.

My second point was that our adult lives have little room for fun. I’m not sure if this is a modern thing or not, but we’re very good at setting a line of ‘no fun’ that straddles early adulthood. Work is serious, relationships are serious, superannuation and saving for retirement is serious, mortgages are serious as hell. Fun, on the other hand, is best described as pleasurable activity with no stated purpose. In other words, the opposite of what we spend the majority of our lives doing. Kids are great at having fun (and dogs). For a child under 10, fun is synonymous with running around and doing silly things. Notice that exercise and fun are the same thing for kids (as long as it’s not structured exercise), something that disappears for adults (just look at the poor bastards suffering on treadmills in gyms). For many adults, the only socially acceptable fun is to get drunk or use other recreational drugs. I do find it a little sad that we require chemicals to suppress our inhibitions in order to have some fun…

My last point was about society becoming less tolerant of the fringe elements. Now I’m not sure about this one. Maybe we’ve always been intolerant of the fringe, but perhaps now we’ve less of a sense of humour in dealing with them? What I mean though, is that when parts of our society point out that other parts might be a tad uptight (or when they make an off-colour joke), it’s not funny, it’s offensive. This came to a ludicrous head (no pun intended… really) a few weeks ago, when a woman at a conference in the US took offence to hearing a couple of guys sitting behind her using innuendo, so she stood up, took a photo of them, and then posted their names on her social networks alongside her outrage. One of the guys was fired in an orgasm of political correctness and HR speak. The woman herself was also fired for intolerance. I mean, really?!

The Dalai Lama says “forgive the person, not the action” (Oscar Wilde said “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much”). Compassion is about seeing things from another person’s point of view, rather than scanning the world around you for things that don’t match your worldview, and taking instant, violent offense at it. It’s amazing what sharing in the joke can do for us, even if we don’t agree with the actions of its author. Humour allows us to realise that, despite the fact that some of us have a somewhat twisted sense of it, we’re all human, and remarkably similar to one another. Even if we can’t share in the joke, we can appreciate the intention (laughter), and forgive that person’s ignorance of our sensibilities.

Alas, in the soup of political correctness, we’ve become very good at being offended. It’s been the death of the practical joke, the Aussie larrikin, and the ability to laugh at ourselves. Combined with a whiny need for stuff (now Daddy, I want a pony now!) and an inability to have fun (without chemicals), we’re just angry and getting angrier. It’s pretty tough to see someone else’s point of view when you’re always pissed off. And if ever the world needed a sense of humour it’s now.

So now, my all time favourite: a horse walks into a bar, the barman says “so, why the long face” (I once tried to translate this into french – turns out the pun just didn’t work)…

Happy April fools day!