Great Indian Laugh

The prostitution of talent. An act put to an unworthy or corrupt use for the sake of gain. A friend of mine once said "When you commercialise a talent you have, you end up prostituting it!". I was watching a TV program "The Great Indian Laughter Challenge". These comedians are a breed apart. Back away from the days where we would huddle around the bulbous tube trying to catch of glimpse of eddie murphy's and other stand up comic's talk shows on VHS tapes. The current series I believe is a competition of who is the best comedian. The audience is given a voting machine and they judge the best one.

Humor, like beauty, music, love and other ephemeral and ethereal intangibles, are highly subjective matters. A laugh, a love, a lore or a labor are matters that bring us pleasure in a highly insensitive and race filled world. But then there are those who wield power over media without realising the power held. This concept of taking a subjective view point and trying to cram much into little, belittles the talent that this beautiful world bears into the oldest profession of the world. Pandering to the interest of none.

It is good they decide who is more humorous. On the one hand the devil's advocate may argue that it does showcase them. Like beauty contests where the beauty is show cased. But frivolity is added with contrived questions. If they really wanted to marry beauty with brains, go all the way. In this humor program, the concept of competition is taking it a bit too far. I subscribe to pure commercial programs like reality shows. "American Idol", another program I like. The initial ones, at least. It showcases the grit and strength of people. The aspirations, the dreams. It takes the selected through an ephemeral life. We see their growth, finally, it doesn't matter who wins. I know that the producer did not expect this by-product, but he did. We the viewer won!

Even though I believe one has to peddle one's "wares" for survival, I think, in India with the plethora of talent it possesses, will really have to find a way to commercialise talent in a way that would be commensurate with talent itself, not for popularity and not for prostitution.