PHEW! IT’S WORKING. Jokes are coming in – good ones, too.
This columnist took a huge risk by devoting this week’s columns on the web and in newspapers to Asian humor, trying to show that Asians are unfairly labelled as humorless.
Would my email box and the comments section be empty? Or filled with angry abuse? Happily, neither of those two things happened.
Instead, good humor is flowing in.
*
Joking is a serious matter. Millions of Westerners think Asians, and particularly Muslims, never laugh.
US blogger Jimmie Bise recently wrote: “I’m beginning to think the humorless Muslim stereotype is true.”
An internet writer called Instapunk commented on the row over Danish cartoons: “We have a couple-thousand year head start, and they have no sense of humor.”
Jack Lumanog, an Asian priest working in the US, lamented: “Asians are expected to be humorless.”
*
The good news: smart folk go beyond those stereotypes. An audience member at a show by US comedian Azhar Usman told a BBC reporter: "It doesn't matter whether you're black, white, Muslim, Chinese, Indian. Humor is humor."
In the movie Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, Albert Brooks does a stand-up comedy routine in front of an audience of Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. No one laughs. But after building relationships, he discovers Asians have their own sense of humor.
*
Muslim reader Wang Daiyou wrote to tell me that Mohammad himself had a playful wit, so let’s give him the first spot.
An elderly woman came to him with a request: “Pray to Allah for me, that I may enter heaven.”
The prophet replied: “There will be no old women in heaven.”
Bursting into tears, she left the room.
Mohammad told his assistant to run after her with the punchline: “Because old women will be made young again.”
*
This columnist’s father was a serious Muslim but loved sharing the Nasruddin Tales, which are 12th century Islamic jokes. Check out these three.
1) Nasruddin tells his wife: “I’m going to spend the day ploughing and will be home for dinner.”
His wife responds: “You should never make a statement without adding insha’Allah, if that is God’s will.”
Ignoring her, Nasruddin sets off. He is struck by lightning, falls off a cliff, washed away by a flood and carried away by a tornado. He crawls home on his hands and knees and knocks on the door.
His wife asks: “Who is it?”
He replies, “Nasruddin, insha’Allah.”
*
2) Nasruddin falls asleep under a tree and misses an appointment with the mayor.
When he gets home, he finds the mayor has scratched the words “IDIOT” on his door.
Nasruddin races to the mayor’s office and says: “Sorry, I forgot our appointment. Luckily, someone scratched your name on my door.”
*
3) Nasruddin is guest of honor at a dinner.
But when he turns up in casual clothes, his hosts tell him to come back in formal dress.
Nasruddin returns in a suit and pours the soup onto his clothes.
“Meet my jacket,” he tells the guests. “It’s the guest of honor.”
*
One reader even sent me a modern Islamic joke:
A man walking in New York’s Central Park sees a Rottweiler attacking a little girl. He subdues the dog and saves her life.
A passing Fox News reporter says: “You’re a hero. Tonight’s TV news bulletin will say: ‘Brave New Yorker Saves Child.”
The man replies: “I’m a tourist from Saudi Arabia.”
That night the news on Fox TV says: “Islamic extremist kills New York dog.”
*
The humor gap between east and west has been identified as one of the world’s biggest problems. This week, we are trying to solve it. To help build a database of funnies to bridge it, send me Asian jokes, non-offensive but genuinely funny, or add them to the comments column below.
Tomorrow: Buddhists share their humor.
*