Our comedy of errors

Time is a dangerous place to get lost in. And we Pakistanis surely have. You open a door and walk right into the 15^th century. Open another and you are confronted by the demons of the 22^nd. The stress of all this has to be enough to make a people go mad. And by some standards, at least, the people who manage perceptions here already have. After all, why else would they want to treat citizens of their own country as infernal morons?



Perception management is now a formal industry and in a country some of whose own benighted citizens can blow themselves up to kill their fellow citizens — and that, too, just to make a political point — the desire to control perceptions is understandable. However, on this front, you will seldom see anything substantial being done. In our broader narrative, the militants still remain essentially good, albeit misunderstood, Robin Hoods and our benefactors in the fight against them, spawn of the devil. So, no management there, unless it is some sick old joke way past its shelf life.

The closely crafted outrage is meant for another group — namely the politicians. You will remember how we all went nuts over the Kerry Lugar Berman Bill, which primarily was meant to support the civilian administration in Islamabad or for that matter over the so-called Memogate scandal. But that was then. Now our ‘Platos’ have found finer tools to work with. If you have been wondering for a while why all of a sudden every channel wants you to watch political comedy shows during serious news and analysis hours, you may easily catch my drift.

The viewership data on these shows leads you to believe that the audience loves such shows. But explain a simple fact then: if we are indeed a fun and humour-loving market, then why is it that over a short span of three to four years, some of our best comedians have died in virtual anonymity. Recently, the famous late actor Moin Akhtar’s birthday came and passed without much fanfare. I vividly recall my last per chance meeting with Moin sahib only a few months before his death. During the two-hour long interaction, one of our finest comedy actors kept bemoaning the fact that the country had lost its taste for humour.

Of course, you cannot deprive the media owners and their product development teams of their due credit. This industry flourishes by mass imitation and if one channel gets it right, others are bound to follow. It is what happens after the product development stage that bothers me. Perhaps, the direction of these shows will tell you something about how it works. Bilawal gives a splendid presentation at Mohatta Palace, everyone lauds the performance and a few days later, an effeminate looking actor is seen miming him. Prime minister’s youth loan scheme, which has a great potential to create jobs, has also become a butt of bad jokes. But during his tenure in office General (retd) Kayani was never imitated. A few days after his retirement, we saw actors imitating him in such shows.

It all began with a political sketch comedy with a laughter track. But then a genius decided to launch a show with an analyst, a stage comedian and an actress. The actress’s job was primarily to replace the laughter track. Then came the shows where that actress was replaced by a live audience and an army of stage comedians. The quality of jokes and consequently the discourse keeps declining at the expense of the political class.

Granted that not every comedy show is as lame or managed. But as long as the rating system is a monopoly in this country, and Zaid Hamid and Sheikh Rashid can get more ratings than a serious commentator, one cannot believe the outcome is not managed.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2013.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.