Saad Haroon: Comic relief
Saad Haroon is back with a bagful of jokes guaranteed to tickle that deeply embedded funny bone in bodies.
LAHORE:
The reigning jester of stand up comedy, Saad Haroon, is back in town with a bagful of jokes guaranteed to tickle that deeply embedded funny bone in our cynical politicised bodies. For Pakistanis there’s nothing funnier than the current state of politics and government and anyone who can perfect the art of political and social satire like Saad Haroon can sway the stage if his jokes manage to hit the right nerve.
While Lahore’s acquaintance with Haroon has been brief, having being introduced by the youth event company Origami only last year, his popularity and reputation preceded him immensely as Lahoris flocked to his opening show over the weekend. “I couldn’t see him perform the last time so I didn’t want to miss this,” spoke audience member, Mohammad Khan. “My expectations are really high since everyone’s been talking about this,” he added.
In his characteristically funny way, Haroon created an indigenous ice-breaker by citing how dirty one sounds while giving directions in Lahore: “Go down MM Alam road” and then began picking on a fashion journalist in the front row who originally hailed from Karachi but was living in Lahore, over the perennial Karachi-Lahore divide by spoofing the uppity and reserved behaviour of Karachiites who usually win the argument on the supremacy of the cities by concluding ‘we have the beach’. Such jokes resonated extremely well with audiences since they could relate to them.
What didn’t work however, and Haroon realised that himself back stage, were the more intellectual jokes such as his song that mentions a girl friend from Tel Aviv that had many audience members racking their brains over what or where Tel Aviv was. “I love it here,” Haroon confessed, excited at the prospect of being back to the city of culture to perform. One wished he had performed his “Burka Woman” song that was hugely popular on the internet but Haroon admitted that he was a bit scared of doing it, “What if someone complains to the authorities (if they feel offended)? Besides, everyone has already seen it,” he added. Nonetheless Haroon managed to lure the audience with his brand new jokes that drew from current events such as the contentious ingenious joke about the Raymond Davis case to the “Daku Song” that complemented that set and although it took a few seconds for the audience to register what he meant by “I’m thinking of shooting a new sitcom ‘Everybody hates Raymond’”. Yet, the joke on Pakistan’s horrific public toilets being weapons of biological warfare themselves, resulted in convulsions of laughter.
Lahore this way is a tricky audience; one never really knows what will work with it. While the audiences were in rapture last year with Haroon’s songs, this year they weren’t very impressed. “It’s the same jokes,” bemoaned one audience member, Zain. “Somehow this time the jokes weren’t all that funny,” he added. One wonders if the luke warm response this time was a result of a heavy leaning towards political jokes instead of social jokes like those centered on dating, marriage and elopement that were a hit last time.
In keeping with Lahore’s exclusive taste for all things specific to the city, would Haroon create a special song on the city for his fans here? “There was no Lahore-specific strategy except for just doing new jokes and tailoring a few for Lahore. But next time I come to perform I will definitely create a song specifically for the city’s residents,” promised Haroon. In the meantime he revealed that he is taking on a big project which will be up in March. Until then the comedian maintains keeps his lips sealed so we will just have to wait and watch what his jester conjures up next.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 22nd, 2011.
The reigning jester of stand up comedy, Saad Haroon, is back in town with a bagful of jokes guaranteed to tickle that deeply embedded funny bone in our cynical politicised bodies. For Pakistanis there’s nothing funnier than the current state of politics and government and anyone who can perfect the art of political and social satire like Saad Haroon can sway the stage if his jokes manage to hit the right nerve.
While Lahore’s acquaintance with Haroon has been brief, having being introduced by the youth event company Origami only last year, his popularity and reputation preceded him immensely as Lahoris flocked to his opening show over the weekend. “I couldn’t see him perform the last time so I didn’t want to miss this,” spoke audience member, Mohammad Khan. “My expectations are really high since everyone’s been talking about this,” he added.
In his characteristically funny way, Haroon created an indigenous ice-breaker by citing how dirty one sounds while giving directions in Lahore: “Go down MM Alam road” and then began picking on a fashion journalist in the front row who originally hailed from Karachi but was living in Lahore, over the perennial Karachi-Lahore divide by spoofing the uppity and reserved behaviour of Karachiites who usually win the argument on the supremacy of the cities by concluding ‘we have the beach’. Such jokes resonated extremely well with audiences since they could relate to them.
What didn’t work however, and Haroon realised that himself back stage, were the more intellectual jokes such as his song that mentions a girl friend from Tel Aviv that had many audience members racking their brains over what or where Tel Aviv was. “I love it here,” Haroon confessed, excited at the prospect of being back to the city of culture to perform. One wished he had performed his “Burka Woman” song that was hugely popular on the internet but Haroon admitted that he was a bit scared of doing it, “What if someone complains to the authorities (if they feel offended)? Besides, everyone has already seen it,” he added. Nonetheless Haroon managed to lure the audience with his brand new jokes that drew from current events such as the contentious ingenious joke about the Raymond Davis case to the “Daku Song” that complemented that set and although it took a few seconds for the audience to register what he meant by “I’m thinking of shooting a new sitcom ‘Everybody hates Raymond’”. Yet, the joke on Pakistan’s horrific public toilets being weapons of biological warfare themselves, resulted in convulsions of laughter.
Lahore this way is a tricky audience; one never really knows what will work with it. While the audiences were in rapture last year with Haroon’s songs, this year they weren’t very impressed. “It’s the same jokes,” bemoaned one audience member, Zain. “Somehow this time the jokes weren’t all that funny,” he added. One wonders if the luke warm response this time was a result of a heavy leaning towards political jokes instead of social jokes like those centered on dating, marriage and elopement that were a hit last time.
In keeping with Lahore’s exclusive taste for all things specific to the city, would Haroon create a special song on the city for his fans here? “There was no Lahore-specific strategy except for just doing new jokes and tailoring a few for Lahore. But next time I come to perform I will definitely create a song specifically for the city’s residents,” promised Haroon. In the meantime he revealed that he is taking on a big project which will be up in March. Until then the comedian maintains keeps his lips sealed so we will just have to wait and watch what his jester conjures up next.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 22nd, 2011.