Do you think that Indians have a sense of humour?

Nick-H

Humour in this part of India has a rather slapstick nature.

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ddevadatta

The Indian sense of humor is more reserved. This is hard to describe and frankly hard to think about objectively till the question was posted and I was "forced" to think about it.

On a more public note, I think of the Bend It Like Beckham or the ABCD movies that really poke fun of the Indian Diaspora life. Great humor. In the ABC when the teacher's assistant is a South Indian Brain who still uses a tiffin carier in the US, that is such funny stuff. Any other Indians agree??

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Digital Drifter

Frankly, I'd say no.

The ability to mock and laugh at one's own foibles, that's distinctly lacking. While I don't have any data to backup my statements, the levels of intolerance shown from Kashmir to Kanyakumari is proof enough, in my not so humble opinion.

Let's take religion for example; Any European or N.American country's ability to mock their own religion; now that's humour in all it's variety; black, gallows, sick, blasphemous, indecent and of course the good ones.

I dare say, we will /never/ have a play making fun of the Gods, will we?

Leaving aside the polemics above, I believe it's more to do with the company you keep than the region/state you come from. After all, I'm a living joke to all my Northie friends.

Kanbe

i think they have a different sense of humor from what Im used to....not better or inferior...just different

it really depends on what type of humour you have been brought up in. I find their humour is dry as opposed to sarcastic

vista

no.

what? Oh!

hmm...uh-huh.

suryakund

I think Indian humour exists differently at different levels of intimacy. Its quite reserved - to the degree of being non-humour with strangers, and quite the opposite with those closer. Generally speaking though, things that you don't make much fun of, especially to their face are parents and other elders, and religion.

Of course what makes people laugh differs the world over and is totally dependent on context of the place and the people.

Layman

Indians do have a sense of humour. And have the ability to laugh at religion, Hindu Gods etc. Its just that when somebody pokes fun at another religion that people get riled.
Comedy is an integral part of every Indian movie, like the mandatory fight scenes in the climax. Most movies will have a separate 'comedy track' which often has little connection with the main story - comic relief from the heavy melodrama and action that is part of every movie. There are specialist comedy actors who form part of (almost) every movie - the main stars usually do not do humour unless the movie itself is a 'comedy movie'.

Nick-H is right - most of the humour is slapstick, probably to connect with the masses that watch the movie.
On a slightly different note, the importance of sex in American humour is amazing (for an outsider at least!). I watch Jay Leno once in a while and almost every other joke has a sexual connotation. Bush is into his second term and Jay is still milking the Clinton-Monica affair for laughs. That would be a no-no in India.

cathode

well being an Indian, i have been watching them for years, they dont have a sence of humor and neither are they a good sport!

Digital Drifter

On a related note, I think political satire is world class. When you largely cannot attack the political class, satire has helped people see those people for the bumkins they are.

Cho Ramasamy & R.K Laxman spring to the mind.

Still, I'd prefer them to do it 'Bremner, Bird & Fortune' way; Full frontal assault, no prisoners, slash & burn tactics which should leave a politician writhing in shame.

Wait! are you telling me that those politicans don't have any? What! they sold that too? to the highest bidder!

zenkris

i usually spend most of my time in areas with few foreigners so i am usually in the company of indians.

i have only two complaints:
1. lack of understanding of sarcasm. usually i avoid it altogether with indians as mostly they don't get it (there are exceptions naturally).

2. what shimla said (the inability to laugh about oneself, especially if it's a person of some position in society), exceptions here as well.

i will also disagree abt the sexual humour. i lived with a gujarati roommate, and at least 80 percent of jokes he got from his friends via sms messages were sexual.
but that's probably just the younger generation.

vista

no. uh huh.

gautam

ne1 understanding punjabi wouldn't ask that question

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R.T.

Probably a consequence of religion losing its grip on our societies.

But even within "the western world" you'll find considerable differences in the attitude towards humor and religion.
A newspaper cartoon that's perfectly acceptable to a majority of Belgians, could provoke a totally different response when published in a local newspaper in Tennessee, for example.

Merchant

One big difference between the Western mind and the Indian mind is that the Indian one is not ironic--thus the lack of appreciation of sarcasm.

You can't be ironic and develop a Bollywood movie. Indians are not afraid to be riotously silly to the point of Western embarrassment.

*jyoti*

Yes! One of my best friends is from India. As most of my humor is based on sarcasm, he knows that anything I say that doesn't quite make sense is probably sarcasm. But, if he's tired or in a bad mood or anything, he takes everything at face value. He still has to think about it that I'm being sarcastic--he doesn't automatically recognize it.

Then again, I joke around with him more than most American friends, and his Dad is quite a jokester, too. We just watched Kal Ho Naa Ho--if you think Indians don't have a sense of humor, you *must* watch that!

And, most Bollywood movies probably rely heavily on slap stick because it is non-verbal humor. Most play on words or even "joke" humor requires a strong understanding of the language, and a lot of people are not going to catch that.

But, it's true that HOW a sense of humor is manifested varies greatly between cultures.