{"id":8995,"date":"2022-01-22T11:23:13","date_gmt":"2022-01-22T11:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1"},"modified":"2022-01-22T11:41:19","modified_gmt":"2022-01-22T11:41:19","slug":"should-we-laugh-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1","title":{"rendered":"Should we laugh? \u2013 Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>A few years ago the late, great Pius Adesanmi, who wrote many scathing satirical sketches about his home country, observed: \u201cNigeria is a joke with an unending capacity for self-regeneration as a joke.<\/p>\n

If you do not laugh at and about Nigeria while working for her renaissance, you will lose your sanity. \u201d But should we laugh? I mentioned that Pius was a satirist, and satire is a type of humour that mocks bad or foolish behaviour.<\/p>\n

Theoretically it leads to the correction of such behaviour by exposing it (note that in the quotation above Pius talks about working for the renaissance of his country).<\/p>\n

Not everyone agrees about the usefulness of satire; George Orwell, for example, was very sceptical about its corrective efficacy, although he used it brilliantly in Animal Farm. Some time\u2014not now\u2014I shall explore the issue in this column.<\/p>\n

Is there any subject-matter that is not suitable for jokes? Is it possible to extract humour from (for example) disability, murder, rape? This is a more complicated question than it sounds, because it involves questions such as intention and who or what is the target of the joke.<\/p>\n

It might be OK to make a joke about rape if the target of the joke were the rapist (though even so, I think that\u2019s a long shot). There is a phrase, \u201cgallows humour\u201d, which is used to categorise humour about very dark subjects (such as execution by hanging on the gallows).<\/p>\n

Jokes about cannibalism are pretty dodgy in Lesotho, given the ghastly events of the lifacane. But the following made me laugh out loud, because it is so ridiculous (more sensitive readers might like to skip it).<\/p>\n

Jim: One of my best friends is a cannibal. He was even dating my sister. Last week he took her to see a Russell Crowe movie. Pete: Gladiator? Jim: No! I shall really miss her.<\/p>\n

On a related topic, because I admire women so much I\u2019m not a fan of blonde bimbo jokes, which are based on the bigoted idea that beautiful blonde young women don\u2019t have much going on upstairs.<\/p>\n

(I mean, who would you rather ruled the world, Donald Trump or the wonderful New Zealand premier, Jocelyn Ardern?) But the following did make me laugh, because the end is so ingenious and unexpected.<\/p>\n

A beautiful young blonde boards a flight from Joburg to Sydney, a very long haul. Although she has an economy class ticket, she enters the first class cabin, plonks herself down and makes herself comfortable.<\/p>\n

A member of the crew checks her ticket and explains, very courteously, that she must vacate the cabin and find her legitimate seat, in economy class. The young woman replies: \u201cI\u2019m blonde and I\u2019m beautiful.<\/p>\n

I can do whatever I like. \u201d The crew member consults the chief steward, who approaches the blonde and delivers the same message, rather more firmly. He receives the same response. Frustrated, he goes into the cockpit and explains to the co-pilot that there\u2019s a problem with one of the passengers.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeave it to me,\u201d says the co-pilot, who heads into the first-class cabin and whispers into the ear of the blonde, who immediately grabs her hand-luggage and scuttles off into economy class.<\/p>\n

The chief steward is duly impressed and asks the co-pilot \u201chow ever did you manage that?\u201d \u201cSimple,\u201d says the co-pilot, \u201cI told her the first-class cabin doesn\u2019t stop in Sydney.<\/p>\n

\u201d Next week, to make up for that, I\u2019ll tell a joke in which the boot, so to speak, is on the other foot. It\u2019s called \u201cHow Men Think.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. A few years ago the late, great Pius Adesanmi, who wrote many scathing satirical sketches about his home country, observed: \u201cNigeria is a joke with an unending capacity for self-regeneration as a joke. If you do not laugh at and about Nigeria while working for her renaissance, you will lose your sanity. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":8994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,246,578,245],"class_list":["post-8995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-country","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nShould we laugh? \u2013 Part 1 - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A few years ago the late, great Pius Adesanmi, who wrote many scathing satirical sketches about his home country, observ ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should we laugh? \u2013 Part 1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few years ago the late, great Pius Adesanmi, who wrote many scathing satirical sketches about his home country, observ ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-22T11:23:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-22T11:41:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61ebed41e1392.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1152\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Should we laugh? \u2013 Part 1\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-22T11:23:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-22T11:41:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1\"},\"wordCount\":619,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61ebed41e1392.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"country\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1\",\"name\":\"Should we laugh? \u2013 Part 1 - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61ebed41e1392.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-22T11:23:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-22T11:41:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"A few years ago the late, great Pius Adesanmi, who wrote many scathing satirical sketches about his home country, observ ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61ebed41e1392.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61ebed41e1392.jpg\",\"width\":1152,\"height\":1440,\"caption\":\"Should we laugh? \u2013 Part 1\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Should we laugh? \u2013 Part 1\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Should we laugh? \u2013 Part 1 - Lesotho","description":"A few years ago the late, great Pius Adesanmi, who wrote many scathing satirical sketches about his home country, observ ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Should we laugh? \u2013 Part 1","og_description":"A few years ago the late, great Pius Adesanmi, who wrote many scathing satirical sketches about his home country, observ ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-01-22T11:23:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-22T11:41:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1152,"height":1440,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61ebed41e1392.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Should we laugh? \u2013 Part 1","datePublished":"2022-01-22T11:23:13+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-22T11:41:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1"},"wordCount":619,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61ebed41e1392.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Lesotho","country","Lesotho"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","miscellaneous","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1","name":"Should we laugh? \u2013 Part 1 - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61ebed41e1392.jpg","datePublished":"2022-01-22T11:23:13+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-22T11:41:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"A few years ago the late, great Pius Adesanmi, who wrote many scathing satirical sketches about his home country, observ ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61ebed41e1392.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61ebed41e1392.jpg","width":1152,"height":1440,"caption":"Should we laugh? \u2013 Part 1"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/should-we-laugh-part-1#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Should we laugh? \u2013 Part 1"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}